Slusher: New columnist comes full circle to hometown newspaper
The Daily Herald employs some of the finest journalists and writers in the country. Sometimes, they go on to bigger things - not just at the Tribune or Sun-Times down the road but also to success at places like The New York Times, The Washington Post, CBS News and even as best-selling authors. Sometimes, too, they come back.
Such is the case today with a new column we introduce by Ed Murnane. Murnane's journalism career began in 1966, one day after he received his bachelor's degree in journalism from Northern Illinois University. By 1971, he had worked his way up the ranks to political editor of the paper as it evolved from a conglomeration of community weeklies into an influential suburban daily. He would leave that year, though, when he was awarded a fellowship in Washington, D.C., from the American Political Science Association.
His work caught the attention of a handsome young congressman with presidential aspirations and a growing reputation as one of the most prominent conservative voices in American politics, and in 1972, he became Phil Crane's press secretary. From there, his career was cemented outside journalism. He went on to a variety of high-profile public relations positions before signing on with Ronald Reagan and George Bush in 1980. In 1988, he would manage the Illinois campaign for the first Bush president - and, to date, the last Illinois win for a Republican presidential candidate.
He served in the Small Business Administration and the White House during the first Bush administration, before returning to Chicago in 1992 as president of the Illinois Civil Justice League. He served in that role until last year.
Today, he's coming full circle. He lives in Arlington Heights, and our reporters have called on him from time to time for background and insights into political issues. We thought readers could benefit from a more direct contact with his experience in politics and public service, so we asked him to share his thoughts in an occasional column for our Opinion page.
You find his first installment on this page. With it, he joins a field of Daily Herald commentators who earned their bona fides not merely from watching politics from afar but from working in the field - writers like the late Paul Green, of Roosevelt University, and Lee Hamilton, a former U.S. congressman now with the Center on Congress at University of Indiana, not to mention syndicated columnists like Michael Gerson, a former adviser to President George W. Bush, and Donna Brazile, currently on assignment as Democratic National Committee chairwoman.
A product of the suburbs, Murnane built a career filled with direct involvement in state and national issues. Those experiences give him a special perspective on our politics and our democracy. We're pleased that he's agreed to share his insights with Daily Herald readers, and we're confident they'll add a unique dimension to your understanding of the political issues of our day. Or perhaps it's just as fitting simply to say we're glad to have him back.
Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is an assistant managing editor at the Daily Herald. Follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jim.slusher1 and on Twitter at @JimSlusher.