Corruption

The Chicago City Council is the city's legislative body, containing 50 members.

In the last 36 years, 27 Chicago alderman have been convicted of crimes and gone to jail (one more former alderman is currently under indictment; another died before his case could go to trial -- Ed. 28 alderman have now gone to jail after "Fast Eddie" Vrdolyak pleaded guilty in October).

To provide perspective, if the conviction rate for elected officials in Chicago's legislative body was extrapolated to the US Congress, it would be as if over 240 US House reps had gone to jail since 1972. All from the same party.

Since 1960, there have been seven elected governors of Illinois. Of the seven, three have gone to jail. The current governor, Rod Blagojevich, is rumored to be on the brink of an indictment. (Ed. -- Blagojevich has been indicted.)

Taxes

Chicago has the highest sales tax in the nation, at 10.25%. The City of Chicago also taxes food and medicine at 2.25%. The tax rate on soft drinks is 13%. The tax rate on hotel room rentals is over 15% (pdf file). The tax rate on car rentals is also over 15%. Here is a full list of the over 40 items subject to specific taxes in Chicago.

Despite having the highest sales tax in the US, and separate taxes on over 40 different items, the City of Chicago receives over $150 million per year from parking tickets, or about 2% of its total budget (pdf file). Over 2 million parking tickets are issued annually in Chicago.

Currently, the city can immobilize any car with three or more unpaid tickets, but Mayor Daley's office is proposing that two or more tickets qualify car owners for the "Denver Boot." There are over 200,000 cars that would qualify for this action, according to the Chicago Tribune.

"Non-tax revenue" will account for over 15% of Chicago's 2008 city budget (pdf file).

Cronyism and Nepotism

The mayor of Chicago is the most powerful politician in the city. A mayor named Richard Daley has ruled Chicago for 40 of the last 53 years.

Richard M. Daley (D), the current mayor of Chicago, has been mayor since 1989; his father Richard J. Daley (D) was mayor from 1955-1976.

Mayor Daley's brother William was former US Commerce Secretary in the Clinton Administration, ran Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, and currently is a major advisor to Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Mayor Daley's campaign manager David Axelrod is Barack Obama's top advisor.

Mayor Daley's former Deputy Chief of Staff Valerie Jarrett is considered to be one of Barack Obama's most trusted advisors.

The second-most powerful politician in Chicago is Southwest Side Ald. Edward Burke (D), the Chairman of the City Council's Finance Committee for 23 out of the last 25 years. He has been an alderman since 1969, when he took over after the death of his father, who had been an alderman since 1956. Burke's wife Anne is an Illinois Supreme Court Justice.

Arguably the most powerful alderman from the Northwest Side of Chicago is Richard Mell (D), who has been a Chicago alderman since 1975. Mell's son-in-law is current Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D). Mells' daughter Deborah is currently running for a safe seat in the Illinois House of Representatives; when she announced her intention to run for the seat, the current 12-year incumbent, Richard Bradley (D), decided not to defend against the younger Mell, opting to run instead for the Illinois State Senate against the man who defeated him the last time he ran for that seat.

The Speaker of the Illinois House is Michael Madigan (D), who has been in the Illinois House since 1971. His daughter Lisa Madigan has been Illinois Attorney General since 2002.

The President of the Cook County Board is Todd Stroger, who replaced his father, 12-year incumbent John Stroger, as the Democratic Party nominee for Cook County Board President when, with a week before the Democratic Party primary, the elder Stroger had a stroke, the severity of which was hidden from the public, allowing the elder Stroger to win the primary despite his incapacitation. His son Todd replaced him on the ballot in June of that year and won the general election.

Education

Less than 55% of Chicago Public School students graduate from high school.


Despite all of this, Illinois Senator and Chicago Democrat Barack Obama is running for president as a reform candidate -- while having no record of standing up to any of the corruption, high taxes, etc., in Chicago during his eight years as an Illinois State Senator.

This, along with the fact that, in his first-ever election for a state senate seat in 1996, Sen. Obama had all of his Democratic Party opponents thrown off the ballot -- including the sitting incumbent who won with 83% of the vote in the prior election cycle -- allowing him to run unopposed.

Interestingly, Obama is given credit for one of the most successful voter registration drives in Chicago history in 1992 -- yet curiously, none of those new voters were given a choice between different candidates when Obama himself was first a candidate in 1996.

Despite these apparent paradoxes, no one in the media blinks an eye over Obama's claim to be the 'change' candidate, the holder of the mantle of reform ... it's quite a remarkable story.