It didn't matter who was the President

The Chicago Democratic Party didn’t care who was elected President of the United States. The local party organization wasn’t going to benefit in any tangible way from a presidential victory.

Local pols campaigned for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 becasue he was already popular and they wanted his supporters to vote for all the party nominees on the ballot, not just for the guy at the top of the ticket

Many campaigned for John F. Kennedy in 1960 because they hoped to win the allegiance of Catholic voters, who were considered a swing group at the time, not because they cared whether or not JFK won.

But in most elections, the local party didn’t care. In the 1972 general election, George McGovern, the party’s presidential nominee, opened his own campaign offices in every Chicago ward beause he didn’t trust the Chicago Democrats to do much for him (and most didn’t).

Presidential candidates have only been important to the party when their presence on the ballot could help attract votes for other, more important offices, like Clerk of the Circuit Court.

That’s how it always was and how it still is.