A very good Tribune investigative story by Andy Martin & Co. about the Hispanic Democratic Organization. The nut of it:

HDO has amassed a roster estimated at more than 1,000 members using the same techniques that helped the mayor’s father, the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, build a massive patronage army: raising money for favored candidates, swarming precincts on Election Day to get out the vote, and, some members say, doling out city jobs and promotions to friends, relatives and campaign workers.

Handing out city jobs to political workers was deemed illegal by a federal court decades ago, an order that became known as the Shakman decree. The Daley administration is currently arguing Shakman is no longer required because the city’s hiring practices are so fair.

Yet about 500 of HDO’s members are city workers, mostly employed in departments where HDO lieutenants hold high-ranking posts, according to an analysis of city records by the Chicago Tribune and Exito!

No big surprise, of course. Everyone knows that, among other things, the key to Daley’s political success has been the white-Hispanic alliance he’s forged. Hand out enough city jobs and you’ll find plenty of votes, even among supposedly oppressed minority groups.

And ultimately for Hispanics, when it comes to choosing between throwing their fate in with the white ethnics like Daley versus blacks like Bobby Rush, it’s an easy choice.