Elected officials like Mayor Brandon Johnson see a just verdict, but longtime Ald. Ed Burke’s former City Council colleagues consider his demise a tragedy and view former Ald. Danny Solis, who cooperated with federal investigators, as a “snake and a snitch.”
- “Elected officials are responsible for serving with honesty and integrity, with a moral responsibility to their constituents to uphold and abide by the law. In the case that they fail to do so, it is imperative that they are held accountable. That is what the jury decided today.” — Mayor Brandon Johnson
- “With this jury’s verdict, Ed Burke should rightfully be remembered as a man who elevated personal ambition and greed over doing the people’s work.” — Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot
- “The tyranny of Ed Burke is over.” — Lightfoot
- “I like to think somewhere, Harold [Washington] is smiling.” — Lightfoot
- Burke’s conviction is an “incredibly sad reminder” of his failure to live up to the “fundamental responsibility that all elected officials have to put the public’s interest above their own personal gain.” — Ald. Matt Martin (47th), chair of the City Council’s Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight
- “It’s sad. … The whole thing is sad. … He’s given his life to public service. Ed has always felt he’s done the right things for the right reasons. The tapes … presented a different light.” —Former Ald. Tom Tunney (44th)
- “You’ve got to keep abreast with staying on the right side of the law. And the rules change. You know that. What you could do in the ’80s and ’90s — you can’t do that stuff. … One bad move could be lethal to your career. What was it, 20,000 phone calls taped in five years of wearing a wire? We’ve all had conversations on the phone that we probably would regret.” — Tunney
- “He and my dad were good friends. They were buddies. They talked all the time. At the end of my dad’s life, he came to see my dad almost every day. He was at the hospital as much as we were.” —- former Ald. Roderick Sawyer, son of former alderperson turned Acting Mayor Eugene Sawyer
- Burke’s “fingerprints are on so much of what is Chicago. To have this as the final act of a remarkable career is a tragedy” that Burke could have avoided if he had only known when to leave. “This is a very addictive business. It’s hard to walk away — especially when you’re on top. That’s true of any profession, but doubly so in politics.” — Ald. Ray Lopez (15th)
- “My heart goes out to Anne Burke and his family, who are going to have to live with the very real possibility of never seeing him again.” — Lopez
- “I don’t believe that there will be too many people, if any, who actually served with Ed Burke who will be doing a dance on his grave. He did a helluva lot of things and a helluva lot of them behind-the-scenes. He supported a lot of people you’d think he would not support. And none of that will be spoken. It’ll be, ‘Another bad Chicago politician goes to jail.’” —Former Ald. Howard Brookins (21st)
- “He kept coming back to Burke with stories from the FBI to tell him in an attempt to get Burke to say something incriminating. If this sophisticated businessman thought that Burke was shaking him down, then he should have called the FBI.” — Brookins
- “There’s always hope that it won’t happen and he could be pardoned by the president, either one of ’em — whoever the next president might be.” — Brookins
- “I think they would commute his sentence, absolutely. I don’t think they would let him die in prison. A commutation would be in order. And if it’s [Burke’s former law client] Donald Trump, he doesn’t give a damn. He’d just pardon him.” — Brookins
- “Danny is a snake and a snitch. He did something purely out of greed and self-interest … to save his own behind. That’s the part I don’t like. All you were trying to do is save your ass. I don’t respect that. Nobody should.” — former Ald. Roderick Sawyer on former Ald. Danny Solis, who cooperated with federal investigators
- “A lot of people” in the council feel “indirectly betrayed” by Danny Solis for “going after a man many respected and viewed as a friend to save himself and his pension” instead of “accepting his fate and acknowledging his own mistakes. I don’t blame the federal government for putting pressure on Danny to uncover corruption. But he certainly will never be viewed as a Serpico. He only uncovered corruption when the federal government put the squeeze on him.” — Former Ald. Joe Moore (49th)
- “The jury decided and justice was served. That’s all I can say. All we can hope is that this is the end of an era. Hopefully, the city will be better for not having this kind of corruption as the jury found. … Let’s hope that people learn the lesson and we don’t have another round of people in City Council who decide to be corrupt.” — retired Ald. Michele Smith (43rd)
