• Background: Son of former Chicago Mayor, longest serving mayor
• Career: IL State Senator, IL State Attorney, Mayor of Chicago
• Mayor: Unchecked power, development, crime, education
• Criticism: Meigs Field, Hired Truck Program
• Biography Links: Wikipedia, official

Background

• Daley earned his bachelor's degree from De La Salle Institute and his Juris Doctor from DePaul University .
• Daley's father, Richard J. Daley, is the former mayor of Chicago and, at 21 years, is the longest-serving mayor of Chicago. J. Daley's reelection in 2007 sets him up to surpass his father's record. M. Daley is well known for being the undisputed boss of Chicago while in office and a major figure in the Democratic party.
• Daley's brothers are William M. Daley, the former United States Secretary of Commerce under President Bill Clinton, and John P. Daley, is a commissioner on the Cook County Board of Commissioners on which he is the finance chairman.

Career

• On the strength of his father's political clout, Daley has had several elected positions.
• Delegate to the 1969 Illinois Constitutional Convention.
• Illinois State Senator, 1972-1980.
• Cook County State's Attorney, 1980-1989.
• Mayor of Chicago, 1989-2010. He has been reelected five times and received 79% of the vote in his fifth election. He was named Time Magazine's best mayor in 2005.

Mayor

• Like his father, he operates without any real restrictions on power. He sets the budget without any strong opposition and he controls public housing, public schools and the city council. He has been credited for stabilizing the city and ushering it into a period of declining unemployment and murder.
• Development - His leadership on a number of revitalizing projects have invited businesses, private investors, and tourists resulting in a surge of economic growth. He oversaw the building of the $475 million Millennium Park, the modernization of the Chicago Transit Authority, environmental planning, fixing city infrastructure, and the rapid development of Chicago's North, South and West sides.
• Crime - Daley has purged the city of its old high-rise housing projects, which fueled crime and privation by concentrating the poor. The former tenants have been relocated to better, low-rise housing attached to existing neighborhoods. He issued a de facto ban on handguns. He is also a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, an organization co-chaired by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston mayor Thomas Menino.
• Education - Daley took over the school system in 1995 and graduation rates rose form 51% to 54% since. He also launched a program in which old, underperforming schools are being replaced with new ones that have more autonomy over their curriculum.
• Where public financing falls short, Daley can persuade private donors to sponsor his projects. He received $24 million in private commitments to fund his school improvement program and half of what was spent on the Millennium Park project came from private contributions.

Criticism

• Daley's unchecked power have led to some public debate. He has denied involvement in any crimes.
• He had a small downtown business airport called Meigs Field demolished during the night. Daley called the airport a security risk and said that the land, which is on the waterfront, should be enjoyed by all residents- not just those who fly aircrafts.
• In Daley's Hired Truck Program, a newspaper revealed that some participating companies were being paid for doing little or no work, had mob connections or were tied to city employees who were supposedly excluded from the program. Truck owners also paid bribes in order to get into the program. The Mayor's former patronage chief was convicted on two counts of mail fraud for rigging city jobs and promotions to favor people with political connections.

Biography Links

• Wikipedia
• Official