First Election To The U.S. House
In 1910 while a member of the Boston Board of Aldermen, Curley decided to run for the 10th District U.S. congressional seat then occupied by Joseph F. O'Connell. (In the previous general election O'Connell won by a four-vote margin over his Republican opponent, ex-City Clerk J. Mitchell Galvin.) In a three-way primary among O'Connell, Curley, and O'Connell's predecessor William S. McNary, Curley defeated O'Connell and McNary. Despite the majority of the electorate being opposed to the growing Irish-American power in the district, the Irish Mob had extended its criminal corruption throughout the state and executed a major campaign at intimidating voters in marginal wards, stuffing ballot boxes, and other electoral corruption. After winning the nomination of the Democratic party Curley went on to win the general election, despite the actual number of voters, by a substantial plurality over Galvin, who was again the Republican nominee.
Read more about this topic: James Michael Curley
Famous quotes containing the words election and/or house:
“Now that the election is over, may not all, having a common interest, re-unite in a common effort, to save our common country?”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“You see how this House of Commons has begun to verify all the ill prophecies that were made of it—low, vulgar, meddling with everything, assuming universal competency, and flattering every base passion—and sneering at everything noble refined and truly national. The direct tyranny will come on by and by, after it shall have gratified the multitude with the spoil and ruin of the old institutions of the land.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)