Golden by Jeff Coen

out.

    As the race progressed, several colleagues noticed the dynamic between Mell and Blagojevich begin to change. The disagreement over television commercials and fund-raising was one thing. But Blagojevich also was starting to feel his oats as his own politician and to show some resentment toward Mell, who never let Blagojevich forget where he came from and who got him into the business in the first place.
    â€œHe almost resented the fact that he needed Mell,” a campaign staffer said. “So he began to try to distance himself from him as much as he could.”
    The two men would fight and eventually smooth things over. “We both have thick skin,” Blagojevich would confide. Blagojevich also knew he depended on Mell’s help in the field. The lord of his ward, Mell’s army of precinct workers continued to be impressive. They not only worked hard but they also were immensely loyal to Mell and, by default, Blagojevich. Among those who were helping Blagojevich’s campaign was Dominic Longo, a longtime city worker who a decade earlier was convicted of federal vote fraud for stuffing ballot boxes in the Thirty-Third Ward.
    Longo had bounced around city hall. He was a city truck driver and after the conviction helped oversee vehicle operations at O’Hare Airport. Throughout it all, he had stuck by Mell. When Ronan left Mell’s organization, he took several precinct captains with him because he had the ability to get jobs. But Longo and others, including another top city precinct captain, Chuckie Lomanto, didn’t bolt. While the men were Mell’s friends, Blagojevich was now a member of the family, and they became his friend too. Longo and Lomanto and the others had been working city elections for years, and they were good at it. Blagojevich knew he needed their help to win.
    â€œIf Rod knew you could help him, he’d be nice to you,” the campaign staffer said.

    With the primary looming at Mell’s annual bingo game and fundraiser the following year, the mood was electric inside Gordon Tech as the seniors once again gathered inside the tile-walled room. Aldermen arrived. An old Mell friend, Aurelia Pucinski, was in attendance, as was Secretary of State Jesse White. Rod and Patti, who was four months pregnant at the time and just beginning to show, arrived and hugged Mell, who walked around wearing a fishing cap and loose-hanging jeans. After several speeches by other pols, Mell took the microphone.
    â€œThis is a great daughter and a great sonin-law,” he started. “Five years ago, they fell in love, and because of that, my wife and I are going to become grandparents.”
    â€œHe’s done everything I’ve asked him in Springfield,” Mell continued before handing the microphone to Rod, who instantly began blasting Flanagan and talking about Medicare payments before wrapping up his speech, “One last thing—” he began to say before Mell snatched the microphone from Rod’s grip.
    â€œGet to the punch line,” Mell yelled to the crowd. “He’s giving two hundred dollars to the next game!”
    Snagging the microphone back, Rod yelled, “I’m not just a sonin-law. I’m giving three hundred dollars!”

PART II
    A Public Rise

4
Congressman Blagojevich

    March 19 was a nasty day in Chicago. Cold with a hard wind that was blowing trash through the streets, it was another typical early spring day in a city that rarely saw much of a transition between winter and summer. Voters hit the polls as soon as they opened, and so did Rod Blagojevich and Mell’s crew of one thousand precinct captains and workers.
    The closing weeks of the campaign had been a flurry between Blagojevich, Kaszak, and a third candidate, Ray Romero. Blagojevich embraced his underdog status, repeating, “It’s us against the world” as he vowed to be a unifying force that would bring together the yuppies and working class of the