In any corrupt regime the guy with the most money in his campaign fund is the boss. Why would a single city council member have more money in his campaign fund than the Mayor , Governor, and most U.S. Senators? Because he's the boss. Rahm Emanuel has
$8.3 million in his campaign fund but that's not enough to call the shots in Chicago.The man quietly running Chicago behind the scenes is
Alderman Ed Burke.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
It’s no secret that Ald. Ed Burke (14th) controls three campaign funds with a combined balance of about $10 million, an astounding amount for an alderman.
What’s lesser examined is the expenditure side: Burke is barely spending any of that money while raising more at a nice clip.
He is extremely politically parsimonious when it comes to helping other candidates from his war chests, with Gov. Pat Quinn the exception this year and when the governor last ran in 2010.
There's more:
Burke will loan Quinn a few hundred thousand if the governor is in a pinch; he did that in 2010. Burke’s wife, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke swore Quinn into office, and their daughter Jennifer, an attorney, has a state job.
Isn’t $10 million enough? Not for the donors, who want to keep on Burke’s good side.
For a look how Alderman Burke came to power and his close association with the Chicago Mob , click on
this. Barack Obama got the green light to run for President from Alderman Ed Burke and Obama has shown his respect by stopping to pay tribute to Alderman Ed Burke.
Chicago Sun-Times reported this in 2012:
He’s got game . . .
“Keep your head down . . . and swing easy.”
Thus was the caddyshack cajoling advise given to President Obama by Ald. Ed Burke during a surprise encounter with POTUS at the Beverly Country Club Sunday.
While helicopters hovered, cellphones clicked, heads bobbed, and the Secret Service zipped around in golf carts, President Obama made a brief detour to have a sidebar with an old friend: Ald. Ed Burke.
It was Father’s Day and President Obama had penciled in a golf game at the Beverly Country Club with his best buddies, Eric Whitaker and Marty Nesbitt after his family left town early Sunday morning for a trip to Oregon.
“I was totally surprised,” said Burke, who was also golfing at the prestigious South Side club with Judge Terry Lavin.
“I was waiting at the first hole while he [the president] was finishing up at the ninth hole, when he graciously came over and inquired about Anne [Burke’s wife, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke] and Travis [the Burkes’ African-American son.]”
“We chatted about family, and the president seemed happy and relaxed and said, “‘Everything is beautiful in Chicago,’” said Burke.
Barack Obama and Alderman Ed Burke think "everything is beautiful in Chicago." Got that? As you can guess not many people are in the position to be giving Barack Obama golfing or other advice.
