All in the Family

Today’s story about William Daley Jr.’s role in helping Morgan Stanley land business from Cook County sent me back to the Sun-Times’s look at “The next generation of Chicago’s first family” last month, which it called “The Daley Family: Version 3.0.” Let’s take a look.

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Billy Daley Jr.’s Cook County deal is hardly the first Chicago door he’s opened for Morgan Stanley. That’s what they hired him to do. But his exact role in some lucrative arrangements remain shadowy.

For example, the Sun-Times reported in its series last month that “Within a year [of hiring], his employer signed a new deal with his uncle, Mayor Daley. Morgan Stanley got a 99-year lease to operate the city’s four underground parking garages. City Hall got an upfront payment of $563 million – the highest offer made.

“Morgan Stanley hopes to strike two more deals with Mayor Daley. It’s among several bidders seeking long-term leases to run Midway Airport and oversee 36,161 parking meters.”

Morgan Stanley told the paper in a statement that Bill Daley Jr. “was not involved” in any of the City Hall deals, but also refused to answer the paper’s written questions. And “In a brief phone conversation, Daley said he was too busy to talk and would call back. He didn’t.”

What’s there to hide? Just tell us what you do! After all, you’re part of Chicago’s First Family, which has gotten rich off us.

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Morgan Stanley also wouldn’t tell the Sun-Times what Billy Jr. does for them. Why is that such a hard question to answer? My guess is it goes something like this: “Morgan Stanley is a venerable American firm that hardly needs help opening doors, but in a city like Chicago and a state like Illinois, William Daley Jr. gives us a unique advantage in connecting to the right people and landing the sort of business we are seeking there.” Just say it!

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According to the Sun-Times, Billy Daley Jr. is a registered as a lobbyist for Morgan Stanley with Cook County and the State of Illinois. So that’s what he does. It’s actually not such a mystery.

And yet, you’d think the guy was Keyser Soze.

“The Illinois Student Assistance Commission paid Morgan Stanley more than $1 million last year to sell $3 billion in student loans. The commission’s executive director, Andrew Davis, said he didn’t know if Daley ‘had a specific role” in the deal.”

The commission’s executive director didn’t know!

And I’m sure the toppers are just coincidence: “Bill Daley Jr.’s wife, Aimee Zeppenfeld, works for Ariel Capital Management, which has government pension funds in Chicago, Cook County and Illinois as clients.

“Before Daley joined Morgan Stanley, he worked as a vice president and lobbyist for Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored mortgage company. His father was once a Fannie Mae board member, appointed by President Bill Clinton.”