Word: warded
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...President did not fire Butz then and there in part because Butz claimed, incorrectly, that he had been quoted out of context and that he had actually said something like "Things have come a long way since the days when a ward politician could say ..." before delivering his bomb. Moreover, Ford hates to make decisions under pressure. More important, he is genuinely fond of the Secretary. ("We think alike," the President once said. "I love to work with him.") Not least of all, Ford was afraid that firing Butz would hurt his election chances in the key farm states...
...patronage, contracts, legal fees and other material incentives are the fuel the machine requires to function, then the regular Democratic ward organizations are the engines which use that fuel to keep the machine running strong. They are the base the machine rests on. The city is broken into 50 wards, each with its own boss, the ward committeeman, who is elected in the party's mayoral primary. Committeemen choose the man who will run for alderman or for the state legislature from their area--subject to Daley's approval naturally--and they often pick themselves. Since Democrats usually...
...ensure that advantage, jobs and other benefits are not given out piecemeal, but are used as "organizational cement." According to Johnny and Peter, who is also an 11th ward precinct captain, each ward is given a certain number of city and county (and state, when it is under regular Democratic control) jobs to hand out as it pleases. Tommy Donovan, the mayor's administrative assistant, is in charge of patronage for the city. He knows which jobs are open and who controls them. Since different positions carry different salaries and prestige, Donovan makes sure that the actual job distribution matches...
This system is so organized that certain desks throughout City Hall are said to be "owned" by a given ward. Let's say Johnny is a planner level two, a job he got through the 11th ward, and he wants a promotion to a recently vacated planner-three position. To obtain it he has to go through his ward committeeman, Richie Daley, the mayor's son. If Johnny has been delivering his precinct, Richie will bargain with whomever "owns" the planning job, and he may be forced to trade a plumbing inspectorship...
Along with the privileges of patronage, however, go a few drawbacks. For example, most patronage workers must donate a certain portion of their salary (usually about 4 per cent) to their local ward office. This duty is often fulfilled by attending functions like $500-a-plate fundraising dinners. All patronage workers also face the possibility that the machine will be turned out of office. Precinct captain Peter lost his cozy $25,000 state job when independent Daniel Walker was elected governor in 1972 and fired hundreds of Daley people in a futile attempt to build his own political machine...