Richard Simon Of Chicago Shares Interesting Ideas On Chicago Politics

Richard Simon really loves Chicago politics. As a long term Chicagoan, he can admire the different type of nuttiness that is Chicago politics. He doesn’t even consider himself to be a political person but it’s tough to live in Chicago and not observe of the inanities, the personas, the scandals, the Daley Dynasty. “It is incredible, just how much influence the mafia had in Chicago politics in the early twentieth century,” Simon said. The truth is, in the 1920s many Chicago policemen were considered to bring in more cash from mob pay offs than off their policeman’s salary.

“Chicago’s Democratic Machine has had a hold on the town for pretty much a hundred years,” Simon told us. “And within that machine, there were sharp ethnic lines drawn.” Local neighborhoods were governed by the ethnic groups that lived there - Irish, Polish, Italian and more. “The Daley family is to Chicago what the Kennedy family is to the United States,” Simon said. “The two lengthiest serving mayors of this city are Richard J. Daley and his son Richard M. Daley.” Richard M. Daley has been mayor of Chicago for 21 years and decided to not seek reelection in the recent mayoral race. He will be succeeded by former White House Chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel. “You will need to go back nearly a hundred years to find a mayor of Chicago who is not a Democrat, the machine runs the politics in this city,” Simon told us.

Chicago is known as one of the biggest Democratic strongholds in the United States. There hasn’t been a Republican mayor since William Thompson was elected in 1927. “The Daley machine is basically thought to have been instrumental in getting John F. Kennedy elected to the presidency in 1960,” Simon told us. “Illinois’ electoral votes determined the presidency that year and the thing is, over half the state’s population is located in Cook County, home to the great city of Chicago, he said. “The Chicago Democratic Machine has dominated politics in this city since the 1930s, and I frankly don’t see it slowing down for them anytime soon.”

“When you consider the influence the Chicago Machine has had on politics over the decades you start to think about how influential they were in electing our current president Barak Obama to the Presidency and diehard Chicagoan Rahm Emmanuel to the mayor’s office." “One thing is for sure, it’s never a dull time for politics in this city and this state,” Rick Simon said in closing.

By: Rick Simon

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Married with 5 children, I love sports, the outdoors, hiking, movies and my country.