Giangreco defends Mayor Daley and the Guv on TV tonight
Pete Giangreco: You know the Mayor’s been pretty strong on this…But, you know, I think voters take things in a broader context and say, you know: Are my streets safer,is my garbage getting picked up, are there more jobs, is the city cleaner, is it safer…and I think that’s why the Mayor will probably stick around and give the voters another chance to re-elect him.
Berkowitz: Are they paying too high a price-- are the voters; is there a corruption tax? I mean, all those things, you say, are getting better, but is there a “tack on corruption tax,” for public corruption within the Daley administration that makes those services more costly than would otherwise be the case?
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Tonight’s City of Chicago edition of “Public Affairs,” features Pete Giangreco, a Democratic campaign consultant and a partner at the [Strategy Group]. see here] Pete seems to concentrate on direct mail and media message development. The show with Campaign Consultant Giangreco airs throughout the City of Chicago [in the regular “Public Affairs,” City of Chicago Monday night slot] tonight at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 [CANTV]. See the end of the blog entry posted here for a list of topics discussed on tonight’s show with Pete Giangreco and that blog posting also includes a partial transcript of tonight’s show with Pete Giangreco.
***********************************************
An additional partial transcript of tonight’s show with Pete Giangreco is included, below:
DALEY, THE FIRST CITY, SHAKMAN, CORRUPTION TAX and RICO.
Jeff Berkowitz: You like Rich Daley?
Pete Giangreco [Democratic political campaign consultant]: A lot.
Berkowitz: You think he’s been a good mayor?
Pete Giangreco: Best mayor in the country.
Berkowitz: Sixteen years, what’s it going on, sixteen years-
Pete Giangreco: Umhmm.
Berkowitz: Right? And, uh, and if he makes another term, he will have been mayor for the longest period in the City of Chicago, longer, by a year, than his dad, Richard J. Daley.
Pete Giangreco: There’s a lot to be said that this is maybe the best sixteen years that Chicago’s ever seen.
Berkowitz: Non-withstanding all the stuff that’s coming out about corruption and all the Water Department, the Sewer Department, the Street and Sans,
the aviation department, patronage-
Pete Giangreco: I don’t think anybody’s happy about that.
Berkowitz: The hint, um, of people being used as a--they haven’t said it yet, but it could be to the point where it would be-- his campaign organization in the 11th ward and John Daley, all that—somebody could allege some kind of a RICO [Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act] violation there, do you think?
Pete Giangreco: You know the Mayor’s been pretty strong on this. He’s been very unhappy about the things that have come up, has taken some pretty strong steps to, uh, to clean things up. But, you know, I think voters take things in a broader context and say, you know: Are my streets safer, is my garbage getting picked up, are there more jobs, is the city cleaner, is it safer, is it a place I want to raise my kids, and under-- by all those measures, it’s certainly gotten better under Rich Daley. The parks are better, the schools are better. Uh, there’s a lot more work that needs to be done, and I think that’s why the Mayor will probably stick around and give the voters another chance to re-elect him.
Berkowitz: Are they paying too high a price-- are the voters; is there a corruption tax? I mean, all those things, you say, are getting better, but is there a “tack on corruption tax,” for public corruption within the Daley administration that makes those services more costly than would otherwise be the case?
Pete Giangreco: No, no. In some ways-- I’m not a big believer in the Shakman decree-
Berkowitz: You’re not? Mr. Shakman’s going to be sad to hear that.
Pete Giangreco: I’m sure. My father in law, John Tucker, who helped argue that case--We’ve had many arguments over the years about this, but the fact is-
Berkowitz: Is it-- your father in law is John Tucker?
Pete Giangreco: John Tucker, who helped argue that case [that resulted in the Shakman judicial decree in the early 70s purporting to limit patronage positions to about 1000 out of about 37,000 City of Chicago jobs] --
Berkowitz: And, your wife is-
Pete Giangreco: Laura Tucker.
Berkowitz: Laura Tucker, who[m] we should thank-- Laura Tucker for letting Pete come here tonight.
Pete Giangreco: Yeah, exactly.
Berkowitz: And bail us out, because he is subbing for …
Berkowitz: All right, seriously. Thank you Laura Tucker for letting Pete be here tonight.
**********************************************
JESSE, JR., LUIS AND FRITCHEY; WHY THEY RUN THE RACES:
Giangreco: …Taking into account everything you said, this guy’s a mayor who gets things done.
Berkowitz: Is it time for Jesse Jackson, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.[D-Chicago, 2nd Cong. District], you know him, right? You like the guy?
Giangreco: Good man.
Berkowitz: You know Congressman Luis Gutierrez[D-Chicago, 4th Cong. District], right?
Giangreco: He’s my friend.
Berkowitz: Is he a good man?
Giangreco: Yeah. Good man.
Berkowitz: Two credible opponents, Gutierrez, Jesse Jackson, Jr.-- credible in the sense they could garner the resources, the votes- to say, “It’s time for a change,” even if what you said is right-- you know-- we shouldn’t have dynasties here. Sixteen, seventeen years are enough. Maybe, it’s time to give Luis Gutierrez a chance to see if he can accelerate the change- To give, maybe, Jesse Jackson Jr. a chance-
Pete Giangreco: Well-
Berkowitz: Maybe to give-- you know, John Fritchey, he’s a State Rep. [D- Chicago], you know John?
Pete Giangreco: Umhmm.
Berkowitz: You like John?
Pete Giangreco: I mean, yeah, I wouldn’t put him in the same class- as Gutierrez and Jackson, but John Fritchey’s a good guy.
Berkowitz: Why wouldn’t you put him in the same class?
Pete Giangreco: Well, I mean, you know-- these are guys who are members of Congress, who have really gotten a lot done, not only in Congress, but in their neighborhoods. I think they have higher stature, a longer term of service, I think, you look at somebody like that-
Berkowitz: Well, how long has John Fritchey been a state rep, eight or nine years, right?
Pete Giangreco: Ninety-four, was it? Or-- [it was 1996].
Berkowitz: And, He’s now chairman of one of the Judiciary Committees, right? [He has] passed legislation that--
Pete Giangreco: It is hard to make a case that a state representative has the same stature as a member of Congress. That’s my point.
Berkowitz: You think?
Pete Giangreco: And, he has got some particular-- Look, in the end, it all comes down to what do the voters want.
Berkowitz: What do they want?
Pete Giangreco: I don’t know. I think that’s why they run the races, right? That’s why they play the game…
********************************************
MARIN, DALEY, BLAGO AND A CORRUPTION TAX:
Pete Giangreco: … Whether they would rather have an administration that maybe doesn’t get things done as well, but, you know, maybe pays more attention to the process of hiring. I don’t think that’s what voters want. I think they’d say, “make our streets safe, make our schools better, make my neighborhood cleaner, make … the trains run on time,” and by all those measures, Chicago is just a lot better than a lot of other cities.
Berkowitz: And, they don’t care, the voters don’t care if interviews are being rigged, if they say there was an interview and there wasn’t-
Pete Giangreco: I didn’t say they didn’t care--
Berkowitz: Somebody gets a promotion based on an interview that never occurred? They don’t care about that?
Pete Giangreco: I never said they don’t care. I think they weigh things in a broader context than maybe you do or my friend Carol Marin, or someone-
Berkowitz: I do? I’m just asking questions.
Pete Giangreco: …but in the end, they’re much more concerned about “Did my garbage get picked up? Are my streets safer?”
Berkowitz: Excuse me. But, what’s the budget, roughly, for the city of Chicago?
Pete Giangreco: I don’t know. See I don’t-- [do government].
Berkowitz: Four or five billion dollars-
Pete Giangreco: Right.
Berkowitz: That doesn’t count education, which is another five billion dollars-
Pete Giangreco: Umhmm.
Berkowitz: Let’s just say, hypothetically, if the city were run more efficiently, if education were run more efficiently, instead of ten billion dollars for those two budgets, it might be eight or nine billion. You know, that’s a ten percent tax cut. Your current boss, the guy you do do government for-
Pete Giangreco: I don’t do government for anybody.
Berkowitz: We’ll talk about that in a second.
Pete Giangreco:[laughs]
Berkowitz: Governor Rod Blagojevich, you know-- he talks about holding taxes down, and not raising the income tax, and not raising the sales tax. He’s saying that matters to people, and you’re saying, well, as long as the stuff is good, they don’t care, if you pay a ten percent corruption tax?
Pete Giangreco: There is no corruption tax.
Berkowitz: How do you know?
Pete Giangreco: No, because-
Berkowitz: If you don’t have people getting jobs based on efficiency-
******************************************************
DALEY WINS:
Berkowitz: If Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., did run against Mayor Daley, and he did get the support of the Hispanic community as well, [if] he worked with Luis Gutierrez to get that, let’s say.
Pete Giangreco: Umhmm.
Berkowitz: What happens? In a one on one, Jesse Jackson Jr. and Mayor Daley in 2007.-
Pete Giangreco: Well, that’s a big if…
*********************************************
Berkowitz: You think he wins?
Pete Giangreco: Yeah.
Berkowitz: Daley wins?
Pete Giangreco: I think he does.
Berkowitz: Over Jesse Jr.?
Giangreco: Yeah.
*********************************************
Pete Giangreco, recorded on July 24, 2005 and as is airing on the City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs tonight, August 8 at 8:30 pm on CANTV, Cable Ch. 21.
*******************************
Transcript drafts prepared by Amy Allen, who also does research for “Public Affairs,” and has her own political blog [See here].
******************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Host and Producer of Public Affairs and an Executive Recruiter doing Legal Search, can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
***********************
Berkowitz: Are they paying too high a price-- are the voters; is there a corruption tax? I mean, all those things, you say, are getting better, but is there a “tack on corruption tax,” for public corruption within the Daley administration that makes those services more costly than would otherwise be the case?
***********************************
Tonight’s City of Chicago edition of “Public Affairs,” features Pete Giangreco, a Democratic campaign consultant and a partner at the [Strategy Group]. see here] Pete seems to concentrate on direct mail and media message development. The show with Campaign Consultant Giangreco airs throughout the City of Chicago [in the regular “Public Affairs,” City of Chicago Monday night slot] tonight at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 [CANTV]. See the end of the blog entry posted here for a list of topics discussed on tonight’s show with Pete Giangreco and that blog posting also includes a partial transcript of tonight’s show with Pete Giangreco.
***********************************************
An additional partial transcript of tonight’s show with Pete Giangreco is included, below:
DALEY, THE FIRST CITY, SHAKMAN, CORRUPTION TAX and RICO.
Jeff Berkowitz: You like Rich Daley?
Pete Giangreco [Democratic political campaign consultant]: A lot.
Berkowitz: You think he’s been a good mayor?
Pete Giangreco: Best mayor in the country.
Berkowitz: Sixteen years, what’s it going on, sixteen years-
Pete Giangreco: Umhmm.
Berkowitz: Right? And, uh, and if he makes another term, he will have been mayor for the longest period in the City of Chicago, longer, by a year, than his dad, Richard J. Daley.
Pete Giangreco: There’s a lot to be said that this is maybe the best sixteen years that Chicago’s ever seen.
Berkowitz: Non-withstanding all the stuff that’s coming out about corruption and all the Water Department, the Sewer Department, the Street and Sans,
the aviation department, patronage-
Pete Giangreco: I don’t think anybody’s happy about that.
Berkowitz: The hint, um, of people being used as a--they haven’t said it yet, but it could be to the point where it would be-- his campaign organization in the 11th ward and John Daley, all that—somebody could allege some kind of a RICO [Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act] violation there, do you think?
Pete Giangreco: You know the Mayor’s been pretty strong on this. He’s been very unhappy about the things that have come up, has taken some pretty strong steps to, uh, to clean things up. But, you know, I think voters take things in a broader context and say, you know: Are my streets safer, is my garbage getting picked up, are there more jobs, is the city cleaner, is it safer, is it a place I want to raise my kids, and under-- by all those measures, it’s certainly gotten better under Rich Daley. The parks are better, the schools are better. Uh, there’s a lot more work that needs to be done, and I think that’s why the Mayor will probably stick around and give the voters another chance to re-elect him.
Berkowitz: Are they paying too high a price-- are the voters; is there a corruption tax? I mean, all those things, you say, are getting better, but is there a “tack on corruption tax,” for public corruption within the Daley administration that makes those services more costly than would otherwise be the case?
Pete Giangreco: No, no. In some ways-- I’m not a big believer in the Shakman decree-
Berkowitz: You’re not? Mr. Shakman’s going to be sad to hear that.
Pete Giangreco: I’m sure. My father in law, John Tucker, who helped argue that case--We’ve had many arguments over the years about this, but the fact is-
Berkowitz: Is it-- your father in law is John Tucker?
Pete Giangreco: John Tucker, who helped argue that case [that resulted in the Shakman judicial decree in the early 70s purporting to limit patronage positions to about 1000 out of about 37,000 City of Chicago jobs] --
Berkowitz: And, your wife is-
Pete Giangreco: Laura Tucker.
Berkowitz: Laura Tucker, who[m] we should thank-- Laura Tucker for letting Pete come here tonight.
Pete Giangreco: Yeah, exactly.
Berkowitz: And bail us out, because he is subbing for …
Berkowitz: All right, seriously. Thank you Laura Tucker for letting Pete be here tonight.
**********************************************
JESSE, JR., LUIS AND FRITCHEY; WHY THEY RUN THE RACES:
Giangreco: …Taking into account everything you said, this guy’s a mayor who gets things done.
Berkowitz: Is it time for Jesse Jackson, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.[D-Chicago, 2nd Cong. District], you know him, right? You like the guy?
Giangreco: Good man.
Berkowitz: You know Congressman Luis Gutierrez[D-Chicago, 4th Cong. District], right?
Giangreco: He’s my friend.
Berkowitz: Is he a good man?
Giangreco: Yeah. Good man.
Berkowitz: Two credible opponents, Gutierrez, Jesse Jackson, Jr.-- credible in the sense they could garner the resources, the votes- to say, “It’s time for a change,” even if what you said is right-- you know-- we shouldn’t have dynasties here. Sixteen, seventeen years are enough. Maybe, it’s time to give Luis Gutierrez a chance to see if he can accelerate the change- To give, maybe, Jesse Jackson Jr. a chance-
Pete Giangreco: Well-
Berkowitz: Maybe to give-- you know, John Fritchey, he’s a State Rep. [D- Chicago], you know John?
Pete Giangreco: Umhmm.
Berkowitz: You like John?
Pete Giangreco: I mean, yeah, I wouldn’t put him in the same class- as Gutierrez and Jackson, but John Fritchey’s a good guy.
Berkowitz: Why wouldn’t you put him in the same class?
Pete Giangreco: Well, I mean, you know-- these are guys who are members of Congress, who have really gotten a lot done, not only in Congress, but in their neighborhoods. I think they have higher stature, a longer term of service, I think, you look at somebody like that-
Berkowitz: Well, how long has John Fritchey been a state rep, eight or nine years, right?
Pete Giangreco: Ninety-four, was it? Or-- [it was 1996].
Berkowitz: And, He’s now chairman of one of the Judiciary Committees, right? [He has] passed legislation that--
Pete Giangreco: It is hard to make a case that a state representative has the same stature as a member of Congress. That’s my point.
Berkowitz: You think?
Pete Giangreco: And, he has got some particular-- Look, in the end, it all comes down to what do the voters want.
Berkowitz: What do they want?
Pete Giangreco: I don’t know. I think that’s why they run the races, right? That’s why they play the game…
********************************************
MARIN, DALEY, BLAGO AND A CORRUPTION TAX:
Pete Giangreco: … Whether they would rather have an administration that maybe doesn’t get things done as well, but, you know, maybe pays more attention to the process of hiring. I don’t think that’s what voters want. I think they’d say, “make our streets safe, make our schools better, make my neighborhood cleaner, make … the trains run on time,” and by all those measures, Chicago is just a lot better than a lot of other cities.
Berkowitz: And, they don’t care, the voters don’t care if interviews are being rigged, if they say there was an interview and there wasn’t-
Pete Giangreco: I didn’t say they didn’t care--
Berkowitz: Somebody gets a promotion based on an interview that never occurred? They don’t care about that?
Pete Giangreco: I never said they don’t care. I think they weigh things in a broader context than maybe you do or my friend Carol Marin, or someone-
Berkowitz: I do? I’m just asking questions.
Pete Giangreco: …but in the end, they’re much more concerned about “Did my garbage get picked up? Are my streets safer?”
Berkowitz: Excuse me. But, what’s the budget, roughly, for the city of Chicago?
Pete Giangreco: I don’t know. See I don’t-- [do government].
Berkowitz: Four or five billion dollars-
Pete Giangreco: Right.
Berkowitz: That doesn’t count education, which is another five billion dollars-
Pete Giangreco: Umhmm.
Berkowitz: Let’s just say, hypothetically, if the city were run more efficiently, if education were run more efficiently, instead of ten billion dollars for those two budgets, it might be eight or nine billion. You know, that’s a ten percent tax cut. Your current boss, the guy you do do government for-
Pete Giangreco: I don’t do government for anybody.
Berkowitz: We’ll talk about that in a second.
Pete Giangreco:[laughs]
Berkowitz: Governor Rod Blagojevich, you know-- he talks about holding taxes down, and not raising the income tax, and not raising the sales tax. He’s saying that matters to people, and you’re saying, well, as long as the stuff is good, they don’t care, if you pay a ten percent corruption tax?
Pete Giangreco: There is no corruption tax.
Berkowitz: How do you know?
Pete Giangreco: No, because-
Berkowitz: If you don’t have people getting jobs based on efficiency-
******************************************************
DALEY WINS:
Berkowitz: If Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., did run against Mayor Daley, and he did get the support of the Hispanic community as well, [if] he worked with Luis Gutierrez to get that, let’s say.
Pete Giangreco: Umhmm.
Berkowitz: What happens? In a one on one, Jesse Jackson Jr. and Mayor Daley in 2007.-
Pete Giangreco: Well, that’s a big if…
*********************************************
Berkowitz: You think he wins?
Pete Giangreco: Yeah.
Berkowitz: Daley wins?
Pete Giangreco: I think he does.
Berkowitz: Over Jesse Jr.?
Giangreco: Yeah.
*********************************************
Pete Giangreco, recorded on July 24, 2005 and as is airing on the City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs tonight, August 8 at 8:30 pm on CANTV, Cable Ch. 21.
*******************************
Transcript drafts prepared by Amy Allen, who also does research for “Public Affairs,” and has her own political blog [See here].
******************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Host and Producer of Public Affairs and an Executive Recruiter doing Legal Search, can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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