For all its chronic corruption, patronage, and nepotism, the Chicago Democratic political machine has always interested me as an example of legendary political success. //

It was the 1970s when Mayor Richard J. Daley, the portly Chicago native whose 74-year-old heart was weakening, unbeknownst to him. For 21 long years, he would rule the Democrat machine of The City That Worked by being publicly jolly but internally iron-fisted.

As with most dictators, Daley permitted no potential rivals to flourish. Which resulted in considerable chaos when he suddenly died in 1976. //

I was a newspaper correspondent in Chicago in the 70s and 80s. I had an office assistant I’ll call Evie. One autumn evening she was walking home on the North Side, grocery bags in both hands, when a mugger with a long knife leapt from the bushes.

Terrified, she relinquished her purse. The assailant ran off. //

Which reminded him to remind her that the election for mayor was on that coming Tuesday. She probably knew that Mayor Daley was seeking his sixth term and the precinct captain hoped she’d support the man who employed the men who had taken such good care of her.

The result, which helps explain nearly a century of one party’s political dominance there, was that on Tuesday Evie cast her ballot to reelect the same man who presided over Chicago that scary night when she got mugged on a dark stretch of city sidewalk.