The politics of city services

When 47th Ward Alderman John Hoellen ran for re-election in 1971 (against Mayor Daley’s choice), the Department of Streets and Sanitation did not pick up garbage during the weeks prior to Election Day, knowing voters would blame the Alderman, not the city, for the accumulation of refuse. Hoellen won, anyway.

And when 44th Ward Alderman Dick Simpson ran for re-election in 1975 (against Mayor Daley’s choice), city crews stopped towing abandoned cars that had been left on 44th ward streets. Only when a Simpson campaign worker got his hands on a bunch of “Re-elect Mayor Daley” signs and put them on all those cars, were they removed. Simpson won, too.