Richard Michael Daley is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh term. At 22 years, his was the longest tenure in Chicago mayoral history, surpassing the 21-year stay of his father, Richard J. Daley.
The mayor of Chicago is the chief executive of city government in Chicago, Illinois, the third-largest city in the United States. The mayor is responsible for the administration and management of various city departments, submits proposals and recommendations to the Chicago City Council, is active in the enforcement of the city's ordinances, submits the city's annual budget and appoints city officers, department commissioners or directors, and members of city boards and commissions.
The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 alderpersons elected from 50 wards to serve four-year terms. The council is called into session regularly, usually monthly, to consider ordinances, orders, and resolutions whose subject matter includes code changes, utilities, taxes, and many other issues. The Chicago City Council Chambers are located in Chicago City Hall, as are the downtown offices of the individual alderpersons and staff.
David Duvall Orr is an American Democratic politician who served as the Cook County Clerk from 1990 to 2018. Orr previously served as alderman for the 49th ward in Chicago City Council from 1979 to 1990. He briefly served as acting Mayor of Chicago from November 25 to December 2, 1987, following the death of Mayor Harold Washington. Orr retired from the office of Cook County Clerk in 2018, opting not to run for an eighth term.
Edward Robert Vrdolyak, also known as "Fast Eddie", is a former American politician and lawyer. He was a longtime Chicago alderman and the head of the Cook County Democratic Party until 1987 when he ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Chicago on the Illinois Solidarity Party ticket. He subsequently ran again in 1989 on the Republican Party ticket. He was a prominent opponent of Harold Washington and the de facto leader of the so-called "Vrdolyak 29" that opposed and blocked many of Washington's measures.
James A. Balcer is a former alderman of the 11th Ward of the City of Chicago. A member of the Democratic Party, he was appointed to the Chicago City Council by Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1997. In May 2015, he was succeeded by former Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner, Patrick Daley Thompson.
Edward Michael Burke is an American politician who served as the alderman of Chicago's 14th ward from 1969 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected to the Chicago City Council in 1969, and represented part of the city's Southwest Side. Chair of Council's Committee on Finance, Burke has been called Chicago's "most powerful alderman" by the Chicago Sun-Times. Burke was named one of the "100 Most Powerful Chicagoans" by Chicago Magazine, describing him as "[o]ne of the last of the old-school Chicago Machine pols."
Ricardo Muñoz is a former member of the Chicago City Council, having served as alderman for the 22nd ward, which includes Little Village and Archer Heights. Muñoz was appointed to this position by Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1993 and served until 2019. He was the longest tenured Latino and fourth longest tenured member of the Chicago City Council.
Isaac "Ike" Sims Carothers is a former alderman of the 29th Ward on the far west side of the City of Chicago. He was first elected in 1999. He resigned in 2010 after pleading guilty to federal corruption charges.
Carrie Austin is alderman of the 34th ward on Chicago's far south side. The predominantly African-American ward includes portions of Morgan Park, Roseland, Washington Heights and West Pullman.
William Joseph Panebianco Banks was alderman of the 36th ward in Chicago from 1983 to 2009.
Politics in Chicago through most of the 20th century was dominated by the Democratic Party. Organized crime and political corruption were persistent concerns in the city. Chicago was the political base for presidential nominees Stephen Douglas (1860), Adlai Stevenson II, and Barack Obama, who was nominated and elected in 2008.
Roman Conrad Pucinski was an American Democratic politician from Chicago, Illinois. He was a U.S. Representative from 1959 to 1973 and alderman from the 41st Ward of Chicago from 1973 to 1991. He was considered a longtime leader of Chicago Polonia and was seen to represent its interests in Washington.
The Cook County Democratic Party is an American county-level political party organization which represents voters in 50 wards in the city of Chicago and 30 suburban townships of Cook County. The organization has dominated Chicago politics since the 1930s. It relies on an organizational structure of a ward or township committeeperson to elect candidates. At the height of its influence under Richard J. Daley in the 1960s when political patronage in employment was endemic in American cities, it was one of the most powerful political machines in American history. By the beginning of the 21st century the party had largely ceased to function as a machine due to the legal dismantling of the patronage system under the Shakman Decrees issued by the federal court in Chicago. The current Chair is Toni Preckwinkle, who is also the elected Cook County Board president.
Corruption in Illinois has been a problem from the earliest history of the state. Electoral fraud in Illinois pre-dates the territory's admission to the Union in 1818. Illinois had the third most federal criminal convictions for public corruption between 1976 and 2012, behind New York and California. A study published by the University of Illinois Chicago in 2022 ranked Illinois as the second most corrupt state in the nation, with 4 out of the last 11 governors serving time in prison.
Patrick Daley Thompson is an American former politician and convicted felon who most recently served as an alderman from Chicago's 11th ward and was previously a commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. A member of the prominent Daley family, he is a grandson of Richard J. Daley and a nephew of Richard M. Daley, both of whom served as longtime mayors of Chicago.
The Chicago mayoral election of 1977 was a special election held on June 7, 1977 to complete the remainder of the unexpired mayoral term of Richard J. Daley who died of a heart attack in December 1976. The election saw Interim Mayor Michael A. Bilandic win the election. Bliandic defeated Republican Dennis H. Block by a landslide 56% margin.
The 2019 Chicago mayoral election was held on February 26, 2019, to determine the next Mayor of the City of Chicago, Illinois. Since no candidate received a majority of votes, a runoff election was held on April 2, 2019, between the two candidates with the most votes, Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle. Lightfoot defeated Preckwinkle in the runoff election to become mayor, and was sworn in as mayor on May 20, 2019.
Dick Weldon Simpson is a professor, author, politician, activist, political consultant, and filmmaker who formerly served as a Chicago alderman from 1971 through 1979.
Nicole T. Lee is an American politician in Chicago, Illinois. She is a member of the Chicago City Council as the alderwoman for the 11th ward, which includes portions of Bridgeport, New City, and Chinatown. She took office in March 2022, after being appointed to fill the vacancy created by the removal of Patrick Daley Thompson. She was elected to a full term in 2023. She is the second Asian American and first Chinese American to serve on the City Council.
