Richard Joseph Daley
Richard Joseph Daley was a Democratic politician and mayor of Chicago.
Contents
History
Daley was born in Bridgeport and went to an all-white school (De La Salle Institute, operated by the Christian Brothers) just over the 'border' into a Black neighborhood. He was an active participant (then leader) in the neighborhood gangs (esp. the Hamburg Club) behind the 1919 race riot.
Daley's predecessor as club leader, Tommy Doyle, was elected as alderman for the 5th ward in 1914. In the next election, Doyle went to the state legislature and Joe McDonough was elected to that seat. In 1923, McDonough won re-election in the new 13th ward; as one of his precinct captains, Daley was made a clerk for the city council. McDonough aligned with Cermak early, and was rewarded with nomination for Cook county treasurer. (Doyle then returned to be alderman of the 13th ward, and for some reason switched to the 11th ward in 1933.) Daley followed McDonough up to the treasurer's office. However, both McDonough and Doyle died young (1934 and 1935, respectively). Babe Connelly inherited the ward organization and became alderman of the 11th ward, with Daley as the right hand man.
In October 1936, just 15 days before the general election, David Shanahan died. He was speaker of the Illinois House and was to run unopposed (on the Republican ticket). Connelly organized a write-in campaign for Daley, who was therefore technically elected as a Republican.
In late 1938, Democratic state senator Patrick J. Carroll died. Daley was elected to his seat. He rose to minority leader by 1941. He simultaneously served as county comptroller. Kelly nominated Daley for county sheriff in 1946, for which he resigned from the state senate. He did not win that race however.
Daley was appointed to Stevenson's cabinet as director of revenue in 1949. He left the next year to become county clerk. He was elected party chair in 1953 and used that position to ensure that, come 1955, he was party favorite for mayor. The nomination was contested by the incumbent Martin J. Kennelly, who had the support of only 2 ward bosses (Tom Nash and Frank Keenan), and also by Benjamin Adamowski, who switched parties after coming in a distant third. Daley won the election narrowly over Robert Merriam, an alderman who had also just switched parties.
Adamowski won election as state's attorney in 1956. He produced three scandals against the Daley administration:
- Traffic courts were fixing tickets. Policemen took bribes and paid into the machine.
- Municipal courts were refunding posted bail to bondsmen after defendents failed to appear for their hearing. Policemen had de facto partnerships with favored bondsmen and routed defendents accordingly.
- A burglar confessed that the other members of his outfit were policemen.
The last in particular forced Daley to adopt the platform of a reformer. He removed police chief Timothy O'Connor and brought in Orlando Wilson. He allowed Wilson to reform the police, including redrawing the precincts.
The November 1960 elections were marred by massive voter fraud in Cook county. A slow recount began to give evidence that there was very little fixing of national races however, and the Republican Party declined to continue funding it. Adamowski was thus removed from office.
Daley replaced Wilson in 1967 with James Conlisk. In April 1968, following the assassination of King, Daley directed Conlisk to give shoot to kill orders. Police brutality continued to ratchet up, culminating in the police riot outside the Democratic National Convention in August.
Daley died in office in December 1976.