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Urban Politics: Taking advantage of

immigrants…?

The Political Machine

•Offers services to voters and businesses in exchange for political and financial support

City bosses – helped elect candidate/worked for candidate

Ward boss – did favors for services

Captains-support at local level

Why would the political machine help out immigrants?

The Corruption

Getting candidates elected: Rigged elections, voter fraud

so they could…. Making money off elections:

Grafting – I will get you a job building a bridge, then overcharge for the bridge and give me some of the money (kick backs)!!!

Accepting bribes to allow illegal activity (gambling) Police officers fired if did not comply (hired and

fired by the mayor)

The Tweed Scandal

•Boss Tweed: head NYC’s Tammany Hall

•Stealing from the city: The Court house construction

•$13 million for a $3 million project

Sound okay???

• A carpenter was paid $360,751 (roughly $4.9 million today) for one month's labor in a building with very little woodwork.

• A furniture contractor received $179,729 ($2.5 million) for three tables and 40 chairs.

• the plasterer, got $133,187 ($1.82 million) for two days' work; his business acumen earned him the sobriquet "The Prince of Plasterers."

• When a committee investigated why it took so long to build the courthouse, it spent $7,718 ($105,000) to print its report. The printing company was owned by Tweed.

Money Taken…

An estimated 75 to 200 million dollars were swindled from the City between 1865 and 1871

In the 1930s, reform mayor Fiorello la Guardia, backed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, sharply reduced the power and influence of Tammany Hall. It was finally ended by another reform mayor, John V. Lindsay, in the 1960s.

What is the irony in all of this???The political machine helped immigrants in

the short term, but hurt them in the long term Money “stolen” could have gone to programs to pull

immigrants out of poverty Increased negative attitudes towards immigrants

Who is to blame?

Mayor of New Jersey's capital arrested on corruption charge – September 2012

(Reuters) - The mayor of Trenton, New Jersey's state capital, was arrested at his home on Monday and charged with taking bribes in connection with a proposed parking garage on city-owned land.

Mayor Tony Mack, along with his brother Ralphiel Mack and associate Joseph Giorgianni, are accused of plotting to accept $119,000 from a man posing as the developer, according to Paul Fishman, U.S. attorney for New Jersey.

The mayor's brother and Giorgianni acted as intermediaries to the purported developer and his consultant, who were cooperating with authorities, Fishman told a news conference in Trenton.

The deal involved selling city-owned land about two blocks from the federal courthouse to the would-be developer for a fraction of its value and getting money back in exchange, the U.S. attorney said.

Why does this happen?