Mayor of Boston
With the city of Boston turning increasingly Irish American the power of the Irish mob also increased, resulting in the departure of a large number of the city's native American Yankee working and middle class to the suburbs. In turn, Curley's reign as kingpin of the Boston Irish Mob allowed him to win four terms as Mayor of Boston: 1914–1918, 1922–1926, 1930–1934 and 1946–1950.
As a result of the extensive corruption in city politics, and as part of federal and state government efforts to curb the mob, several investigations were finally conducted against Curley's machine. As World War Two got underway, Curley saw an opportunity to expand the Irish mob's influence in the defense industry. After several campaigns involving bribery, Curley finally faced felony indictment. Nonetheless, Curley's popularity with the Irish American community in Boston remained so high, that even in the face of this indictment he was re-elected on the slogan "Curley Gets Things Done" winning an unprecedented fourth term as mayor of Boston in 1945. A second indictment by a federal grand jury, for mail fraud, did not harm his campaign and Curley won the election with 45% of the vote.
Read more about this topic: James Michael Curley
Famous quotes containing the words mayor and/or boston:
“Without infringing on the liberty we so much boast, might we not ask our professional Mayor to call upon the smokers, have them register their names in each ward, and then appoint certain thoroughfares in the city for their use, that those who feel no need of this envelopment of curling vapor, to insure protection may be relieved from a nuisance as disgusting to the olfactories as it is prejudicial to the lungs.”
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“If nobody knows you that does not argue that you be unknown, nobody knew Ida when they no longer lived in Boston but that did not mean that she was unknown.”
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