Some reading to learn from....Tammany Hall

[WNYresident]

Tammany Hall


Reading material


Political boss

A boss, in politics, is a person who wields the power over a particular political region or constituency.

Bosses may dictate voting patterns, control appointments, and wield considerable influence in other political processes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_boss

Here is someone you can learn a lot from.

William M. Tweed

William Magear Tweed (April 3, 1823 – April 12, 1878) – often erroneously referred to as William Marcy Tweed (see below),^[1] and widely known as "Boss" Tweed – was an American politician most notable for being the "boss" of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th century New York City and State. At the height of his influence, Tweed was the third-largest landowner in New York City, a director of the Erie Railway, the Tenth National Bank, and the New-York Printing Company, as well as proprietor of the Metropolitan Hotel.^[2]

[WNYresident]

Corruption

After the election of 1869, Tweed took control of the New York City government. His protégé, John Hoffman, the former mayor of the city, won election as governor, and Tweed garnered the support of good government reformers like Peter Cooper and the Union League Club, by proposing a new city charter which returned power to City Hall at the expense of the Republican-inspired state commissions. The new charter passed, thanks in part to $600,000 in bribes Tweed paid to Republicans, and was signed into law by Hoffman in 1870. Mandated new elections allowed Tammany to take over the city's Common Council when they won all fifteen aldermanic contests.[9]

[WNYresident]

The Tammany Hall ward boss or ward heeler – "wards" were the city's smallest political units from 1686 to 1938 – served as the local vote gatherer and provider of patronage.

However, Tammany Hall also served as an engine for graft and political corruption, perhaps most infamously under William M. "Boss" Tweed in the mid-19th century.

Who does that sound like?

[WNYresident]

Political machine

A political machine (or simply machine) is a disciplined political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses (usually campaign workers), who receive rewards for their efforts. The power of the machine is based on the ability of the workers to get out the vote for their candidates on election day.

Function

A political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives – money, political jobs – and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership control over member activity.

"Political machine" started as a grass-roots campaign to gain the patronage needed to win the modern election. Having strong patronage, these "clubs" were the main driving force in gaining and getting out the "straight party vote" in the election districts.[7]

[buffy]

The Tammany Hall ward boss or ward heeler – "wards" were the city's smallest political units from 1686 to 1938 – served as the local vote gatherer and provider of patronage.

That must be how Dennis & Dan's family name came to be.

[WNYresident]

Political corruption

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by private persons or corporations not directly involved with the government. An illegal act by an officeholder constitutes political corruption only if the act is directly related to their official duties, is done under color of law or involves trading in influence.

Forms of corruption vary, but include bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, and embezzlement. While corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking, it is not restricted to these activities.

The activities that constitute illegal corruption differ depending on the country or jurisdiction. For instance, certain political funding practices that are legal in one place may be illegal in another. In some cases, government officials have broad or poorly defined powers, which make it difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal actions. Worldwide, bribery alone is estimated to involve over 1 trillion US dollars annually.[1] A state of unrestrained political corruption is known as a kleptocracy, literally meaning "rule by thieves".

[WNYresident]

Cronyism


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cronyism is partiality to long-standing friends, especially by appointing them to positions of authority, regardless of their qualifications. Hence, cronyism is contrary in practice and principle to meritocracy.
Cronyism exists when the appointer and the beneficiary are in social contact; often, the appointer is inadequate to hold his or her own job or position of authority, and for this reason the appointer appoints individuals who will not try to weaken him or her, or express views contrary to those of the appointer. Politically, "cronyism" is derogatorily used.

Patronage

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors. It can also refer to the right of bestowing offices or church benefices, the business given to a store by a regular customer, and the guardianship of saints. The term derives from the Latin patrons, the formal relationship between a Patronus and his Cliens.[citation needed]

In some countries the term is used to describe political patronage, which is the use of state resources to reward individuals for their electoral support. Some patronage systems are legal, as in the Canadian tradition of allowing the Prime Minister to appoint the heads of a number of commissions and agencies; in many cases, these appointments go to people who have supported the political party of the Prime Minister. As well, the term may refer to a type of corruption or favoritism in which a party in power rewards groups, families, ethnicities for their electoral support using illegal gifts or fraudulently-awarded appointments or government contracts.

Nepotism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives or friends regardless of merit.[1] The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis (m. "nephew"), from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended.

Effects on politics, administration, and institutions

Corruption poses a serious development challenge. In the political realm, it undermines democracy and good governance by flouting or even subverting formal processes. Corruption in elections and in legislative bodies reduces accountability and distorts representation in policymaking; corruption in the judiciary compromises the rule of law; and corruption in public administration results in the inefficient provision of services. It violates a basic principle of republicanism regarding the centrality of civic virtue. More generally, corruption erodes the institutional capacity of government as procedures are disregarded, resources are siphoned off, and public offices are bought and sold. At the same time, corruption undermines the legitimacy of government and such democratic values as trust and tolerance.

It basically ends up costing us more to live in our community.

[WNYresident]

Conditions favorable for corruption

Size of public sector

Extensive and diverse public spending is, in itself, inherently at risk of cronyism, kickbacks, and embezzlement. Complicated regulations and arbitrary, unsupervised official conduct exacerbate the problem. This is one argument for privatization and deregulation. Opponents of privatization see the argument as ideological. The argument that corruption necessarily follows from the opportunity is weakened by the existence of countries with low to non-existent corruption but large public sectors, like the Nordic countries.[19] However, these countries score high on the Ease of Doing Business Index, due to good and often simple regulations, and have rule of law firmly established. Therefore, due to their lack of corruption in the first place, they can run large public sectors without inducing political corruption.

Read the full article...

[WNYresident]

Corruption in local government

Certain demographic factors may exist within a municipality that can lead to or encourage corruption within a local government. Demographic factors pertain to demography which is the study of human population statistics, changes, and trends including personal characteristics of humans like population size, migration, age, gender, social class, level of education, race, religion, occupation, and family status. Because there are many factors that can lead to corruption in local government it is hard to study corruption patterns empirically, but recently, improved research strategies and information sources have made such studies better.

Nepotism is the practice or inclination to favor a group or person who is a relative when giving promotions, jobs, raises, and other benefits to employees. This is often based on the concept of familism which is believing that a person must always respect and favor family in all situations including those pertaining to politics and business. This leads some political officials to give privileges and positions of authority to relatives based on relationships and regardless of their actual abilities.

Patronage systems consist of the granting favors, contracts, or appointments to positions by a local public office holder or candidate for a political office in return for political support. Many times patronage is used to gain support and votes in elections or in passing legislation. Patronage systems disregard the formal rules of a local government and use personal instead of formalized channels to gain an advantage.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Go read that one..

[WNYresident]

Does NYS have a law/rule somewhat like this?

Introduction

Public employees -- employees and volunteers of state, county, and municipal agencies -- have most of the same rights as other citizens to engage in private political activity. However, the conflict of interest law, G.L. c. 268A, restricts some political activity of public employees. In addition, the campaign finance law, G.L. c. 55, restricts public employees’ political fundraising. The campaign finance law is enforced by the Office of Campaign and Political Finance ("OCPF"). Questions regarding the campaign finance law should be directed to OCPF. This Advisory addresses restrictions on public employee political activity imposed by the conflict of interest law.

In their public roles, public employees are subject to Section 23(b)(2)(ii) of the conflict of interest law. That section provides that public employees may not knowingly (or with reason to know) use or attempt to use their official positions to secure for themselves or others unwarranted privileges or exemptions of substantial value that are not properly available to similarly situated individuals. Section 23(b)(2)(ii) restricts the extent to which public employees may engage in political activity in their public roles, or use public resources in connection with such political activity.

This section:
May Not Do: Political Activities by Public Employees That Generally Are Prohibited by the Conflict of Interest Law

Subject to these exceptions, a public employee may not engage in political activity, whether election-related or non-election related, on his public work time; while acting in his official capacity or while in his official uniform; in a public building (except where equal access for such political activity is allowed to all similarly situated persons); or with the use of other public resources, such as staff time, public office space and facilities, public office equipment such as computers, copiers, and communications equipment, public websites and links to public websites, or public office supplies such as official stationery.

Below are further examples of election-related political activities that public employees MAY NOT DO. Public employees MAY NOT:

send campaign-related documents using official fax machines use a public office telephone to make campaign-related calls
if appointed, perform election campaign tasks while on public work time,

[Riven37]

Most of NYS politics and laws are based on the old Tammany rulings LOL

[WNYresident]

Most of NYS politics and laws are based on the old Tammany rulings LOL

No crap Sherlock... They wrote the book on it

[Riven37]

Sherlock ! gee Watson, thanks for the complement LOL

[WNYresident]

Chicago Patronage...

From the late nineteenth century until the 1931 election of Anton Cermak, the ward was the locus of patronage politics. After Cermak's election, the rise of the Kelly-Nash machine (later the Richard J. Daley machine) centered patronage politics in City Hall. Jobs, money, and insider contracts fueled these organizations, and the basic premise of political patronage in Chicago, as well as in the state government, was that “one hand washes the other.”

Learn some more

Encyclopedia of chicago

This system gave the party several resources: the ability to raise campaign money, an energetic army of campaign precinct workers, and enormous power over the selection and election of candidates. It also resulted in a bloated government workforce that was frequently more focused on campaign work and pleasing political sponsors than serving the public. The system of awarding noncompetitive, expensive contracts to the small circle of contributing political insiders often resulted in shoddy services and wasted tax money. Federal grants to city governments during Richard J. Daley's tenure as mayor provided an especially rich source of patronage.

[WNYresident]

People need to read more....

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedicti...ical+patronage

patronage

State and local governments have employed large patronage systems. Big-city political machines in places such as New York, Boston, and Chicago thrived in the late nineteenth century. A patronage system not only rewards political supporters for past support, it also encourages future support, because persons who have a patronage job try to retain it by campaigning for the party at the next election.

Large-scale patronage systems declined steadily during the twentieth century. During the Progressive Era (1900–1920), "good government" reformers overthrew political machines and installed civil service systems. Chicago, under Mayor Richard J. Daley, remained the last bastion of patronage, existing in its purest form until the late 1970s.