Victor De Grazia Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

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Q: Did he and Walker try to meet one-to-one? Was that ever successful?
A: No. I remember one night I got a call from a Democrat, a friend of
mine in the legislature, and he said that Blair wanted Bill Murphy to
meet with me privately--Bill Murphy was then one of the Republican
leaders known as "Dingo" Bill Murphy, now retired--so we set up this
meeting, secret meeting. This was when Representative Collins, as head
of the subcommittee, had issued all these subpoenas, and Walker in turn
had suggested that maybe Blair should release his income tax and show
people what his income was. So this meeting anyway, which I didn't know
what it was about, turned on Murphy saying, as Blair's representative,
that if Walker would stop harping on his income tax he would see that
Collins stopped talking about the subpoenas. 1 said, "well, the
subpoenas are illegal anyway. We're not going to pay any attention to
them." I said, "~ut as far as I know, Dan isn't going to say anything
more about the [income tax]. He's said it, and that's it." Fine,
everybody leaves. The next evening Collins is up again with more
subpoenas (laughs), different subpoenas, and raring to go. And that was
really the way Blair operated. Very difficult guy to talk to. ~lthough
I guess he's changed samewhat, mellowed somewhat . . .
Q: You talked earlier about the Crosstown. Early on that became an
issue between Daley and Walker. Can you recount that controversy?
A: Well, it always was an issue. That is, Walker had been against the
Crosstown during the campaign. It was no new thing. Everybody outside
of the Daley group who looked at it knew it was absurd, that the money
could be better spent elsewhere, and we worked hard and got all the
arrangements done in Washington so that it could be used elsewhere, rapid
transit and so forth. Of course the highway contractors up here, who
were very important, were against any shifting of money to mass transit.
They wanted it in roads. And I think a lot of businessmen were led to
believe that Dan just didn't want the money at all, rather than he wanted
it used for what he considered more productive purposes. But the
Crosstown became symbolic; in fights it always reared its head. It's
hard to remember, but back then Daley had proposed the lakefront stadium.
Walker had opposed that and Daley didn't get it. Daley had proposed the
airport in the lake. Walker had opposed that, and Daley didn't get that.
And the other big thing he had was the Crosstown. You know, I think he
had a vision of that being his highway, the Daley Expressway. And the
idea that a Democratic governor wouldn't give him what he wanted above
allwas. . . .
Q: Was Walker's support to the RTA in response to Daley's desire for the
Crosstown? Was that how he felt the money should be spent?
A: No.
Q: That was totally separate.
A: Yes.
Q: In light of the RTA problems right now, tell me about Walker's
support for the RTA then.