Ed Burke
We all know by now that Mayor Daley isn’t the most polished speaker—he’s known worldwide as a muttering Mr. Malaprop. But not every old-school Chicago pol is so uninspiring at the podium, and if there’s a Pericles of the City Council it’s 14th Ward alderman Ed Burke. Burke has served as alderman since 1969, the longest uninterrupted stint in Chicago history. He chairs the finance committee, which has oversight of most of the city’s major financial transactions. He has one of the largest campaign war chests in Illinois; his wife is a state supreme court justice; and he has a lucrative law practice on the side that often represents city contractors. He’s written several books on the history of Chicago, and he loves to sprinkle his speeches with quotes from Shakespeare, Shaw, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, and of course Tony Laurino, the former 39th Ward alderman indicted for his role in a ghost payrolling operation.
