From Chicago machine maestro to indicted alderman, Ed Burke’s corruption trial follows half-century of clout
Ed Burke was born into the machine.
The son of a Democratic ward boss and 14th Ward alderman, the younger Burke grew up in a home steeped in Chicago’s particular street-level realpolitik: Smooth over potholes, fix up friends with patronage jobs, and make sure everyone who benefited knew how to vote — and for whom to vote.
At its zenith during Mayor Richard J. Daley’s era, Chicago’s political machine was an enormous self-sustaining network, and the city ran on it for decades. And by the time the younger Burke turned into an elder Burke, he’d become one of the greatest purveyors of machine politics in the city and the longest-serving alderman in Chicago history.
Along the way, he’d earn infamy in the 1980s for trying to thwart every move of Harold Washington, Chicago’s first Black mayor, during “Council Wars,” pave the way for his wife to become chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, run the council’s Finance Committee like his own personal fiefdom and oversee an eponymous law firm that constantly put him into ethically questionable positions.
While Burke stood out among his aldermanic colleagues during his 54 years on the council, he now stands alongside dozens of them as another former alderman facing a federal public corruption trial. The Chicago machine he grew up with and worked to his advantage has atrophied.
Federal prosecutors have accused Burke of using his position as alderman to leverage the public’s business for his personal profit and, on Monday, Burke, 79, begins a high-profile trial over 14 federal charges in a racketeering case. The ex-alderman has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers vow he will be vindicated. If he isn’t, he faces up to two decades in prison.
To win, Burke has spent nearly$3 millionfromhis campaign funds on his lawyers’legal fees since 2018, records show. Burke has also used his campaign funds to pay $165,000 in legal bills for co-defendant Peter Andrews Jr., who worked for years for Burke’s ward organization, campaign records show. Andrews’ lawyers say
