Broken promises

State’s Attorney Richard M. Daley was delighted when his friend, State Senator and 50th Ward Democratic Committeeman Howard Carroll, pledged the neutrality of his organization in the upcoming Chicago Mayoral primary in 1983.

Daley’s campaign strategy counted on the recruitment of precinct captains whose Committeemen would let them make their own decisions about whom to back. When the north side Daley campaign office opened, it was filled with 50th Ward captains.

So, imagine Daley’s surprise when Carroll seconded the nomination of Mayor Jane Byrne for re-election at the party slate-making meeting, ordered his captains out of the Daley campaign and into the Byrne campaign, and reaffirmed his role as a Machine agent. He had made his deal with Byrne.

Daley did not simply think of the double cross as a business decision. It was personal. He had a reputation for fierce loyalty and had been double-crossed by a friend. That did not sit well with him.

So, his crew coordinated Election Day coverage in the 50th ward with Independents to ensure they would stop vote fraud by Carroll’s organization. They backed a short-lived Committeeman race in 1984 and fielded an Aldermanic candidate in 1987.

When Daley was elected Mayor in 1989, though, they were no longer outsiders. And the 50th ward leader, Richard Devine, was elected three times as Cook County State’s Attorney.