Fritchey cultivates rep as an independent
In-laws help career, but invite scrutiny
State Rep. John Fritchey was the poor kid attending Chicago’s prestigious Latin School on the Gold Coast on a “hardship scholarship,” the same way he attended the University of Michigan and Northwestern University’s School of Law, he said.
“I still feel to this day like I’m the kid that didn’t belong, and that’s why I work as hard as I do on my job, and maybe that really comes form Latin,” Fritchey said. “I mean, I went to school with Pritzkers. . . . I was a kid who grew up in a 900-square-foot apartment. . . . We came from nothing, I’ll never forget my mom telling me stories of her getting support checks for $10 from the Red Cross because my dad was not paying child support.”
(Al Podgorski/Sun-Times)
Issue on which he disagrees with Emanuel: “I’m not running against Rahm.”
Favorite restaurant: Club Lucky
First car: Purple Mazda RX4
Last good book he read: The Tao of Pooh
Last good movie he saw: “Dark Knight”
Favorite TV show: “Boston Legal”
Favorite comedian: Steven Wright
What are you listening to? Bob Marley, REM
Biggest political miscalculation: “Thinking that hard work and good intentions will be enough.”
What dish do you cook best? “Macadamia nut blondies I make with my daughter.”
Best vacation he ever took: “Driving down the Pacific Coast with my wife.”
Best childhood memory: “Summers on Lake Michigan with my friends.”
As he campaigns to replace former U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel in the 5th Congressional District, which runs from Lincoln Park to Franklin Park, Fritchey tells about his birth on an Air Force base in Louisiana to a Moroccan immigrant mother with French and Spanish roots, abandoned by his father at an early age.
Fritchey has done all right, becoming a zoning and development lawyer and getting elected to the state House of Representatives and the Cook County Democratic Party Central Committee.
Along the way, he married Karen Banks, daughter of a prominent attorney and niece of a judge and Ald. William J.P. Banks (36th). Fritchey’s ties to the Banks family have helped his political career and brought scrutiny to the zoning cases he takes, which need approval from Ald. Banks’ City Council committee, and the mortgage he got from the bank run by his brother-in-law, James Banks.
Ald. Banks recuses himself whenever he brings a client before the Council’s Zoning Committee, Fritchey said.
“I take a mortgage out at Belmont Bank. My brother-in-law is the president of the bank. I took a mortgage out at a publicly advertised rate. Nobody alleged that I got a rate that wasn’t available to the general public,” Fritchey said. He gets static because his father-in-law, criminal defense attorney Sam Banks, defended accused mobsters.
“I think it’s offensive,” Fritchey said of the smears.
While his in-laws are regular Democrats, Fritchey has cultivated a reputation as an independent in Springfield, breaking with Gov. Blagojevich early and criticizing him before his rivals in this race. He also ousted his uncle-in-law’s ally, 32nd Ward Democratic Committeeman Terry Gabinski.
In Springfield, Fritchey pushed through ethics bills that angered the Dem regulars and put him on the side of then-State Sen. Barack Obama, who co-sponsored the bills with Fritchey.