Man, I gotta share this crazy deep dive I just did. So, I got really into this whole “father-son Chicago politics” thing, and let me tell you, it’s a wild ride.
I started digging into the history of Chicago’s mayors, right? And I found out that there were these two sets of fathers and sons who ran the city. First I read about the Carter Harrisons. Carter Harrison, Sr. was the mayor in the late 1800s, and then his son, Carter Harrison, Jr., took over in the early 1900s. Pretty interesting, huh?
But the real juicy stuff is with the Daleys. I mean, these guys practically owned Chicago for decades. Richard J. Daley, the old man, was the mayor from 1955 until he died in ’76. They called him “the last of the big city bosses,” which is saying something. He ran the Democratic Party in Cook County and, basically, was the king of Chicago.
Richard J. Daley
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Served as Mayor of Chicago: 1955-1976
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Chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party: 1953-1976
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Known as “the last of the big city bosses”
Then, his son, Richard M. Daley, became the mayor later on and served even longer, from 1989 to 2011. That’s like, 42 out of 55 years that the Daleys were in charge. That’s crazy!
I spent hours on this, reading all sorts of articles, and I found that the younger Daley changed up the whole political machine thing that his dad had built. Apparently, he tore down a lot of what his father put up. I was just amazed by this.
Then there’s this other Daley son, Bill Daley, who I read could have been the third mayor in the family. That’s a whole dynasty, right? I guess another son, Michael, was supposed to be the real smart one, but I didn’t find too much about him.
Anyway, I just had to share this because it blew my mind. It’s like a real-life political drama. These guys, the Daleys, were a huge deal, and their story is just fascinating. I guess it’s true what they say, Chicago politics is a whole different world.
I just couldn’t stop reading about it. I had to tell someone, you know? This stuff is too wild to keep to myself!
