Article I of the by-laws of the Cook County Democratic Party states that the party exists to "attract, endorse, and support qualified Democratic candidates for office, to develop positions on issues of public importance, to advance the ideals and principles of the Democratic Party, and to seek to improve the lives of the people of Cook County through effective, efficient, and fair government." The by-laws also state that the party must "promote Democratic political activity in Cook County and encourage broad and diverse political participation by Cook County Democrats regardless or race, color, creed, national origin, gender, physical ability or sexual orientation ... and take an active role in county, state, and national political efforts which have an impact upon the people of Cook County."[2]
The party was chaired by 31st ward committeeman Joseph Berrios from 2007 until April 2018, when Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle replaced him.[3][4] The Executive Committee has eight other officers: two Executive Vice-Chairs, First Vice-Chair, City Vice-Chair, Suburban Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and Sergeant-At-Arms. Each of the 50 wards of Chicago and the 30 suburban townships has its own committee and is represented in the Central Committee by an elected committeeperson (until 2018 legal name change, "committeeman").[1]
In suburban Cook County, regional groups, such as the Southland Democrats, co-ordinate activities with their local Democratic township organizations and their committeemen.[5] Article IV, Section 4 of the By-laws of the Cook County Democratic Party allows the Suburban Vice-Chair (a position currently held by Illinois State Senator Don Harmon) the authority to "convene caucuses and meetings, solicit support for the organization, assist the County Chair in any matters upon request, coordinate activities concerning recommendations for endorsements of candidate, and bring before the Central Committee issues of particular interest."[6]
Cook County was created on 15 January 1831 and it was named after Daniel Cook. Cook had been one of the earliest and youngest statesmen in Illinois history and he was a registered Democrat in Randolph County.[7] By 1837, local Democrats were winning electoral victories under the leadership of William B. Ogden. Ogden recruited Irish immigrants into the party. Their loyalty to native Democrats was established in return for petty political favors and an occasional elected office.[8] The careers of Irish Democrats from this period, such as John Comiskey from the Blue Island area, were still limited by anti-Irish discrimination.[9] Prior to the American Civil War, the city of Chicago and Cook County had created a strong two-party tradition.[10] The local Democratic Party grew stronger in the decades that followed the Great Chicago Fire due in part to an influx of new immigrants from eastern and southern Europe.[11] By 1890, Roger Charles Sullivan had accumulated major influence within the tumultuous Cook County Democratic Party. He would come to dominate the organization for two decades and he was a national figure during the age when urban political bosses reached the height of their power and prestige.[12] After his death, he was followed as chairman by George Brennan in 1920.[13]
Prior to the death of party chairman George Brennan in 1928,[14] 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, a Czech American, the party combined 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.[15][16] After Cermak's death, Patrick Nash and Edward J. Kelly consolidated the Cook County Democratic Party into a political machine.[17][18]
Nash and Kelly were able to bring African-Americans, who had been predominantly Republicans since the Civil War, into the Democratic Party.[18] 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.[19]Jacob Arvey assumed the position of Chairman of the organization after Kelly's ouster in 1947.[20][21] 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.[22] During the early years of the 1950s, Joseph L. Gill– George Brennan's brother-in-law – replaced Arvey as Chairman of the party. His role was more of a caretaker than that of a political leader.[21]
Under Richard J. Daley
The Democratic committeemen of Cook County elected Richard J. Daley as their chairman in 1953 and the Democratic committeemen of Chicago slated him as their mayoral candidate in 1955. He served as chairman for 22 years and as mayor for twenty years.[21][23][24] This was accomplished with the help and support of William L. Dawson.[21] In return, an African-American "sub-machine" led by Dawson was created under the umbrella of the regular machine. 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,[25] 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.[26]
Daley helped turn out the vote for John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. Kennedy won Illinois by 9,000 votes, yet won Cook County by 450,000 votes, with some Chicago precincts going to Kennedy by over 10 to 1 margins.[citation needed] Illinois' 27 electoral votes helped give Kennedy the majority he needed.[27] Chicago was selected to host the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Political commentator Len O'Connor described this period as Richard J. Daley's "High Water Mark" and described the Cook County Democratic Party at the time as one of the most powerful political machines in American history.[23]
Under George Dunne and Edward Vrdolyak
The Shakman Decrees introduced judicial oversight of City and County hiring, reducing the number of voters who owed their livelihoods to the Democratic party.[28] The 1968 convention had ended in disaster. The Walker Report concluded that a "police riot" had taken place at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.[29]NBC News had televised the event and switched back and forth between demonstrators being beaten by the police in front of the convention hall and the festivities over Humphrey's victory inside.[30] Racial tension over issues such as urban renewal in Woodlawn and Lincoln Park, red lining, open housing and public school desegregation alienated African-Americans and Latinos voters. 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, no mayor has served as chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party.[31]Michael Bilandic, Daley's successor as mayor, lost in a 1979 mayoral primary to Jane Byrne.[32] In Bilandic's obituary, The New York Times wrote that the operation of the Cook County Democratic Party as a political machine ended during Bilandic's mayoralty.[33]
Byrne's base of support was on the Northwest side of Chicago, and to a lesser extent the Southeast and Southwest, and she also benefited from independent African-American electoral support.[34] Originally a Richard J. Daley appointee, Byrne did not have the backing of the influential ward committeemen such as John Daley, Michael Madigan, or Thomas Hynes. For a short while after Byrne's election Richard J. Daley's successor as Democratic County Party Chairman George Dunne supported her.[35] In 1979, Oak Park Democratic committeeman and State Senator since 1970, Philip J. Rock became the Illinois State Senate's top Democrat. He would serve as such for the next 14 years and he would retire as the longest serving President of the Senate and Majority Leader in state history.[36]
Jimmy Carter and Chairman Richard J. Daley at the 1976 Illinois State Democratic Convention, held in Cook County.
George Dunne had a falling out with the mayor and in 1982 he lost the party chairmanship to 10th Ward committeeman Edward Vrdolyak, an ally of Jane Byrne. When Richard J. Daley's son Richard M. Daley challenged Byrne for mayor in 1983, a coalition of African-American, Hispanic, and "good government" or "lakefront liberals" coalesced.[37] 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 with 80% of the Latino vote. 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.[38] For the next three years, the Cook County Democratic Party was divided by crippling Council Wars in the city of Chicago.[39] This was essentially a racially polarized political conflict that blocked the agenda of Washington and his allies.[40]
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 alderperson.[41]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.[41] Those victories brought an end to the Council Wars that had paralyzed Chicago's city council since Washington was elected.[42] Several prominent Democrats, led by Party Chairman Edward Vrdolyak, defected to the Republican Party.[43] George Dunne, who had aligned himself with Harold Washington during the Council Wars period, was re-elected to the party chairmanship after Vrydolyak resigned following his defeat by Washington in the 1987 Mayoral election. Washington's death in the fall of 1987, a half-year into his second term, fractured the Washington political coalition.[44] 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.[45]
In 2008, Vrdolyak, former Democratic Committeeman from Chicago's 10th Ward, Chicago alderperson, and former Cook County Democratic Party Chairman, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud related to the sale of property by the Chicago Medical School.[46]
Under Tom Lyons
Dunne did not seek re-election to the party chairmanship in 1990, amidst a scandal in which he admitted having sex with female county employees who alleged they were pressured into providing sexual favors to him.[47] Following Dunne's departure, Thomas G. Lyons was elected chairman of the party and would serve in that capacity for 17 years. He had also been the 45th Ward committeeman and was a lawmaker, lawyer and lobbyist.[48] After the March, 2000 County elections, Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Tribune editorial page editor R. Bruce Dold wrote in an op-ed,
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 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.[49]
Richard M. Daley's political operation was largely separate from the county organization.[3][50] His power bloc included the growing Hispanic community, through a "powerful and feared patronage army" known as the Hispanic Democratic Organization.[51] Unlike his father, the younger Daley also reached out to those who initially opposed him, and primarily through negotiated apportionment of city funds for alderpersons' local projects, was able to gain control of the City Council to a degree that only the elder Daley ever enjoyed.[citation needed][52][failed verification] In July 2005, the federal court-appointed Shakman monitor reported widespread abuses of a previous court decree against patronage hiring.[citation needed] On July 5, 2006, Robert Sorich, formally, Daley's director of the Mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and, informally, Daley's patronage chief, and Timothy McCarthy, Sorich's aide, were each convicted on two counts of mail fraud connected to rigging blue-collar city jobs and promotions.[53][54][55][56]
In 1995, Mel Reynolds, Democratic congressman from Illinois's 2nd congressional district, which includes parts of the south side of Chicago and south suburbs in Cook County and parts of Will and Kankakee Counties, was convicted on 12 counts of sexual assault, obstruction of justice and solicitation of child pornography, and while serving his sentence, was convicted on 16 unrelated counts of bank fraud, misusing campaign funds for personal use and lying to FEC investigators.[57][58]
Lyons died in 2007. Shortly after Lyons death, 13th Ward committeeman Michael Madigan said, "The party's been going through transition for a long time. This is a completely different Democratic Party than the one I joined in 1969."[3] Richard M. Daley retired in 2011.
"It's really important to see that the Democratic Party made great inroads in suburban communities and I think that's healthy for our democracy in Illinois." – Illinois GovernorPat Quinn, November 2012
Under Joseph Berrios
On February 1, 2007, Joseph Berrios was unanimously elected Chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party and headed the organization until April 18, 2018.[3][4] Berrios is the first Hispanic to serve as Party chairman.[60] In 2010 Cook County Board PresidentToni Preckwinkle, a Berrios political ally, 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."[61]
The party has recently won several notable elections in suburban Cook County. At the county level, the Democratic committeeman of Wheeling Township, Patrick Botterman, engineered Brendan Houlihan's successful campaign for Commissioner of Cook County Board of Review in 2006.[62]
Berrios has been the subject of numerous investigations and legal proceedings involving ethical violations, corruption, fraud and nepotism. He has defended his right in the press and in courts to hire and promote family members and friends to taxpayer funded positions.[63][64][65][66]
Under Toni Preckwinkle
On April 18, 2018, Toni Preckwinkle was unanimously elected Chair of the Cook County Democratic Party. She became the first woman and first African-American to hold the position.[4]
Richard Joseph Daley was an American politician who served as the mayor of Chicago from 1955, and the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party Central Committee from 1953, until his death. He has been called "the last of the big city bosses" who controlled and mobilized American cities. Daley was Chicago's third consecutive mayor from the working-class, heavily Irish American South Side neighborhood of Bridgeport, where he lived his entire life. He was the patriarch of the Daley family, whose members include Richard M. Daley, another former mayor of Chicago; William M. Daley, a former United States Secretary of Commerce; John P. Daley, a member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners; and Patrick Daley Thompson, a former alderman of the Chicago City Council.
Harold Lee Washington was an American lawyer and politician who was the 51st Mayor of Chicago. Washington became the first African American to be elected as the city's mayor in April 1983. He served as mayor from April 29, 1983, until his death on November 25, 1987. Born in Chicago and raised in the Bronzeville neighborhood, Washington became involved in local 3rd Ward politics under Chicago Alderman and future Congressman Ralph Metcalfe after graduating from Roosevelt University and Northwestern University School of Law. Washington was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 1983, representing Illinois's first district. Washington had previously served in the Illinois State Senate and the Illinois House of Representatives from 1965 until 1976.
Martin Henry Kennelly was an American politician and businessman. He served as the 47th Mayor of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois from April 15, 1947 until April 20, 1955. Kennelly was a member of the Democratic Party. According to biographer Peter O'Malley, he was chosen as mayor by a scandal-burdened Democratic machine that needed a reformer on top of the ticket. Kennelly was a wealthy businessman and civic leader, active in Irish and Catholic circles. As a long-time opponent of machine politics he accepted the nomination on condition the machine would not pressure him for patronage and that he did not have to play a leadership role in the party. This gave him a non-partisan image that satisfied the reform element. As mayor he avoided partisanship and concentrated on building infrastructure and upgrading the city bureaucracy. He worked to extend civil service; he reorganized inefficient departments. The city took ownership of the mass transit system. He obtained federal aid for slum clearance and public housing projects and for new expressways construction. At his death, Mayor Richard J. Daley, the party leader who defeated Kennelly in a bitter primary battle in 1955, called him, "a great Chicagoan who loved his city" and ordered City hall flags placed at half-mast.
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.
Edward Michael Burke is an American politician found guilty of racketeering, bribery, and extortion 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 had 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."
William Joseph Panebianco Banks was alderman of the 36th ward in Chicago from 1983 to 2009.
Michael Joseph Madigan is an American politician who is the former speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. He was the longest-serving leader of any state or federal legislative body in the history of the United States, having held the position for all but two years from 1983 to 2021. He served in the Illinois House from 1971 to 2021. He represented the 27th District from 1971 to 1983, the 30th district from 1983 to 1993, and the 22nd district from 1993 to 2021. This made him the body's longest-serving member and the last legislator elected before the Cutback Amendment.
Patrick A. Nash was a political boss in the early and mid-twentieth century in Chicago, which is in Cook County, Illinois, United States. He was in large part responsible for consolidating elements of the Cook County Democratic Party into a political machine. He evolved from a local sewage contractor to a political boss by carefully selecting his political allies. His prominence stems from the death of Anton Cermak and his political career is intertwined with that of Edward Joseph Kelly. The success of this machine was attributed to its decision to be more inclusive than its predecessors. This meant that Nash had success at dealing with a variety of politicians such as William L. Dawson.
Toni Lynn Preckwinkle is an American politician and the current County Board president in Cook County, Illinois, United States. She was elected to her first term as president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the executive branch of Cook County government, in November 2010, becoming the first woman elected to that position.
George W. Dunne was an American politician within the Democratic Party from Chicago, Illinois. He was President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners from 1969 to 1991; the longest service of anyone holding that office.
Joseph "Joe" Berrios is a Democratic politician who was the Assessor and Chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party of Cook County, Illinois, as well as a registered Illinois state government lobbyist. He was the first Hispanic American to serve in the Illinois General Assembly and the first and only Hispanic American to chair the Cook County Democratic Party. He was also a commissioner on the Cook County Board of Review, a property tax assessment appeal panel.
Thomas C. Hynes was a physics teacher who served as Cook County Assessor, President of the Illinois Senate, and 19th Ward Democratic Committeeman. Hynes was also a candidate for Mayor of Chicago in 1987. He was the father of former Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes.
The Chicago mayoral election of 1991 resulted in the re-election of incumbent Democrat Richard M. Daley to his first full-term. Daley had previously been elected to serve the remainder of Harold Washington's unexpired term in a special election held following Washington's death in office.
The Chicago mayoral election of 1987 was first the primary election on February 24, 1987 followed by the general election on April 7, 1987. The election saw the re-election of Chicago, Illinois' first African-American mayor, Harold Washington. Ed Vrdolyak, the leader of the Vrdolyak 29, unsuccessfully opposed him, running on the Illinois Solidarity Party ticket. Former mayor Jane Byrne, who served from 1979 until 1983 unsuccessfully challenged Washington in the Democratic primary.
The Chicago mayoral election of 1983 was first the primary on February 22, 1983, which was followed by the general on April 12, 1983. The election saw the election of Chicago's first African-American mayor, Harold Washington. Incumbent Mayor Jane Byrne, who had served since April 16, 1979 had lost renomination in the Democratic primary in a three-way race between herself, then–Congressman Washington, and then–Cook County State’s Attorney Richard M. Daley in February 1983. Washington would face off against Republican nominee Bernard Epton, winning with a 3.7% lead over Epton in the general election.
William Singer is an American lawyer, politician, consultant, and lobbyist who formerly served as a Chicago alderman, representing the 44th and 43rd wards during his aldermanic career.
The Cook County, Illinois, general election was held on November 2, 2010.
Edmund L. Kelly is an American politician who formerly served as General Superintendent of the Chicago Park District and 47th Ward Democratic Committeeman.
In the 1980 Cook County State's Attorney election, incumbent second-term state's attorney Bernard Carey, a Republican, was unseated by Democrat Richard M. Daley.
Stanley T. Kusper, Jr. is an American politician and lawyer who served as Cook County clerk from 1973 to 1990.
↑ Williams, Jakobi; "From the bullet to the ballot: the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and racial coalition politics in Chicago". (2013) p. 198
↑ Clinton Commutation Grants, January 2001, University of Pittsburgh Law < "Presidential Pardons". Archived from the original on 2008-05-14. Retrieved 2008-06-03.>
↑ Gradel, Thomas J.; Simpson, Dick (January 20, 2015). Corrupt Illinois: Patronage, Cronyism, and Criminality (1sted.). University of Illinois Press. ISBN978-0252078552.
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