Daley: The Son, the Brother, the Nominee

William Michael Daley, youngest son of the near-legendary Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, has never run for office. It is his oldest brother, Richard M., who holds the father’s first name and office in City Hall.

But as the first member of the Daley clan to be nominated to a Cabinet post, there is no doubt that Bill Daley has his father’s formidable political instincts.

President Clinton’s choice for secretary of Commerce forged close ties in the federal government and with the business world while steering the North American Free Trade Agreement successfully through the shoals and rapids of a wary Congress in 1994. Then he organized a Democratic National Convention in his hometown this summer that burnished both the party’s and the city’s images--while persuading local CEOs, a notably Republican bunch, to foot much of the bill. And though he had angered organized labor with his pro-NAFTA stance, he courted unions to turn out the vote for Clinton’s reelection last month.

*

The 48-year-old lawyer is as articulate as his brother is tongue-twisted, as dapper as the 54-year-old Richard Daley is rumpled, as easygoing as his sibling is prickly. (Bill Daley took it in stride when Clinton passed him over for secretary of Transportation in 1992. His brother, loudly, did not).

Four years later, as Clinton set about reconfiguring his administration for a second term, Bill Daley again emerged as a top contender for the Transportation job, a position important to Chicago, a major air, rail and trucking hub.

But his selection for the Commerce job--a higher-profile post during Clinton’s first term--was met with approval in his hometown.

“I’m glad [Bill Daley] got Commerce,” said Richard Notebaert, chairman and CEO of Chicago-based Ameritech. “He’s very business-oriented.”

His big brother is not complaining this time either. The Commerce spot is “an early Christmas present for our family,” Mayor Daley said Friday.

For all their differences, what the oldest and youngest of the four Daley brothers have in common is the ward heeler’s attention to detail. While the mayor notes the location of potholes when he travels city streets, the secretary-designate carried a list in his pocket for six months with the name of every member of Congress and the member’s position--yes, no, maybe--on NAFTA.

*

He spent less effort on mastering the intricacies of the plan itself, some congressional critics noted during the thick of the NAFTA lobbying. But others said that was then-U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor’s job.

It was clear during the fight over NAFTA, which lifted most trade barriers among Canada, the United States and Mexico, that Bill Daley still had his sights set on a Washington post. He repeated often that it was “kind of fun hanging out with the president,” with whom he had daily contact in the waning days of the battle to win passage of the treaty.

With his large family (he also has three sisters), Daley grew up in Bridgeport, a working-class South Side neighborhood. He was graduated from Loyola University in Chicago in 1970 and has a law degree from Chicago’s John Marshall Law School.

With his wife, Loretta, he has raised three children in the posh North Side community of Sauganash.

Like many Chicago pols, Daley has been accused of benefiting from his connections, but nothing ever has come of the allegations.

In the early 1970s, a state employee said that the results of Daley’s state insurance licensing exam were changed when an Illinois state senator intervened as a favor to Daley’s father. Everyone involved denied wrongdoing.

Last year, Chicago Magazine raised questions about the city’s award of a huge contract to recycle city garbage to a company that had paid Bill Daley $45,000 a year to serve on a subsidiary’s board of directors. Both the mayor and Bill Daley said that the younger brother played no role in the bidding.

International trade clearly has been important to Mayer, Brown & Platt, the Chicago-based law firm where Daley is one of more than 250 partners. The firm has an office in London and, in 1992, established a close working relationship with the Mexico City law firm of Jauregui, Navarette, Nader & Rojas.

At the time, Daley had left the Chicago firm to serve as president and chief executive officer of Amalgamated Bank in Chicago. After rejoining the law firm, Daley took a leave of absence--and a pay cut--to serve as Clinton’s special counsel and point man on NAFTA.