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Obama Library To Be In Chicago Where ‘All The Strands Of My Life Came Together’

Obama Library To Be In Chicago Where ‘All The Strands Of My Life Came Together’

By Dahleen Glanton, Chicago Tribune (TNS)

President Barack Obama’s presidential library and museum will be built in Chicago.

In a video released early Tuesday morning, the president and first lady Michelle Obama announced that the library will be located on the city’s South Side, though no decision has been made yet whether it will be built in Jackson or Washington parks.

“All the strands of my life came together and I really became a man when I moved to Chicago,” the president said in the video, which showed him seated with his wife. “That’s where I was able to apply that early idealism to try to work in communities in public service. That’s where I met my wife. That’s where my children were born.”

Michelle Obama said she was “thrilled to be able to put this resource in the heart of the neighborhood that means the world to me. Every value, every memory, every important relationship to me exists in Chicago. I consider myself a South Sider.”

The Barack Obama Foundation said it would seek out “academic institutions, thought leaders, community partners, and other organizations” as it sketches out plans for the library.

While the University of Chicago “has pledged to make resources and infrastructure available,” the foundation said it plans to also work with three other universities that were finalists, including the University of Illinois at Chicago.

“The foundation intends to maintain a presence at Columbia University for the purpose of exploring and developing opportunities for a long term association,” the foundation said in a statement.

“In addition, the foundation will work with the state of Hawaii to establish a lasting presence in Honolulu,” the foundation said. “Within Chicago, in addition to its association with the University of Chicago, the foundation also plans to collaborate with the University of Illinois-Chicago.”

For more than a year, the University of Chicago had been engaged in a fierce competition with Columbia University in New York, the University of Hawaii in Honolulu and the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Though the U. of C. had long been considered the front runner, its bid to build the library on the South Side has been entangled in a battle over the use of parkland.

Plans to announce the library in March were delayed after Mayor Rahm Emanuel ended up in a runoff election. The foundation then decided to delay the announcement until after the April 7 election, which Emanuel won.

In late April several news organizations, including the Tribune, reported that Chicago was selected to host the library.

The selection caps a yearlong competition that began with 13 bids that eventually were narrowed down to four finalists.

The U. of C., where Obama taught constitutional law for a dozen years and first lady Michelle Obama formerly worked as a hospital administrator, had long been considered the leading candidate. The South Side also is where Obama launched his political career as a state senator in 1996 and where the first lady was born.

(c)2015 Chicago Tribune, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo: President Barack Obama delivers an address to the nation on December 17, 2014 in Washington, DC (AFP/Doug Mills)

Fundraising Ability Key To Winning Obama Library

Fundraising Ability Key To Winning Obama Library

By Dahleen Glanton, Chicago Tribune (TNS)

CHICAGO — While Chicago has been engaged in a heated debate over the use of public parks for President Barack Obama’s library, his selection of a host university may have more to do with which institution can offer the most financial support than which offers the best piece of land.

Obama’s library and museum will be a monument to his eight years in office and the base from which he will launch future initiatives. The university that he partners with must have a solid track record of fundraising and be committed to working with his foundation to raise millions of dollars — not just to build the library but to help fund its long-term programs.

With past presidential libraries, it has been a high-stakes game. Take, for example, the George W. Bush library.

When Bush began the push to build his library in 2004, Texas competitors faced off in a fierce bidding war. The city of Irving, a suburb of Dallas, pledged $50 million if he chose the University of Dallas. Baylor University in Waco offered more than $100 million. And a West Texas coalition of local officials and other supporters topped that with a $500 million pledge if he built it at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

And those were the losers. The library went to Southern Methodist University in Dallas, a private institution with a $1 billion endowment and where first lady Laura Bush earned her bachelor’s degree. SMU officials have never disclosed the details of their bid, but officials acknowledge that the university’s capacity for fundraising was a strong asset.

“Whenever any entity proposes to be the site for a presidential library, they have to demonstrate that they can raise sufficient funds to build it,” said David Jones, a Houston-based presidential library consultant. “Private universities typically have more history and success in fundraising than do public universities. If the University of Chicago has more than 100 years of fundraising history, it’s not a big stretch for them to say, ‘We can raise this money.'”

This could place the public University of Illinois at Chicago at a disadvantage compared with private institutions such as the University of Chicago and Columbia University in New York, whose billion-dollar endowments are proof of their fundraising prowess.

The University of Hawaii is also a public school, but its bid was set up in a way that relieves the university’s financial pressure. Though the university is leading the bid, it is a joint partnership among the city of Honolulu, the state of Hawaii and local business and civic leaders combined under a nonprofit called Hawaii Presidential Center.

For months, the four universities have been engaged in behind-the-scenes discussions with the Barack Obama Foundation, which is led by Obama’s close friend Martin Nesbitt. He has been charged with overseeing the site selection process and raising money to build the facility. By the time the foundation announces a winner next month, officials likely will know exactly how much fundraising assistance they can expect from the winning university.

Except for UIC’s, the bids have been kept secret, in part because of the competitive nature of the offerings but also because the institutions were required to provide delicate financial information. The foundation required them to include details of the capital commitments they would make to the development and construction of the library, as well as funds available to support its annual operations.

“What the foundation looks for is not just ‘will you give us a good site’, but ‘what kind of support will you give us ongoing?’ That means program support and financial support,” said Anthony Clark, author of The Last Campaign: How Presidents Rewrite History, Run for Posterity & Enshrine Their Legacies. “What kind of symposia will you offer? What kind of financial support will you provide for exhibits?”

While the U. of C. says it has not offered a cash donation, it is unclear whether it or Columbia has committed to raising a specific dollar amount.

That kind of commitment is impossible at UIC, whose $265 million endowment pales in comparison to the U. of C.’s $7.5 billion endowment. In addition, Gov. Bruce Rauner has called for a 31.5 percent budget cut across the University of Illinois system in 2016, amounting to about a $60 million loss to UIC.

UIC librarian Mary Case, who heads the university’s bid, acknowledged that there are limitations. The university would be willing to establish a tax-exempt group that would raise funds to support the institute and academic programs, she said, but no public funds could be spent on the project.

“It will depend on what the president and first lady are trying to achieve and what kind of statement they want to make,” Case said. “We feel like we offer them a very different choice in terms of institution and community that tries to live out the mission and values of what we feel are his goals and policies.

“Will it come down to money or values? We don’t know. It’s something we have to contend with,” she said.

With Honolulu’s distance from the mainland being a serious drawback for landing the library and museum, the university there has made it clear it would accept a consolation prize, such as a presidential center that would complement a library and museum built elsewhere.

After the site selection, the main job of the Obama foundation will be fundraising and developing programming. The foundation already has established a fundraising arm, collecting between $2.9 million and $6.2 million in its first year. Still, the university that is selected as the host is also expected to lend support, from academic expertise to fundraising to sharing its donor list.

With a price tag estimated at up to $500 million, library experts said, Obama’s library is on track to become the costliest so far.

That, in part, is because a new law signed by Bush requires libraries built after his to include an endowment equal to 60 percent of the construction cost — 20 percent more than he and President Bill Clinton were required to provide. The money is used by the National Archives and Records Administration, the federal agency that oversees presidential libraries, to offset the costs of maintaining them.

Obama set fundraising records in his two campaigns for the White House, garnering nearly $750 million in 2008 and $722 million in 2012. According to experts, his ability to raise that kind of money for his library will depend on how willing he is to get out there and ask for it.

Unlike previous presidents, Obama has said he and the first lady will not personally raise funds for his library until he leaves office in early 2017, a decision that library experts said places additional pressure on the foundation — and the host institution — to raise money.

“For a lot of (the presidents), it’s a necessity. At this point, they can’t expect someone to raise it for them,” said presidential library historian Benjamin Hufbauer, author of Presidential Temples: How Memorials and Libraries Shape Public Memory. “They might not like it, but they grit their teeth and do it.”

SMU officials said they never promised a specific dollar amount, but after they were awarded the site, SMU President Gerald Turner joined the foundation’s fundraising coordinating committee, and the university and the foundation collaborated on reaching out to donors.

As a result, Bush raised an unprecedented $500 million before his library opened in 2013, double the $250 million it cost to build it. Clinton had raised only a portion of the cost of his $165 million library by the time it opened in 2004 in Little Rock, Ark.

“We knew that SMU has a strong tradition of support from our constituents and a strong record of fundraising campaigns, and we clearly felt that was an asset,” said Brad Cheves, who coordinated SMU’s bid. “We were already in a billion-dollar campaign separate from the Bush center. We said we felt like this would create energy around our supporters who would want to participate in the library effort.”

Meanwhile, Baylor conducted an unrelenting six-year campaign for the Bush library. In addition to the $114 million fundraising pledge, the Waco university, 20 miles from the Bush family ranch in Crawford, purchased a 150-acre site along the Brazos River to offer for the library. Baylor envisioned a complex that would have included a little league stadium designed for a president who loves baseball, plus a marina, an amphitheater and a lagoon for fishing.

Baylor also hired a fundraising consultant who encouraged the university to reach out to alumni before the finalists were named. It even landed commitments from George and Laura Bush’s friends in the Waco area.

“We left no stone unturned,” said Tommye Lou Davis, the administrator who headed Baylor’s library bid. “Our consultants felt like — and rightfully so — that we needed to prove we had lots of support, not just for building but for maintaining the continuous operation of the library. The fundraising component would never really go away, and we felt strongly that we needed to show we could do it.”

In the end, it came down to Baylor and SMU. That expensive chunk of land on the Brazos River? It’s now the home of Baylor’s new football stadium.

(c)2015 Chicago Tribune, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Land to the north of the South Shore Cultural Center, a landmarked building at 70th Street at the lakefront, is one of the University of Chicago’s three proposed locations for the Obama presidential library. (Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune/TNS)

Voters Not Sold On Tax Money For Obama Library

Voters Not Sold On Tax Money For Obama Library

By Rick Pearson and Michelle Manchir, Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — A majority of Illinois voters continue to give home-state President Barack Obama positive marks for his job performance, but that doesn’t mean they want their tax dollars used to help bring his library to Chicago, a new Chicago Tribune poll shows.

The survey also found that a majority of the state’s residents want to see the president’s signature health care law improved rather than repealed. But voters were split on Obama’s use of executive actions to bypass partisan stalemates in a divided Congress.

The poll of 800 registered voters was conducted from Sept. 3-12, before Monday’s announcement by the Obama library foundation that two Chicago universities — the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois, Chicago — are among the four finalists to host the future facility.

Asked if state tax dollars should be used to lure the library and help in its construction, 54 percent statewide said no, while 39 percent said yes. Another 7 percent had no opinion.

In the spring, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan pushed to commit $100 million from the state toward the library if it is built in Chicago. But the plan stalled out amid criticism that it was folly to make such a commitment while the state’s finances were in dire shape.

The poll found Chicago voters supportive of a state investment in a future Obama library — 61 percent to 31 percent. But voters in every other region of the state were opposed. In the collar counties, which tend to lean Republican, and in the 96 counties outside the Chicago region, the opposition was 2-to-1.

A Tribune poll conducted among city residents last month had found Chicago voters much more split — 47 percent supported the use of tax dollars compared with 45 percent who opposed using the money.

Presidential libraries traditionally are built with private money and then administered by the National Archives through taxpayer money and funding from library foundations. The estimated price tag for the Obama library is $500 million, and an amount equal to 60 percent of construction costs will be needed to set up an endowment used to offset costs from the federal government under a federal law.

Democratic voters backed the use of state construction tax dollars, 60 percent to 33 percent. Republicans overwhelmingly disapproved, 86 percent to 10 percent, as did independent voters, 60 percent to 31 percent.

White voters were against using tax money by a 2-to-1 margin, while black voters supported the idea by a better than 3-to-1 margin.

Poll respondent Charles Mikutis, a retired utility inspector who lives near West Chicago and tends to vote Republican, is opposed to the use of tax money.

“The idea of a presidential library is to provide a national trust of historic documents and mementos for educational purposes. This should be done with private funds. It’s a personal thing; it’s his museum funded by those strongly in favor of him,” said Mikutis, 74.

But respondent Jennea Bivens, 39, a psychologist from Chicago, said that if the library could bring tourism dollars to benefit the community, she supports using tax dollars to lure it here.

“Our money’s getting used for other stuff, why not a presidential library?” said Bivens, a Democrat. “I think that would be a good piece of history that would make the community better.”

The two Chicago universities, along with Columbia University in New York and the University of Hawaii, were selected as finalists from 13 contenders. Each has until Dec. 11 to submit a formal proposal, including site development plans.

Unlike in most national polls taken since July, Obama’s job performance rating remains positive in the state where he launched his political career. Fully 52 percent of voters said they approved of the job he was doing compared with 40 percent who disapproved. Another 8 percent said they didn’t know how to judge his presidency.

Those figures have remained relatively consistent in Tribune polling since fall 2010 and through Obama’s 2012 re-election.

Driving the statewide numbers was the 76 percent approval rating Obama received from Chicago voters, compared with 14 percent who disapproved. But more voters in the collar counties and Downstate disapproved than approved of the job Obama is doing.

To circumvent a gridlocked Congress in which Republicans control the House and Democrats lead the Senate, Obama increasingly has resorted to the use of his executive authority to try to move issues. Such action is expected on immigration reform after the Nov. 4 midterm elections.

Among Illinois voters, 40 percent said Obama should use his executive authority to do even more to bypass Congress, while 30 percent said he has exceeded his presidential power. Another 24 percent said he has used his authority enough.

The poll also found 54 percent of voters wanting to see improvements in the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, compared with only 25 percent who want to see the health care law repealed. Another 15 percent said the law should be left as is.

The poll found support for improving the law across geographic, age, and income lines.

Among Democrats, 61 percent said improve the law, 29 percent said leave it as is, and 6 percent said it should be repealed. Among Republicans, 53 percent said Obamacare should be tossed, 37 percent said improve it, and 2 percent said leave it as it stands. Among independents, 57 percent favored improving it, 28 percent said repeal it, and 8 percent said leave the law alone.

AFP Photo/Mandel Ngan

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Chicago Voters Split On Luring Obama Presidential Library

Chicago Voters Split On Luring Obama Presidential Library

By Kim Geiger, Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — Voters in the city that launched President Barack Obama’s political career are split over whether to put tax dollars into luring his presidential library to Chicago.

Less than half of those surveyed in a Chicago Tribune poll — 47 percent — said they favored the idea of using tax money to attract or build the library, while 45 percent said they opposed it and 8 percent were undecided. There was a gap along racial lines: 61 percent of black voters polled were in support and 60 percent of white voters opposed.

The survey was taken as the Barack Obama Foundation considers at least five bids to locate the library in Chicago against proposals to build it elsewhere, including New York and Hawaii.

Earlier this year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan pushed to commit $100 million toward financing the library if it is built in Chicago. Madigan argued that offering the money was “clearly a good investment for the future.”

The idea hasn’t made it very far. A House panel voted in April to advance the plan but drew criticism for offering tax dollars when the state is in dire financial straits.

Among those who support the plan, Obama’s place in history as the country’s first black president is a key selling point, the Tribune found in interviews with poll respondents.

“This is a historic location,” said Lance Wrightsell, 68, a real estate broker and former Chicago police officer who lives in Kenwood.

Others said bringing the library to Chicago could help stimulate the local economy.

“I think it will attract people, and that’s also jobs for people,” said Daryl Daniels, 30, a security worker who lives on the Northwest Side.

Some poll respondents who opposed the plan expressed frustration with Obama and Democratic leaders in Illinois. But even some Obama supporters said they don’t think the city or the state are in the financial position to spend money on the library.

Dan Weese, 49, an architect who lives in Lincoln Park, said he would be happy to see the Obama library in Chicago, but not if it means more borrowing.

“I think it would be a terrific thing,” Weese said. “I just feel like we are so over our heads in terms of getting out from under our current debt. If it was federal money, that’s one thing. But I think local money steered toward this, I just can’t see that it should be a huge priority.”

Opponents also tended to dismiss claims that the library would be an economic boon for Chicago.

“How many people are going to go to it?” said Kevin Dwyer, 49, a police officer who lives in Beverly. “It isn’t really the first vacation destination for any families that I know of.”

Older voters were less likely to support the idea of taxpayer funding than younger voters. Among those ages 18-35, 54 percent backed the concept. That number was just 41 percent among those 65 and older. Men were split at 48 percent on either side of the question, while 47 percent of woman backed the idea and 43 percent were opposed.

The survey was conducted by APC Research Inc., which interviewed 800 registered city voters by cellphone and landline from Aug. 6-12. The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

The concept of a presidential library dates back to 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt handed his papers and other historical materials over to the National Archives and pledged part of his estate in Hyde Park, N.Y., for a library and museum. He formed a nonprofit to raise money for the construction, setting a precedent that presidential libraries should be built with private money and administered by the National Archives.

In recent years, presidential library foundations have been required to create a private endowment to offset operating costs borne by the federal government. The George W. Bush Foundation raised more than $500 million to build his library and cover the endowment, which had to equal 20 percent of the construction cost. Obama is the first president who will need an endowment equal to 60 percent, under a law passed in 2008.

Experts estimate that construction of the Obama library could cost up to $500 million.

In pushing for the $100 million incentive, Madigan noted that the state spent nearly as much on the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in downtown Springfield.

The Chicago proposals face competition from Columbia University in New York, Obama’s alma mater, and the University of Hawaii, representing the state where Obama was born and spent part of his childhood. Emanuel has said that Chicago will not “rely on the president’s affinity for the city of Chicago” to guarantee that the library is built here.

The foundation plans to narrow the field down to finalists before the end of the year. The Obamas are expected to announce the site in early 2015. Construction would not begin until Obama leaves office in early 2017.

Poll respondent Thelma Robinson said she backs the use of tax dollars to lure the library to Chicago, but not because of Obama’s history with the city.

“We need a national library here too,” said Robinson, a retiree who lives on the South Side. “Since we are paying taxes for everything else, might as well pay for that too.”

AFP Photo/Saul Loeb