Forrest Claypool & A Master Class in Chicago Politics

Pro Politics with Zac McCrary

Forrest Claypool has one of the most impressive and varied resumes in politics...early campaign and operative work with David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel, two-time Chief of Staff to the mayor of Chicago, opposing Barack Obama in mock debates in his 2004 Senate race, running the Chicago Park District, Chicago Transit Authority, and Chicago Board of Education, elected to the Cook County Board, intense races against the Chicago machine, and now author of the new book - The Daley Show - about the 20+ year tenure of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. In this conversation, Forrest talks his path from small town Southern, IL to breaking into politics to his time running major city departments to being an integral part of the Chicago machine before running against the machine a few years later and deep into the last 40+ years of Chicago politics through the impact of the mayoralty of Richard M. Daley.
IN THIS EPISODE...

Forrest's roots in Southern Illinois and the state politics of his youth in the 60s and 70s...
Forrest connects with David Axelrod at the start of the Axelrod rise as a national media consultant...
The x-factor that made Axelrod such an effective political consultant...
One of Forrest's favorite races he worked on as a political consultant...
Forrest plays the role of Alan Keyes in Barack Obama's 2004 debate prep...
Forrest's initial impressions of the 1990s Barack Obama who started making the rounds in Chicago politics...
Forrest remembers the Rahm Emanuel he first worked with in the mid-1980s...
Of the numerous positions he held around Chicago and Cook County politics, which did Forrest find most exciting...
Why Forrest turned down an almost sure-thing, safe seat in Congress...
What he learned when he ran for Cook County office himself...
The Forrest Claypool 101 on effectively running organizations...
His evolution as a foot soldier of the Daley machine to a prominent machine critic and opponent...
What made Forrest write his new book, The Daley Show, about the 20+ year mayoralty of Richard M. Daley...
How the original Mayor Daley, Richard J. Daley, dominated Chicago politics for decades...
The story of Richard M. Daley in the political wilderness after the death of his father, and how he rose to the mayor's office via an "outside game"...
Details on how the Chicago mob controlled an entire city ward into the 1980s and 90s...
The importance of "abandoned cars" in running a city...
The most important accomplishment of the Mayor Richard M. Daley era...
The biggest "missed opportunity" from Daley's time as Mayor...
The "most brilliant ploy" Forrest saw from Mayor Daley during the 1990s wars over Chicago-area airports...
The story from Forrest's first race in Cook County, with his opponent trying to convince voters that Forrest (who is white) was a Black candidate...
How far one has to go back in Chicago politics to find election-counting interference...
Forrest's take on why Chicago is no longer "a city that works"...
Forrest's favorite story of the influential Chicago columnist, Mike Royko...
Forrest's must-see recommendations around Chicago for political junkies...
AND AKPD, Yasser Arafat, Thomas Barnes, Evan Bayh, Michael Bilandic, Rod Blagojevich, Jane Byrne, Jimmy Carter, council wars, Fred Cowan, Andrew Cuomo, John D'Arco, Richard Dennis, economic invalids, eye-glazing agencies, Paul Findley, Newt Gingrich, The Grateful Dead, iron-handed bravado, Brandon Johnson, Martin Kennelly, Martin Luther King, Lori Lightfoot, Machiavellian power plays, Ron Madison, Millennium Park, The Rolling Stones, John Stroger, Ed Vrdolyak, & more!