Political history of Chicago
History
19th century
In 1855, Chicago Mayor Levi Boone threw Chicago politics into the national spotlight with some dry proposals that led to the Lager Beer Riot by the wets.[1][full citation needed] The 1860 Republican National Convention in Chicago nominated home-state candidate Abraham Lincoln. During the 1880s, 1890s, and early 20th century, Chicago also had an underground radical tradition with large and highly organized socialist, communist, anarchist and labor organizations.[2] The Republicans had their own machine operations, typified by the "blonde boss" William Lorimer, who was unseated by the U.S. Senate in 1912 because of his corrupt election methods.[3]
20th century
The political environment in Chicago in the 1910s and 1920s let
The modern era of politics was dominated by the Cook County Democratic Party and was honed by Richard J. Daley after his election in 1955. Richard M. Daley, his son, later became mayor and served from 1989 to 2011. Daley announced on September 7, 2010 that he would not be seeking re-election.[4] Daley was succeeded by former Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
The New Deal of the 1930s and the Great Society of the 1960s gave the Democratic Party access to new funds and programs for housing, slum clearance, urban renewal, and education, through which to dispense patronage and maintain control of the city.[5] Machine politics persisted in Chicago after the decline of similar machines in other large American cities.[6] During much of that time, the city administration found opposition mainly from a liberal "independent" faction of the Democratic Party. This included African Americans and Latinos. In the Lakeview/Uptown 46th Ward, the first Latino to announce an aldermanic bid against a Daley loyalist was Jose Cha Cha Jimenez, founder of the Young Lords.[7]
The police corruption that came to the light from the Summerdale Scandals of 1960, in which police officers kept stolen property or sold it and kept the cash, was another black eye on the local political scene of Chicago.[8] Eight officers from the Summerdale police district on Chicago's Northwest Side were accused of operating a large-scale burglary ring.
The Daley faction, with financial help from Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., helped elect John F. Kennedy to the office of President of the United States in the 1960 presidential election.[9]
Home-town columnist Mike Royko wrote satirically that Chicago's motto (Urbs in Horto or "City in a Garden") should instead be Ubi est mea, or "Where's Mine?"[10]
The shock election of six Democratic Socialists of America to the council in 2019 was as the largest socialist electoral victory in modern American history.[11]
Corruption
Chicago has
See also
- Chicago Traction Wars
- Council Wars
- Government of Chicago
- History of Chicago
- Lakefront liberals
- Mayoral elections in Chicago
- Rod Blagojevich corruption charges
References
- ^ Richard Carl Lindberg, To Serve and Collect: Chicago Politics and Police Corruption from the Lager Beer Riot to the Summerdale Scandal: 1855–1960 (1991) ch. 1
- ISBN 0-252-06676-6.
- Joel Arthur Tarr, A Study In Boss Politics: William Lorimer of Chicago(1971),
- ^ "Sun times article covering Daley Jr. withdrawal from 2011.website=Suntimes.com". Retrieved 30 September 2017.
- ^ "Politics". Encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
- ISBN 0-292-75215-6.
- ^ "Promotwo - Sun Times Market". Suntimes.com. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
- ^ "Policing". southside.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
- ^ "November 4, 1960: The Night Richard J. Daley Bought NBC for JFK. Video of Chicago's greatest political rally". Richsamuels.com. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
- ^ Joravsky, Ben. "The Radical Rokyo". Chicagoreader.com. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
- ^ "Chicago's 'hall of shame' - Chicago Tribune". February 24, 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-02-26.
- ^ Thomas J. Gradel and Dick Simpson, Corrupt Illinois: Patronage, Cronyism, and Criminality (University of Illinois Press, 2015), pp. 11-12, 211.
- ^ "Illinois: The Most Democratic State". Nbcchicago.com. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
- ^ "Chicago Democrats Make Appeal To Republican Candidates". Npr.org. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
- ^ "Chicago Named "Corruption Capital of America"". Nbcchicago.com. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
- ^ Simpson, Thomas J. Gradel and Dick. "UI Press - Thomas J. Gradel and Dick Simpson - Corrupt Illinois: Patronage, Cronyism, and Criminality". Press.uillinois.edu. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
- ^ "A 'must read' tells how corrupt Chicago and Illinois are". Chicago.suntimes.com. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
- ^ Thomas J. Gradel and Dick Simpson, Corrupt Illinois: Patronage, Cronyism, and Criminality (University of Illinois Press, 2015), for the characterization of Chicago, p. xii; for the Table of Federal Public Corruption Convictions," p. 5.
- ^ Thomas J. Gradel and Dick Simpson, Corrupt Illinois: Patronage, Cronyism, and Criminality (University of Illinois Press, 2015), p. 195.
Further reading
- Cohen, Adam, and Elizabeth Taylor. American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley - His Battle for Chicago and the Nation. Boston: Back Bay Books, 2001. ISBN 0-316-83489-0
- David K., Fremon. Chicago politics: ward by ward. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1988
- Gradel, Thomas J. and Dick Simpson, Corrupt Illinois: Patronage, Cronyism, and Criminality (ISBN 978-0252078552
- Green, Paul M.. The Mayors: The Chicago Political Tradition. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987. ISBN 0-8093-2612-4
- Jones, Gene Delon. "The Origin of the Alliance between the New Deal and the Chicago Machine" Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 67#3 (1974), pp. 253-274 online
- Kimble Jr., Lionel. A New Deal for Bronzeville: Housing, Employment, and Civil Rights in Black Chicago, 1935-1955 (Southern Illinois University Press, 2015). xiv, 200 pp.
- Lindberg, Richard Carl. To Serve and Collect: Chicago Politics and Police Corruption from the Lager Beer Riot to the Summerdale Scandal : 1855-1960. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1991. ISBN 0-275-93415-2
- Sautter, R. Craig, Edward M. Burke. Inside the Wigwam: Chicago Presidential Conventions, 1860-1996. Chicago: Loyola Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8294-0911-4
- Simpson, Vernon. Chicago's Politics & Society: a Selected Bibliography. DeKalb: Center for Government Studies, DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University, 1972.
- Wendt, Lloyd, Herman Kogan, and Bette Jore. Big Bill of Chicago. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2005 ISBN 0-8101-2319-3
External links
- SHANE TRITSCH, DEC. 9, 2010 Chicago Magazine "Why Is Illinois So Corrupt?"
- Daniel Engber, "Why Is Chicago So Corrupt?" Slate
- Essay on Chicago politics by Maureen A. Flanagan @ the Chicago Historical Society's Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago
- Machine Politics essay by Roger Biles @ the Chicago Historical Society's Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago
- "Mayor Daley is not seeking another term" by Fran Spielman, City Hall Reporter
- Politics, Encyclopedia of Chicago
- "Will the Next Mayor Pull Strings?" by Don Rose"