Switching sides

Politicians who switched sides usually didn’t bring as much to the table as some people expected. Few of their cohorts followed them and former allies worked harder against them because they considered them to be traitors.

In the 1980 primary election, two-time Machine candidate Arnold Levy switched sides and challenged incumbent 48th Ward Democratic Committeeman Martin Tuchow (who was later jailed on corruption charges).

Levy was backed by Independent Alderman Marion Volini and enjoyed the support of her potent army of volunteers. He was an effective campaigner and a very successful fund-raiser. But he lost. He only won 40% of the vote.

His former supporters felt deceived by his candidacy, as most of them had campaigned for him when he ran for Alderman (against Volini and others) five years earlier. And most of his new campaign workers were supporting him because they were loyal to Volini, not to him.

His fund-raising contacts enabled him to mount a viable campaign when others might not have been able to. But it didn’t matter.