When the outsider became the boss

What do you do with patronage workers when you win an election and you don’t believe in hiring and firing for political reasons?

County Board Presidents Toni Preckwinkle and Richard Phelan, Mayor Harold Washington, State Treasurer Pat Quinn, Cook County Clerk David Orr, and County Assessor Fritz Kaegi all kept political workers (who had campaigned against them) on their payrolls.

But those folks were now going be judged by their job performance, not by their political performance. Carrying their precincts for candidates backed by their Ward or Township Committeemen wasn’t going to cut it anymore.