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Digging too deep into the VERY long-running history of the Ayers clan in Chicago politics is something the Chicago Establishment may want to avoid at all costs

Sorry for cross posting on multiple threads, but this data is just too juicy:

We know that Ayers started Obama's political career, and is very influential in Chicago politics. What hasn't been really examined is HOW and WHY he's influential

The HOW and WHY is his dad Thomas G Ayers (1915-2007). Tom Ayers was President of Commonwealth Edison from 1964, and was chairman and CEO from 1973 to 1980. Besides that:

"He had a great social conscience and believed in breaking down the barriers that confronted so many people, particularly minorities and women," said James O'Connor, who succeeded Mr. Ayers as ComEd chairman. "Beyond what he did at Commonwealth Edison, he really set an example for other leaders in the Chicagoland business community to follow."
Mr. Ayers also served on boards of nonprofit initiatives and chaired those of the Chicago Urban League, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Erikson Institute, Bank Street College of Education in New York, Community Renewal Society and the Chicago Community Trust.
While chairing the Northwestern University Board of Trustees, he helped start Chicago United, dedicated to racial minority group access to jobs and education. The project that made him most proud, son John Ayers said, was Dearborn Park, an integrated South Loop housing project, which he conceived and for which he raised funds.
With his sons deep in protest of the Vietnam War (one, Bill Ayers, was a member of the radical Students for a Democratic Society who went underground for about 11 years) the businessman supported his children and their campaign. "Our father always stood by us," John Ayers said. "He was an establishment guy, but he believed in us. He believed in change."
After the Board of Education's financial collapse of 1979, Mayor Jane M. Byrne named Mr. Ayers as her choice for president of the new board.

Bill Ayers' dad was a primary mover and shaker in Chicago politics, with strong ties to the Daley machine. Besides all the above:

He was the Chicago establishment, serving on the boards of Sears, G.D. Searle, Chicago Pacific Corp., Zenith Corp., Northwest Industries, General Dynamics Corp. of St. Louis, First National Bank of Chicago, the Chicago Cubs and the Tribune Co.
Mr. Ayers also was an agent for change, negotiating between Mayor Richard J. Daley's administration and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s open housing campaign in the mid-1960s, and developing the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities to fight racial discrimination in housing.