“It will be the best hundred dollars you ever spent,” said my friend, urging me to buy in on a fund-raising affair for then-Richie Daley some years back, before he became mayor, when he held county office. I was a job-seeker, which was why I considered the $100. At the event, in a Loop hotel, I ran into a lobbyist who used to come into the city room regularly, often to confer with Mike Royko. “What are you doing here?” he asked me, the former religion editor, clearly wondering if I were entering a new arena. “I’m here to support good government,” I told him, smiling.
Maybe I would get such an answer with such a smile from Rev. Horace ? Smith, M.D., John J. Gearen, Jr., Paul A. Mertz, and other Oak Parkers who gave to Mayor Richard M. Daley in the last eight years if I asked them why. Maybe I would not. In any case, they gave up to $5,000 each in that time, according to public records posted by Crain’s Chicago Business.
Smith is a man of many parts. He’s a fully accredited, much experienced pediatrician with a specialty in oncology (cancer treatment) and pastor since 1980 of Apostolic Faith Church, at 38th and Indiana in the city. Gearen is a partner at the law firm Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw. Mertz is chief operating officer of the John Buck Company, developers. The long arm of the mayor thus reaches into our midst, tapping the generosity and civic awareness of people who do business in the city.
