Political history of Chicago: Information from Answers.com Mobile

Political history of Chicago

This article may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. You can help. The discussion page may contain suggestions. (December 2010)

This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (December 2010)

The Politics of Chicago have been dominated by Irish Catholics, with politicians from the Cermak-Daley machine holding the mayoralty since the early 1930s, although the Harold Washington administration is considered an interregnum by some.^[1]^[who?]

Contents

1 History
- 1.1 19th century
- 1.2 20th century
2 Further reading
3 See also
4 Notes
5 External links

History

19th century

Yankee entrepreneurs such as William Butler Ogden and Walter Loomis Newberry saw the potential of Chicago as a transportation hub in the 1830s, and engaged in land speculation to obtain the choicest lots.^[2] On August 12, 1833, the Town of Chicago was incorporated with a population of 350. On July 12, 1834, the Illinois was the first commercial schooner to enter the harbor, a sign of the Great Lakes trade that would benefit both Chicago and New York state. Chicago was granted a city charter by the State of Illinois in 1837; it was part of the larger Cook County. By 1840 the boom town had a population of over 4,000.

In 1848, the opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal allowed shipping from the Great Lakes through Chicago to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The first rail line to Chicago, the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad was completed the same year. Chicago would go on to become the transportation hub of the United States with its road, rail, water and later air connections. Chicago also became home to national retailers offering catalog shopping such as Montgomery Ward and Sears, Roebuck and Company, which used the transportation lines to ship all over the nation.

In 1855, Chicago Mayor Levi Boone threw Chicago politics into the national spotlight with some dry proposals that would lead to the Lager Beer Riot by the wets.^[3]^{[Full citation needed]}

During much of the last half of the 19th century, Chicago's politics were dominated by a growing Democratic Party organization dominated by ethnic ward-heelers.^{[citation needed]} The 1860 Republican National Convention in Chicago nominated home-state candidate Abraham Lincoln. During the 1880s and 1890s, Chicago also had an underground radical tradition with large and highly organized socialist, anarchist and labor organizations.^[4] 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.^[5]

The politics of Chicago came into play after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, with massive destruction of the central business district. For political reasons, a rumor was spread that a cow knocked over a lantern, thereby causing the fire. The election that year turned the fire into a political football, with controversy erupting over who was culpable for the fire's rapid and insufficiently controlled spread.^{[citation needed]} The soft, swampy ground near the lake proved unstable ground for tall masonry buildings. While this was an early constraint, builders developed the innovative use of steel framing for support and invented the skyscraper in Chicago. The city became a leader in modern architecture and set the model nationwide for achieving vertical city densities.

Politics and infighting stalled such plans, and developers and citizens began immediate reconstruction on the existing Jeffersonian grid.^{[citation needed]} The building boom that followed saved the city's status as the transportation and trade hub of the Midwest. Massive reconstruction using the newest materials and methods catapulted Chicago into its status as a city on par with New York. It was the birthplace of modern architecture in the United States.

20th century

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.^{[citation needed]}

Before the 1930s, the Democratic Party in Chicago was divided along ethnic lines - the Irish, Polish, Italian, and other groups each controlled politics in their neighborhoods.^{[citation needed]} Under the leadership of Anton Cermak, the party consolidated its ethnic bases into one large organization.^{[citation needed]} With the organization behind, Cermak was able to win election as mayor of Chicago in 1931, an office he held until his assassination in 1933.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]} Richard M. Daley, his son, is a former mayor of Chicago and had served for 21 years as mayor and 38 as a “public servant". Daley announced on September 7, 2010 that he will not be seeking re-election.^[6] Daley was succeeded by former Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel.

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. [1] Richard J. Daley's mastery of machine politics preserved the Chicago Democratic Machine long after the demise of similar machines in other large American cities.^[7] 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, the Young Lords founder. The independents finally won control of city government in 1983 with the election of Harold Washington. Since Washington's death, Chicago has returned to the leadership of the Democratic organization led by Richard M. Daley, although it may differ from the previous ward-based organization, as it relies on other groups, such as the Hispanic Democratic Organization.^[8]

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, Brian Doherty is the only Republican council member.

The police corruption that came to the light from the Summerdale Scandals 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.^[9] Eight officers from the Summerdale police district on Chicago's Northwest Side were accused of operating a large-scale burglary ring. News of the scandal was splashed across the city's newspapers and was the biggest police-related scandal the city had ever seen at the time. Mayor Daley appointed a committee to make recommendations for improvements to the police system.

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.^[10] The electoral votes from the state of Illinois, with nearly half its population located in Chicago-dominated Cook County, were a deciding factor in the win for Kennedy over Richard 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 1944 Democratic National Convention. The 1968 Democratic National Convention was the scene of mass political rallies and discontent, leading to the famous trial of the Chicago Seven. Seven defendants — Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, and Lee Weiner—charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to protests.

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?^[11]

Notes

^ David Orr an "independent democrat" outside of the regular democratic machine was mayor for two months after Washington's death in office. Jane Byrne ran as an insurgent from within the machine having been the elder Daley's Consumer Affairs officer.
^ Daniel M. Bluestone, Constructing Chicago (1993) p. 8
^ 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
^ Schneirov, Richard (April 1, 1998). Labor and Urban Politics. University of Illinois Press. pp. 173–174. 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.
^ Montejano, David, ed (January 1, 1998). Chicano Politics and Society in the Late Twentieth Century. University of Texas Press. pp. 33–34. ISBN 0-292-75215-6.
^ Sun-Times series on the Hired Truck Program scandal.
^ "Policing" UofC short history
^ "The Night Richard J. Daley Bought NBC for JFK"
^ The Radical Royko The Chicago Reader

External links

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Donate to Wikimedia

logo This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Political history of Chicago.

History

19th century

20th century

Further reading

See also

Notes

External links