Politics of Chicago

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The Politics of Chicago is about the politics and political environment of Chicago, Illinois, which have been dominated by controversy, corruption, turn-of-the-19th Century businessmen, Irish Catholics, and Richard J. Daley and the Daley family.

In 1855 Chicago Mayor Levi Boone would throw Chicago politics into the national spotlight with some interesting proposals that would lead to the Lager Beer Riot.

The politics of Chicago came into play after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. For political reasons, a rumor was spread that a cow knocked over a lantern, thereby causing the fire. The election that year would turn the fire into a "political football", with controversy erupting over who was culpable for the fire's rapid and insufficiently controlled spread. The winning party used allegations of mismanagement to spread fear, causing some voters to vote more than once. This would give rise to the famous saying, "vote early and often."

The political environment in Chicago in the 1910s and 1920s let organized crime flourish to the point that many Chicago policemen earned more money from pay-offs than from the city. This same culture led directly to the Chicago Black Sox scandal of game fixing by the Chicago White Sox in 1919.

The modern era of politics is still dominated by machine politics in many ways, and the Chicago Democratic Machine became a style honed and perfected by Richard J. Daley after his election in 1955. Further evidence of this is the fact that his son, Richard M. Daley, is the current mayor.

A point of interest is the party leanings of the city. For much of the last century, Chicago has been considered one of the largest Democratic strongholds in the United States. For example, the citizens of Chicago have not elected a Republican mayor since 1927, when William Thompson was voted into office. Today only one city council member is Republican.

The police corruption that came to the light from the Summerdale Scandal of 1960, where police officers kept stolen property or sold it and kept the cash, was another black-eye on the local political scene of Chicago.

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. The electoral votes from the state of Illinois, heavily influenced by Cook County, which is mainly influenced by Chicago, were a deciding factor in the win for Kennedy over Richard M. Nixon.

Chicago politics have also hosted some very publicized campaigns and conventions. The Democratic Party decided on Harry S. Truman as the vice-presidential candidate at the Democratic National Convention of 1944. The 1968 Democratic National Convention was the scene of mass political rallies and discontent, leading to the famous trial of the Chicago Seven (or Chicago Eight, depending on how you view it).

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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
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
Green, Paul M.. The Mayors: The Chicago Political Tradition. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987. ISBN 0-8093-2612-4
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
Wendt, Lloyd, and Herman Kogan. Lords of the Levee. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1967.