Edward Vrdolyak
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Edward Vrdolyak (pr. "Ver-doh-lee-ack") is a noted Chicago lawyer and politician. He was a powerful long time Chicago Alderman and also head of the Cook County Democratic Party before running unsuccessfully for Mayor of Chicago as a Republican. He is of Croatian descent.
Vrdolyak at one point was studying for the Catholic priesthood. He graduated from the University of Chicago law school in 1963 (after having to sit out one year while defending himself on manslaughter charges) and began a law career in private practice, specializing in personal injury cases. He also became actively involved in Chicago politics. In 1968 he was elected as Democratic Committeeman from Chicago's 10th Ward, a position he held until 1988. In 1971 he was elected Alderman, and he served as President of the City Council from 1977 to 1983.
Vrdolyak earned the nickname "Fast Eddie" because of his ability to get his programs pushed through the city council. He is noted for leading the Chicago city council in opposing Mayor Harold Washington from 1983 to 1987. Some 29 aldermen were generally aligned with Vrdolyak, while 21 were aligned with Washington, giving Vrdolyak's faction a majority sufficient to pass measures but not to override a mayoral veto. This deadlock was characterised as "The Council Wars".
Washington's second term went more smoothly, and Vrdolyak's political clout decreased after he left the Chicago Democratic party. On November 25, 1987, Mayor Washington suddenly died of a heart attack in his office. David Orr served as mayor for 8 days until the city council chose Eugene Sawyer to serve as mayor. In 1989, Vrdolyak ran for mayor of Chicago as the Republican candidate, losing to Richard M. Daley.
In the years since his election defeat, Vrdolyak has returned to his law practice, which has been a source of controversy. Longtime Chicago journalist Carol Marin has reported on Vrdolyak's activities since leaving office. Some of Vrdolyak's clients allegedly have ties to the Mafia, and Vrdolyak has been criticized for the large legal fees he has received from the Chicago suburbs of Cicero, Illinois and Berwyn, Illinois. Some allege that Vrdolyak is the "boss" of the Cicero Republican Party machine, which has remnants from the machine Al Capone set up in Cicero when he moved his operations from Chicago due to a newly hostile Chicago City Hall in the mid-1920s.
The controversy about Vrdolyak's influence in Cicero and in Berwyn, and broader allegations of corruption in those cities, seem to have created a backlash against Vrdolyak's political allies. When Cicero town president (mayor) Betty Loren-Maltese, an ally of Vrdolyak's, went to jail in 2002, Vrdolyak handpicked Ramiro Gonzalez to take her place. In the February 2005 election, a former garbage worker and long-time player in the Cicero political machine, Larry Dominick, staged an upset defeat of Mayor Gonzalez in the Cicero non-partisan election. Dominick campaigned on a pledge to reduce Vrdolyak's influence in Cicero.
In neighboring Berwyn, Vrdolyak has been an ally of the Stillo family, which maintains over 25 jobs throughout Berwyn, Cicero and Stickney local governments, and is influential in the local Democratic political machine. In 2004, Sonny Stillo, the assistant mayor of Berwyn was arrested in an FBI sting and charged with bribery. In the April 2005 election, Berwyn voters handed the Democratic Party a devastating loss. In total, the newly formed Independent Voters of Berwyn Party, formed by longtime Democrat and eight-year Berwyn alderman Michael A. O'Connor, won 9 of 11 City Hall posts: 6 of the 8 aldermanic races, and the positions of city clerk and city treasurer. O'Connor was elected mayor.
In September 2005, the Chicago Tribune reported that Vrdolyak had agreed to a 30-day suspension of his law license for allegedly double billing clients he represented in sexual harassment cases.
Vrdolyak is currently in hot water as it was recently found out that he assisted a construction company in purchasing land in the city of Cicero, where he was a town attorney. Doing this, ultimatly led to ethics violations and a conflict of interest as town lawyers are not supposed to be partners with any people doing business with a city.
