WASHINGTON — Mayor Richard J. Daley played a key role in the 1976 election of President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100. During the Democratic primary season, Daley was instrumental in landing the nomination for Carter.
The Georgia governor would go on to win the 1976 presidential contest, though in November he didn’t carry Illinois.
“His political ties here were pretty strong,” William Daley, a son of the late mayor, told the Sun-Times.
The powerful Chicago mayor took a chance on Carter, running in 1976 as an outsider.
When Carter “started to win all the primaries,” showing his potential to clinch the nomination, William Daley said his father blocked a “movement by the so-called old-liners, institutional Democrats” who were trying to stop Carter and entice former Vice President Hubert Humphrey into the primary.
“And my dad ... said, ‘No, nobody should challenge him. He’s winning with the voters, and he should be the nominee of the party,’” he said.
WTTW’s John Callaway interviewed Carter in 2006 about his memories of coming to Chicago, Daley and the 1976 primary.
“I came here as an unknown governor from Georgia,” Carter said, and went to see Daley “just to pay my respects, and he took a liking to me for some reason.”
Carter said he would “spend some time with him on each visit. That was when I had maybe 3 or 4% in the polls; nobody thought I was gonna win.”
Carter said, “Mayor Daley told me that if I carried Ohio,” he would deliver Illinois votes for him.
“So the night that I carried Ohio, the phone rang, Mayor Daley was on the phone, he said you’ve got 273 votes in the Democratic convention that you didn’t have a few moments ago.”
After Carter won the nomination, Daley pushed to turn out Chicago votes for him in the November general election.
That included doing Carter a favor. A traditional get-out-the-vote giant torchlight parade was typically held the Saturday before the fall election, but in 1976, Daley moved it up to Sept. 9. That idea was to give Carter a national boost with a tour de force in Chicago.
The parade kicked off at Wacker Drive and Michigan Avenue, and the marchers wound their way to Medinah Temple, 600 N. Wabash Ave., the turnout a testimony to Daley’s powerful Democratic machine.
Carter waved to the crowds from a convertible, where he sat between Daley and U.S. Sen. Adlai Stevenson III, coming to the city after stumping that day in Peoria, Springfield and Evergreen Park.
As the presidential nominee, Carter returned to Chicago Oct. 11, with his wife, Rosalynn, and daughter Amy, marching next to Daley at the Columbus Day Parade on State Street.
But it was not enough.
Though Democratic presidential candidates have won Illinois in every election since 1992, back in 1976, Illinois was still a swing state.
Despite losing nationally, Gerald Ford and his running mate, U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, took Illinois, with 50.1% of the vote to 48.1% for Carter and his vice presidential pick, Walter Mondale.
That December, Carter returned to Chicago as president-elect to attend Daley’s funeral at the Nativity of Our Lord Roman Catholic Church.
“He came to my dad’s funeral in December of ’76, and a month later, he was inaugurated and invited the four of us — my three brothers and I — to come to the inauguration,” William Daley said.
“And it was really nice of him” reaching out to a family still in mourning. “But we went. He gave us great seats, and it was really nice of him.”
Carter’s 1980 campaign: Byrne’s knifing
Chicago is also the place where Carter, running for a second term, was double-crossed by Mayor Jane Byrne, in one of the most famous knifings in modern Chicago political history.
Carter was in Chicago for a fundraiser at McCormick Place. U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy was poised to challenge Carter in the Democratic primary. At the fundraiser, Byrne told the crowd she would endorse Carter if the election were held that night, a message she also sent privately.
Except the election was not held that night.
Within weeks, Byrne did a U-turn, endorsing Kennedy.
As the Sun-Times’ Basil Talbott reported at the time: “The mayor denied she was changing her mind about Carter, although on two recent occasions she said she would back him for reelection.
"I told the president I could support him, until I thought he could not win,"Byrne said.
Byrne didn’t have enough juice to defeat Carter, who was running in the March 1980 Illinois primary with the backing of the Daley clan.
In the Illinois primary, Carter, with 65%, bested Kennedy, at 30%.
Byrne went on in the general election campaign to appear with Carter, the 39th president, at a Daley Center rally on Oct. 6, 1980.
In November, Republican Ronald Reagan, born in Tampico, Illinois, beat Carter 49.6% to 41.7%
Reagan won the general election, becoming the 40th president.
Carter visited Chicago in his postpresidential years. He came for speeches, panels and to promote one of his signature initiatives, Habitat for Humanity, which builds homes for people with low incomes.
He also came to see his grandchildren.
His son Jack lived in Evanston for a time, moving to the area in 1981. According to records in the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, Jack Carter worked at the Chicago Board of Trade, Citibank and Tabor Commodities, a subsidiary of Archer Daniels Midland, now known as ADM.
Chicago fundraiser hosted by future Commerce secretary
When Carter, then governor of Georgia, was running for president the first time, he came to Chicago for a fundraiser. One of the event sponsors was Philip Klutznick, a real estate developer, prominent Democrat and international Jewish leader. Klutznick couldn’t attend the event, so he asked his daughter, Bettylu Saltzman, to stand in for him.
“And I was introduced in a rather inartful way to Gov. Carter,” Saltzman told the Sun-Times. She was referred to only as “Phil Klutznick’s daughter,” as if she were not a person with her own identity. Carter picked up on the slight.
“And Gov. Carter, in a way so that other people could hear it said, ‘I bet you have a name,’” said Saltzman, recalling how his compassionate reply reflected the enduring decency Carter became known for.
Klutznick would go on to serve as Carter’s commerce secretary from Jan. 9, 1980, to Jan. 19, 1981, with his daughter, Saltzman, a major Democratic activist, instrumental in the later rise of Barack Obama.
At Klutznick’s swearing-in, his oath was administered by Abner Mikva, the former Chicago congressman who was then an appeals court judge. Carter made a joke about Klutznick’s rag-to-riches story with a reference to Chicago’s Water Tower Place. Klutznick developed the mixed-use skyscraper, and he lived on the 72nd floor.
Carter said, “He knows business from top to bottom, or I should say bottom to top. He was born in a room above his family’s store. He now lives in a penthouse — above the headquarters for a giant business complex.”
Editor's Note: A photo caption in this article was updated to correct that Richard Daley's funeral was held on Dec. 22, 1976.
