- Al Podgorski/Sun-Times
- Patrick D. Thompson—the D is for Daley—embraces his uncle, county commissioner John Daley, after joining the water reclamation district board in 2012.
Patrick D. Thompson’s campaign website has a page labeled FAMILY that describes how he grew up at 35th and Lowe in Bridgeport around the family of his mother, Patricia Daley.
Thompson insists that’s not the case. “I am not running away from my Daley name at all. It’s a tremendous asset and I’m proud of it,” he says. “But what are my qualifications? My experience and vision for the ward are what people care about.”
But four years after Rich Daley left office, many of those same politicians are now slinking away from their ties to him as they run for reelection—if they’re not trashing his tenure outright.
Along with much of the current City Council, some new candidates for alderman are also trying to gloss over their ties to the Daleys.
Yet he’s received thousands of dollars in campaign donations from figures allied with the Daleys. One check came from Daley and Georges, the law firm led by Michael Daley, a brother of John’s and Rich’s, and Mara Georges, the city’s corporation counsel when Rich Daley was mayor. Another was sent by Becky Carroll, who served in the Daley and Emanuel administrations and now runs Chicago Forward, a political action committee set up to attack Emanuel’s opponents.
Thompson also rejects the suggestion that the alderman’s seat is being handed to him, even though the incumbent, James Balcer, abruptly announced his retirement in August, just before election season got underway.
