Chicago -- Mayor Richard Daley has faced down his share of scandals in 15 years running City Hall. But a stream of recent indictments and nonstop news reports of corruption have the mayor on the defensive like never before.
Although Daley himself has not been accused of any wrongdoing, he has taken several steps in the past week to insulate himself.
He announced Tuesday that he was overhauling a scandal-plagued trucking program. He brought in two former federal prosecutors to root out corruption in a program that sets contracts aside for women- and minority-owned businesses. And he has barred companies with city contracts from donating to his campaign.
"I'm determined to ensure that with all our successes these failures are not my legacy as mayor," Daley said Tuesday in his annual State of Chicago Address.
The cat-and-mouse game between federal prosecutors and Chicago politicians is nothing new, and was played long before the colorful two-decade reign of Daley's father as Chicago mayor.
But the scrutiny has been intense in the 3 1/2 years since the arrival of U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, a tough New York prosecutor once described by a colleague as Eliot Ness with a sense of humor. Under Fitzgerald's watch, federal agents have been delving ever deeper into the darkest corners of City Hall.
They launched an investigation into payoffs to municipal employees from trucking companies that do business with the city. Seventeen people have been indicted in connection with the program, including several former city officials and a former police commander.
Separately, other city workers, campaign contributors and contractors have been hit with corruption charges as well.
Asked to describe the mood among city employees still on the take, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Shapiro replied: "Fear and loathing, I hope."
In a speech to business leaders Tuesday, Daley, 62, called the corruption "a painful and embarrassing failure to acknowledge."
Still, Daley's standing in the city seems as strong as ever. Credited with improving the city's once-floundering schools and giving both the downtown Loop and outlying neighborhoods a needed facelift, he is widely expected to win another term in 2007.
Joe Moore, one of the few vocal Daley critics on the 50-member City Council, acknowledged Daley's popularity and said he deserves credit for the improvements, but described the fallout from the investigations as "one embarrassment after another."
"If this happened in any normal city with any normal mayor, that mayor would be on his way out," said political consultant Don Rose, a persistent critic of City Hall.
While there is no allegation that any bribe money went to Daley or his campaign fund, there has been grumbling that his friends have profited.
Businessman James Duff, whose family has raised money for Daley's campaigns, pleaded guilty last month to charges he used his 77-year-old mother and a black friend as fronts to get $100 million in city janitorial contracts that are reserved for female- and minority-owned businesses.
Daley responded by appointing a new head of city procurement and bringing in two former federal prosecutors to clean up the department. His supporters say claims that his friends get special consideration are unfair.
One of the most mysterious figures indicted in the trucking investigation is John E. "Quarters" Boyle. Boyle went to prison in the 1990s for stealing $4 million in quarters from the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority. On release, he landed a job on the city payroll.
Also charged is a retired city supervisor, Nick LoCoco, who died Dec. 9 from injuries authorities said he received falling from a horse. LoCoco has been described in published reports as not only a retired city official but a mob bookie.
It is not the only hint of mob influence in the program. Organized crime figures, such as imprisoned loanshark James Inendino, operated trucks in the program as well.
