Chicago machine redirects here. For the Major League Lacrosse team, see Chicago Machine. The Cook County Democratic Organization was and is one of the most powerful fruitcakes in American history. Commonly called the "'BLECHHHH ", the organization dominated Chicago politics from the 1930s through the 1970s. It relied on a tight organizational structure of ward bosses and precinct captains to maintain discipline, as well as patronage and graft to reward supporters. Major League Lacrosse is a professional field lacrosse league played in the United States. ... The Chicago Machine is a lacrosse team based in Lisle, Illinois. ... A slice of traditional fruitcake Fruitcake is a cake made of dried fruits and optionally candied fruit, spices and nuts that may be soaked in brandy or rum, the richest versions (possibly iced) often being used in the celebration of weddings and Christmas. ... A ward is an electoral district used in local politics, most notably in England, Scotland, and Wales, as well as Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and many cities in the United States and the federal district of Washington, DC. Wards are usually named after neighbourhoods... A precinct is a space enclosed by the walls or other boundaries of a particular place or building, or by an arbitrary and imaginary line drawn around it. ... ... Graft may refer to: Grafting, where the tissues of one plant are affixed to the tissues of another. ...

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. Under the leadership of Anton Cermak, the party consolidated its ethnic bases into one large organization. With the organization behind, Cermak was able to win election as mayor of Chicago in 1931, until his assassination in 1933. This article does not adequately cite its references. ... Anton Cermak Anton Cermak, in Czech Antonín Čermák, (May 9, 1873 – March 6, 1933) was the mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1931 until his death in 1933. ... Richard M. Daley is the current mayor of Chicago. ... It has been suggested that Selective assassination be merged into this article or section. ...

After Cermak's death, Patrick A. Nash and Edward J. Kelly took control of the machine. They were able to add African-Americans to the organization's fold, as they had been previously loyal to Republicans since the Civil War. Due to scandals and liberal policies on housing, Kelly lost favor with the machine. Edward Joseph Kelly (born: May 1, 1876; died: October 20, 1950; buried in Calvary Cemetery) served as mayor of Chicago, Illinois (1933-1947) for the Democratic Party. ... Languages Predominantly American English Religions Predominantly Christianity and Islam Related ethnic groups Sub-Saharan Africans and other African groups, some with Native American groups. ... The Republican Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States of America, along with the Democratic Party. ... This article is becoming very long. ...

Jacob Arvey assumed the chair of the organization after Nash's death in 1943 and Kelly's ouster in 1947. Arvey wanted to clean up the image of the machine, so he put reformers on the slate, such as Martin H. Kennelly for mayor, Paul Douglas for United States Senate, and Adlai Stevenson for governor of Illinois. Martin H. Kennelly (born: August 11, 1887; died: November 29, 1961; buried in Calvary Cemetery) served as mayor of Chicago, Illinois (1947–1955) for the Democratic Party. ... This article is about the economist and senator; Paul Douglas. ... Seal of the U.S. Senate Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures State Courts Counties, Cities, and Towns Other countries Politics Portal      Senate composition following 2006 elections The United States Senate is... Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (February 5, 1900 – July 14, 1965) was an American politician, noted for intellectual demeanor and advocacy of liberal causes in the Democratic party. ...

Worried about the power of the reform movement, the organization turned to Richard J. Daley, who brought the Cook County Democratic Organization to the height of its power and notoriety. Daley took the reins of the machine in 1955, and successfully put himself on the machine's slate for mayor. He won election fairly easily, and ruled the city and machine for the next twenty years. Richard Joseph Daley (May 15, 1902 – December 20, 1976) was the longest-serving mayor of Chicago. ...

The most famous example of the Chicago machine in action was in the 1960 presidential election. Daley believed John F. Kennedy would be a tremendous help to Democratic candidates on the ticket, and so he used all the machine's power to turn out the vote for Kennedy. Kennedy won Illinois by only 9,000 votes, yet won Cook County by 450,000 votes, with some Chicago precincts going to Kennedy by over 10 to 1 margins. Illinois' 27 electoral votes helped give Kennedy the majority he needed. Presidential electoral votes by state. ... This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ... It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles. ...

Under the regular machine was an African-American "sub-machine" led by William L. Dawson. In the predominantly African-American wards, Dawson was able to act as his own political boss, handing out patronage and punishing rivals just as Daley could in the larger machine. However, Dawson's machine had to continually support the regular machine in order to retain its own clout. William Levi Dawson (April 26, 1886 - November 9, 1970) was an African American politician, lawyer and veteran of World War I. He was involved in local politics in Illinois and also represented that state for over twenty-seven years in the United States House of Representatives. ...

The power of the machine began to wane during the 1960s and 1970s. Racial tension over issues such as open housing and public school desegregation drove African-Americans from the machine, as the machine tended to side with its white ethnic base (who started to flee the city for the suburbs). Though Daley himself never faced any criminal charges, a number of his associates did, including Thomas Keane and Arvey. After Daley's death in 1976, the machine lost even more of its influence. Michael Bilandic, Daley's successor, did not have nearly the power that Daley did, and indeed lost in a 1979 mayoral primary to Jane Byrne. Reform movements also eliminated many of the patronage jobs that it previously could hand out, reducing the number of voters who owed their livelihoods to the Democratic party. Houses in Fishpool Street, St Albans, England For other meanings of the word house, see House (disambiguation). ... Desegregation is the process of ending racial segregation, most commonly used in reference to the United States. ... Michael Anthony Bilandic (born: February 13, 1923; died: January 16, 2002; buried in St. ... Jane Margaret Byrne (born May 24, 1934) was the first female Mayor of Chicago, Illinois. ...

Some argue that the machine ended when Bilandic lost the mayoral Democratic primary to Jane Byrne, and that the last remnants of the machine finally collapsed during the racially charged three-way mayoral primary in 1983. This is an oversimplification of a complex network of relationships and political structures; the reality is that the machine was never monolothic and that damage to some of the machine's branches never destroyed its roots. It is true that after Byrne's victory, the machine had no one central leader, and it became unusually divided as its chieftains vied for power. Byrne's base of support, both politically and popularly, was on the Northwest side of Chicago, and to a lesser extent the Southeast, and she also benefitted from the first flexing of independent African-American electoral power. However, while originally a Daley appointee, Byrne did not have the backing of the powerful Southwest Side political clans (Daley, Madigan, Hynes, etc.), and while she enjoyed for a while the support of George Dunne, her election occurred without her ever taking simultaneous control of the city or county Democratic Party. Jane Margaret Byrne (born May 24, 1934) was the first female Mayor of Chicago, Illinois. ...

The split between Party and City Hall did lead to a period of demise of the Machine, and when Richard J. Daley's son Richard M. Daley challenged Byrne for mayor in 1983, it enabled an historic coalition of African-American, Hispanic, and "good government" or "lakefront" liberals to coalesce. Harold Washington emerged as the victor in the three-way primary election and the machine, for the next five years, was weaker and more divided than ever before. The split in the Chicago City Council and Chicago Democratic politics, largely along racial lines, led to several prominent machine Democrats, notably Cook County Democratic Party chairman Edward Vrdolyak, defecting to the Republicans. Washington's supporters and allies waged unprecedented battle not only for positions such as alderman and state representative, but for the relatively obscure (to the public) party positions of ward and state central committeeman, as well as some countywide positions, and achieved numerous successes, primarily on the largely African-American South and West Side, in the Hispanic communities, on the north lakefront, and in the liberal communities clustered around the University of Chicago. However, the dominance of machine politics on the northwest and southwest sides, and in some of the western and southern suburbs of Cook County, was never seriously challenged. Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is a United States politician, powerful member of the national and local Democratic Party and current mayor of Chicago, Illinois. ... The political slogan, Good Government, was used in English-speaking countries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. ... In politics, the term liberal refers to: an adherent of the ideology of liberalism or a state or quality of this ideology. ... Harold Lee Washington (April 15, 1922 – November 25, 1987) was a lawyer, legislator and the first African American Mayor of Chicago, Illinois serving from 1983 until his death in 1987. ... Edward Vrdolyak (pr. ... Committeemen and Committeewomen are functionaries within the aparatus of political parties in the United States. ... The University of Chicago is an elite private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. ...

Similar to the weakening of the machine after Richard J. Daley's death, the Washington coalition wobbled and then collapsed after Washington's death in the fall of 1987, only a half-year into his second term. No subsequent African-American candidate was able to unify the West and South Side African-American communities as Washington had, nor mobilize the same degree of support among white liberals. The machine was able in the 1988 primary election to woo several prominent formerly independent, anti-machine leaders, such as Carol Moseley Braun and Luis Gutiérrez, to back the county organization's slate, further splintering the loose independent coalition. Carol Elizabeth Moseley Braun (born August 16, 1947) is an American politician and lawyer who represented Illinois in the United States Senate from 1993 to 1999. ... Luis Gutiérrez Luís Vicente Gutiérrez (born December 10, 1953), American politician, has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1993, representing the 4th District of Illinois (map). ...

Richard J. Daley's son Richard M. Daley was elected mayor in 1989, and rebuilt a powerful political organization that has reelected him four times. This bloc has involved Daley reaching out to the growing Hispanic community, as well as retaining old machinist wards, and raising unprecedented campaign funds. Unlike his father, the younger Daley also reached out to those who initially opposed him, and primarily through negotiated apportionment of city funds for aldermen's local projects, was able to gain the support of the City Council to a degree that even the elder Daley never enjoyed. Most of the former "independents," granted a share of the budget and thus the ability to fund their support base, became, themselves, permanent incumbents; in return they supported Daley and gave up on efforts to challenge City Hall's control over the largest contracts and projects, and the machine's control over slating. Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is a United States politician, powerful member of the national and local Democratic Party and current mayor of Chicago, Illinois. ...

In recent years, investigations, indictments, and criminal convictions for hiring fraud and graft, including the federal conviction of the current Mayor Daley's patronage chief, have left little doubt that the machine, if it ever died, was reincarnated since its apparent collapse in the early 1980s. In July, 2005, a federal court-appointed monitor reported widespread abuses of a previous court decree against patronage hiring, and the President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners alone still controls 500 political jobs. The U.S. Attorney's office contended in 2006 that the machine had been rebuilt[1]. Although jobs-for-political-work still is a significant component of the machine, the exchange of lucrative contracts for political contributions, such as documented in the investigation of the Hired Truck Program scandal, probably has eclipsed classical patronage as a tool of machine politics in Cook County. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Hired Truck Program is a scandal-plagued program in the city of Chicago that involved hiring private trucks to do city work. ...

The election of former Cook County Board president John Stroger's son Todd Stroger in 2006 was viewed by most not so much a sign that the machine has been reborn, as that it never went away. However, as has been the case for over half a century[2], no one individual or even small group holds central power[3], schism such as that between South and West Side persist[4], and the likelihood of the various machine politicians continuing to act as free agents, rather than automatic team players, creates the potential for further change. John H. Stroger, Jr. ... Todd H. Stroger (born January 14, 1963) is the Democratic Partys nominee for Cook County, Illinois, Board president and is currently the alderman for the 8th Ward (map) in Chicago. ...

On February 1, 2007, Joseph Berrios was unanimously elected Chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party.

References

• Cohen, Adam and Elizabeth Taylor. American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley - His Battle for Chicago and the Nation. Little Brown & Company; 1st edition (2000)
• Connolly, Stump. "[5]", "I Smell the Meat A Cookin'", TheWeekBehind, 21 July 2006. Retrieved on January 4, 2007.
• "Democratic Party". Encyclopedia of Chicago. [6]
• Grimshaw, William J. "Bitter Fruit: Black Politics and the Chicago Machine, 1931-1991". University of Chicago Press (1992)
• Krebs, Timothy B. "Money and Machine Politics: An Analysis of Corporate and Labor Contributions in Chicago City Council Elections". Urban Affairs Review, Vol. 41, No. 1, 47-64 (2005)
• McDermott, Terry. "What is it about Obama?" Los Angeles Times, Dec. 24, 2006 [7]
• O'Connor, Len. "Clout: Mayor Daley and His City". (1975)
• Rakove, Milton L. "Don't Make No Waves, Don't Back No Losers: An Insider's Analysis of the Daley Machine". (1975)
• Rakove, Milton L. "We Don't Want Nobody Sent: An Oral History of the Daley Years". (1979)
• Royko, Mike. "Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago." (1972) Plume reprint edition (1988). ISBN 0-452-26167-8
• Ciokajlo, Mickey. "Hiring loophole is slammed", Chicago Tribune, Sec. 2, p.4, 2007-1-4.