When co-optation worked

Civic leader Esther Saperstein, who had waged an unsuccessful race as an Independent candidate for 49th Ward Alderman the previous year, was slated by the Machine for State Representative in 1956. She had supported Richard J. Daley for Mayor in a ward where local Machine leaders had opposed him, but backed David Hartigan (Neil’s father), the Aldermanic candidate of the anti-Daley faction, in the runoff election. (He won).

Slating her enabled the Machine to improve its image by backing a well-respected, former opponent from outside its organization, making it look like it cared more about the welfare of the community than about the power of the politicians. And it knew it could count on her in legislative battles because of her support of the new Mayor.

She finished first in a thirteen-candidate field in her initial election and went on to serve ten years in the Illinois House and eight more in the Illinois Senate from a far north side district where she faced negligible electoral competition.

And the Machine found it was able to count on her. Her voting record satisfied party leaders and in one instance, after publicly opposing a major piece of legislation, she reversed her position at the behest of Mayor Daley.