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The Cook County Democratic Party is a political party which represents voters in 50 wards in the city of Chicago and 30 suburban townships of Cook County. The Party dominated Chicago politics (and consequently, Illinois politics) in the mid to late 20th Century by relying on a tight organizational structure of ward and township committeemen and precinct captains to elect candidates. At the height of its influence under Richard J. Daley in the 1960s, it was one of the most powerful political machines in American history. By the beginning of the 21st century the machine largely ceased to exist due to the successes of politicians such as Jane Byrne and Harold Washington, as well as the indifference of mayor Richard M. Daley. After several decades of domination by Irish Americans, the Cook County Democratic organization today is diverse in its leadership. The current Chairman is Joseph Berrios.

Structure and composition

The Cook County Democratic Party is responsible for promoting Democratic campaign activities. The party is currently chaired by 31st ward committeeman Joseph Berrios. Each ward of Chicago and suburban township has its own committee, represented by an elected committeeman as well as other officers who are committee members (usually elected officials and community activists). These committees often coordinate campaign activities within their jurisdiction.

History

Early history

In the nineteenth century, the city of Chicago and Cook County sustained a strong two-party tradition. The local Democratic Party grew even stronger in the decades that followed the Great Chicago Fire. With the support of the party, Carter Harrison and his son, Carter Harrison II, both were elected mayor five times between 1879 and 1911. Prior to the death of Cook County Democratic Chairman George Brennan in 1928, the Democratic Party in Cook County was divided along ethnic lines - the Irish, Polish, Italian, and other groups each controlled politics in their neighborhoods and municipalities. Under the leadership of Anton Cermak, the party consolidated its ethnic bases into one large organization. With the organization behind him, Cermak was able to win election as mayor of Chicago in 1931, an office he held until his assassination in 1933. After Cermak's death, Patrick Nash and Edward J. Kelly took control of what was then a political machine.

Nash and Kelly were able to add African-Americans to the organization's fold, as they had been previously loyal to Republicans since the Civil War. Nash died in 1943 and Kelly took over as Chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party. The extensive corruption that took place during Kelly's tenure caused him to become unelectable. Jacob Arvey assumed the position of Chairman of the organization after Kelly's ouster in 1947. Arvey 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.

Under Chairman Richard J. Daley

The Cook County Democratic organization turned to Richard J. Daley, who brought the Cook County Democratic Party to the height of its power and notoriety. Daley assumed the leadership of the machine in 1955, and successfully put himself on the party's slate for mayor. He won election fairly easily, and ruled the city and the party machine for the next twenty years. 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. He amassed a considerable power base by awarding political appointments to his allies, just as Daley did in the larger machine. However, Dawson's machine had to continually support the regular machine in order to retain its own clout.

A noted example of the Chicago machine in action was in the 1960 presidential election. Daley helped turn out the vote for John F. 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. In recognition of this, the organization was selected to host the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Author Len O'Connor described this period as Richard J. Daley's "High Water Mark". At that time, the Cook County Democratic Party was of the most powerful political machines in American history.

Decline of the machine

The power of the machine began to decline during the 1960s and 1970s. The 1968 convention had ended in disaster. Racial tension over issues such as urban renewal in Woodlawn and Lincoln Park, red lining, open housing and public school desegregation drove African-Americans and Latinos from the machine. 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 activities, such as the Shakman Decrees, 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.

During Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne's tenure

Bilandic lost in a 1979 mayoral primary to Jane Byrne. Reform activities, such as the Shakman Decrees, 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. 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 benefited from the first flexing of independent African-American electoral power. However, while originally a Daley appointee, Byrne did not have the backing of Daley or the influential Southwest Side ward committemen (Madigan, Hynes) and while she enjoyed for a short while after her election the support of George Dunne, her election occurred without her chairing the Cook County Democratic Party as Richard J. Daley had.

During Chicago Mayor Harold Washington's tenure

Divisions between the Cook County Democratic Party and City Hall led to a loss of power for the Party. 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. Latinos who had been displaced for years from the downtown and lakefront neighborhoods joined the West Town Coalition and the Young Lords, and both groups backed Harold Washington. He won the three-way primary election. The Young Lords leader Jose Cha Cha Jimenez introduced the new mayor in June 1983 in Humboldt Park before a crowd of 100,000 Puerto Ricans. For the next three years, the Cook County Democratic Party was divided by Council Wars in the Chicago City Council, period of a racially polarized political conflict that blocked the agenda of Washington and his allies.

After Washington was elected - and in spite of the fact that African Americans and Latinos comprised 55 percent of the votes in the city’s 49 wards - only 15 Blacks and one Latino served as alderman. Gerrymandering had prevented the Black and Latino majorities from electing candidates from their own communities. Washington's supporters and allies waged an unprecedented and successful battle over redistricting. Their broad, multiracial coalition then used grassroots organizing techniques that resulted in electoral wins. Those victories brought an end to the Council Wars that divided Chicago's City Council since Washington was elected. The ensuing split in the Cook County Democratic Party, largely along racial lines, led to the defection of several prominent Cook County Democratic Party Democrats, notably Party Chairman Edward Vrdolyak, to the Republican Party.

Similar to the weakening of the Cook County Democratic Party after Richard J. Daley's death, the Washington coalition fractured and then completely 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 or mobilize the same degree of support among white liberals as well as Washington had. In the 1988 primary election, the Cook County Democratic Party was able to woo several prominent formerly independent leaders, such as Carol Moseley Braun and Luis Gutiérrez, to back the county Democratic Party's slate, further splintering the loose independent coalition.

Under Chairman Tom Lyons

45th Ward committeeman Thomas G. Lyons served as a lawmaker, lawyer and lobbyist. He was elected chairman of the Party in 1990 and served in that capacity for 17 years.

During Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's tenure

During this time, the influence of the party declined due to the election of Richard J. Daley's son Richard M. Daley to the office of Chicago mayor. In 2000, the Chicago Tribune wrote, "Nobody wants to be the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party, the job once held by Richard J. Daley, the job that made George Dunne a powerful man. Nobody wants it because the Democratic Party of Cook County has become nothing more than a distraction for the one Democrat who counts, Mayor Richard M. Daley." The younger Daley built a political organization that reelected him five times. His power bloc included the growing Hispanic community, through a "powerful and feared patronage army" known as the Hispanic Democratic Organization. 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 control of the City Council to a degree that only the elder Daley ever enjoyed. After the March, 2000 County elections, Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Tribune editorial page editor R. Bruce Dold, writing in an op-ed said, "The Democrats, though, they had a thing of beauty, a big, genuine, political machine. But then it became a victim of Jane Byrne. And then it became a victim of Harold Washington. And now it's a victim of indifference."

As Daley's time in office drew to a close, investigations, indictments, and criminal convictions for hiring fraud and graft, including the federal conviction of the Daley's patronage chief, left little doubt that a political machine had been revived since its apparent collapse. In July 2005, a federal court-appointed monitor reported widespread abuses of a previous court decree against patronage hiring. The U.S. Attorney's office contended in 2006 that the machine had been rebuilt.

Under Chairman Joseph Berrios

On February 1, 2007, Joseph Berrios was unanimously elected Chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party and has headed the party ever since. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in 2010 said, "When Joe came in, for the first time, African-Americans, Latinos, women had a real opportunity for leadership in the party and had a real opportunity to be slated by the party." Berrios is the first and thus far only Hispanic to serve as Chairman.

References

1. Encyclopedia of Chicago: Machine Politics
2. Encyclopedia of Chicago: Democratic Party
3. Encyclopedia of Chicago: Machine Politics
4. O'Connor, Len; "Clout: Mayor Daley and His City". (1975) pp. 37-39
5. O'Connor, Len; "Clout: Mayor Daley and His City". (1975) p. 45
6. Encyclopedia of Chicago: Democratic Party
7. O'Connor, Len; "Clout: Mayor Daley and His City". (1975) pp. 54-55
8. O'Connor, Len; "Clout: Mayor Daley and His City". (1975) p. 56
9. O'Connor, Len; "Clout: Mayor Daley and His City". (1975) pp. 60-61
10. O'Connor, Len; "Clout: Mayor Daley and His City". (1975) pp. 11, 12
11. O'Connor, Len; "Clout: Mayor Daley and His City". (1975) p. 121
12. Dawson, William Levi, (1886 - 1970)
13. O'Connor, Len; "Clout: Mayor Daley and His City". (1975) pp. 110, 113
14. O'Connor, Len; "Clout: Mayor Daley and His City". (1975) pp. 158-162
15. O'Connor, Len; "Clout: Mayor Daley and His City". (1975) pp. 11, 12
17. Chicago Tribune: Jane Byrne elected mayor of Chicago
18. Encyclopedia of Chicago: Shakman Decrees
19. Cook County Shakman Compliance Administrator: Background
20. Chicago Tribune: Jane Byrne elected mayor of Chicago
21. Encyclopedia of Chicago: Shakman Decrees
22. Cook County Shakman Compliance Administrator: Background
23. WBEZ: This American Life 84: Harold
24. Illinois Issues #18: After Byrne's Win
26. WBEZ: Forging a Rainbow Coalition: The Legacy of Harold Washington
27. National Young Lords website: Jose (Cha-Cha) Jimenez
28. "Rahm Emanuel says he doesn't want a repeat of the Council Wars that once crippled City Hall"
29. Encyclopedia of Chicago: Council Wars
30. Political Affairs: Harold Washington: The People’s Mayor
31. Political Affairs: Harold Washington: The People’s Mayor
32. Fremon, David K., "Chicago Politics, Ward by Ward". (1988) pp. 3-4
33. Los Angeles Times: Vrdolyak Files for Chicago GOP Primary
34. Daily Kos: Remembering Harold Washington
35. The Root: The Root Cities: Chicago's Political Power Brokers
36. Chicago Tribune: Thomas G. Lyons: 1931 - 2007
37. Chicago Tribune: Is Cook County's Democratic Party Becoming A Joke?
38. Chicago Tribune: Once Mighty Political Group Shuts Down
39. Huffington Post: Mayor Daley Will Not Seek Another Term, Chicago's Political Landscape Changes Enormously
40. Chicago Tribune: Is Cook County's Democratic Party Becoming A Joke?
41. "Federal prosecutors are poised to call dozens of witnesses from City Hall to describe a revived model of the Democratic machine.
42. Chicago Tribune: Chicago rebuilt machine, U.S. says
43. Chicago Tribune: Preckwinkle praises Berrios to Tribune editorial board
44. Press Release: Berrios Gets Backing from African-American Elected Officials

Further reading

• Cohen, Adam and Taylor, Elizabeth, American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley — His Battle for Chicago and the Nation (2000)
• Grimshaw, William J, Bitter Fruit: Black Politics and the Chicago Machine, 1931–1991 (1992)
• 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)

External links

• Cook County Democratic Party
• Democratic Party of Illinois

• Self-contradictory articles from March 2013
• Misplaced Pages articles needing copy edit from March 2013
• Political organizations in the United States
• History of Chicago, Illinois
• Government of Chicago, Illinois