Rearranging the Deck Chairs

In a piece at the Peoria Journal Star by Bill Ruthhart and John Byrne (which may reproduce a piece originally published in the Trib) the authors muse over what Boss Madigan’s ouster may portend:

The change is being driven by generational, ideological and demographic shifts, with federal law enforcement and organized labor providing major assists. The result is a move away from iron-fist bossism toward a more diffuse leadership structure that’s more diverse and practices an increasingly progressive style of politics centered on economic and racial equity.

Michael Madigan’s departure as party boss and House speaker is expected to accelerate that change, say more than two dozen Chicago elected officials and political operatives the Tribune interviewed. More independent candidates may be emboldened to run for office, leading to a more freewheeling legislature and City Council, and, perhaps, state party. In just the last two months, Illinois Democratic leadership already is more diverse — Emanuel “Chris” Welch is the first Black House speaker, and new state party chair, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, is the first African American and woman to hold the post.

The optimistic view is that we’ll see a better, less corrupt, more Democratic Chicago and Illinois Democratic Party. My own view is more aligned with that of Fritz Kaegi:

Major reforms around campaign finance, lobbying and transparency need to happen for Chicago’s politics to truly transform, said county Assessor Fritz Kaegi. Modest changes on the margins, he warned, could result in the machine simply giving way to a scattering of smaller fiefdoms still susceptible to corruption.

“The public has realized that Chicago’s old patronage model in all of its different manifestations was not working,” said Kaegi, a progressive who in 2018 ousted assessor and then-county Democratic Chairman Joe Berrios, an old-school patronage chief who oversaw an error-riddled and inequitable property tax assessment system. “No one in the public wants a boss overseeing a black box, and the answer is a more transparent government with a more level playing field.”

Critics of Chicago’s rising progressive reform movement contend it represents a new form of strongman politics, led by unions. Former Northwest Side Ald. Richard Mell said some progressive City Council members “can’t go against anything the teachers union wants.”

IMO the new bosses will just try to take their own places at the trough and very little will change.

The big question is not whether the new faces being elected are white, black, or brown or whether the people with those faces are LGBTQ or heterosexual it’s what they do once they’re in office. If they keep following the party bosses and continue pulling the same cons it won’t matter what their race, ethnicity, gender, identification, or ideology is. It will be the same old corrupt machine with new bosses and faces.