The saga of Ed Burke, a powerful Chicago alderman who was indicted this month for attempted extortion, continues to roil the Feb. 26 nonpartisan primary for mayor. On Wednesday, two separate major stories about Burke broke.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Alderman Danny Solis, an ally of Burke as well as of retiring Mayor Rahm Emanuel and mayoral candidate and state Comptroller Susana Mendoza, had secretly recorded more than a dozen conversations with Burke to help federal investigators build the case against his colleague. The Chicago Tribune also reported that when Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, another leading mayoral candidate, had hired Burke’s son for a nearly $100,000 per year post, the younger Burke was facing two internal investigations by his previous employer.
We’ll start with the Solis story, which utterly shocked the Windy City political world. The local NBC affiliate reported later that day that Solis’ work with the feds was brought about by the fact that he’d been the subject of an FBI investigation in 2014, allegedly for misusing campaign money for personal matters. Solis, who was already retiring from the city council, has not been charged with anything, and he announced he would resign Wednesday.
Solis is a longtime ally of Mendoza, and he helped her win her very first race for the state House in 2000. More recently in March, Solis’ political organization contributed $56,000 to Mendoza’s 2018 re-election campaign for state comptroller. That same day, Mendoza received another $45,000 from five companies whose board members were investors in a company called Vendor Assistance Program that was founded by Solis’ sister, national Democratic operative Patti Doyle Solis, and attorney Brian Hynes. Hynes is one of the alderman’s longtime allies, and the FBI found a folder with the name “Brian Hynes” in a raid on Burke’s office in November. Mendoza received an additional $22,000 from companies affiliated with VAP in September.
On Wednesday, Mendoza initially said she would keep the donations unless Solis was charged with anything. However, she reversed course the next day and announced that she would donate to charity a total of $141,000 that she’d received from Solis and the companies linked to VAP.
Now, we’ll turn to the other major Burke story that came out this week. It was already public knowledge that Preckwinkle’s administration had hired Ed Burke Jr. away from Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart for a nearly $100,000-per-year post in the county Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department. But on Wednesday, in response to a public records request from the Tribune, Dart’s office released documents showing that Burke Jr. had been under two separate internal investigations when he left the sheriff's department.
One inquiry began after an employee alleged that Burke had been “consistently disrespectful of women” and claimed to have documents that would “humiliate” Dart, whom Burke had also reportedly vowed to run against. A separate complaint from another department employee alleged that Burke had lied about a supervisor and said that, if anything happened to him as a result, “his father (Alderman Burke) would take care of it.” The investigations ended when Burke left the department, but a sheriff’s spokesperson said this week that he probably would have been fired had the allegations been sustained.
Preckwinkle maintains that she didn’t know about any of this when Burke was brought on. Michael Masters, who headed the county Homeland Security department when Burke was brought on, also says that he doesn’t recall discussing the hire with her, and that he didn’t have any knowledge of the investigations against Burke. However, Preckwinkle also acknowledged Wednesday that she had met with Alderman Burke before his son was hired and the elder Burke “shared with me that his son was looking for a new opportunity. His son had worked for the county for 20 years. He was working for the sheriff.”
This isn’t the first time this month that Alderman Burke has caused headaches for Preckwinkle. Burke's indictment alleged that he had pressured the owner of a Burger King franchise to donate $10,000 to a candidate, and Preckwinkle's campaign quickly acknowledged she was the recipient. Preckwinkle denied any knowledge of Burke's activities, and she has not been accused of any wrongdoing. She also ended up returning $116,000 that she had brought in at a fundraiser at Burke’s house.
As we have repeatedly noted, Preckwinkle is hardly the only candidate with ties to Burke. Mendoza, for instance, has called him a mentor, and she was married at his home. Burke also had endorsed a third candidate, former Chicago Board of Education president Gery Chico, for mayor before he was indicted. While Preckwinkle has attracted the most media scrutiny, it’s still unclear how much all of this is hurting her standing about a month ahead of the primary.
This week, Preckwinkle’s allies at the SEIU Illinois Local 1 released a survey from PPP that showed her in first place with 15 percent of the vote. It was a very tight race for the second place spot in an April 2 runoff, with former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley edging Chico 12-11, wealthy businessman Willie Wilson at 10, and Mendoza and former Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Paul Vallas each at 9.
We got another survey this week from David Binder Research on behalf of the charter school advocacy group INCS Action, which Politico says is not affiliated with any of the candidates. (This poll, like PPP’s, was done before Wednesday's news.) They also found Preckwinkle in first place with 15 percent of the vote, with Mendoza and Daley tied for second with 9 each and Wilson taking 6. However, a previously unreleased poll from mid-December found Preckwinkle in stronger shape with 24 percent, while Mendoza and Daley took 11 and 10 percent, respectively, an indication that Preckwinkle has taken some damage over the last month.
There was one other notable development this week to note. The Chicago Board of Elections ruled that Cook County Clerk Dorothy Brown did not turn in enough valid signatures to make the ballot, and Brown said she would not appeal.
