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1927 Chicago mayoral election

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This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page.

The result was: scheduled for Wikipedia:Today's featured article/July 4, 2019 by Jimfbleak - talk to me? 10:31, 14 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thompson campaign poster

In the 1927 Chicago mayoral election, Republican candidate William Hale Thompson (campaign poster pictured) defeated Democratic incumbent William Emmett Dever. Dever had enforced Prohibition despite his opposition to it, which led to rising violence in the city. Thompson, who had been mayor from 1915 to 1923, was openly backed by the mobster Al Capone. He promised to end the enforcement of Prohibition, bitterly attacked his opponents throughout the campaign, and claimed that the United Kingdom was conspiring to take back control of the United States. Dever's supporters attempted to push back against Thompson's rhetoric and claims; they insisted that Dever had the attitude and policies appropriate for the city. Thompson, the last non-Democrat to win a Chicago mayoral election, damaged Chicago's reputation across the United States, and historians rank him among the most unethical mayors in American history. (Full article...)

  • Most recent similar article(s): The most recent political articles was, depending on definition, Cleopatra from June 1, or either Homer Davenport or William H. Seward, both from mid-May. To the best of my searching there hasn't been a Chicago-based TFA in 2019.
  • Main editors: John M Wolfson, SecretName101
  • Promoted: June 5, 2019
  • Reasons for nomination: The July 4 date is to coincide with the Fourth of July and is related to Thompson's jingoism and "America First"-ery during the campaign. If that's insufficient reason any date is acceptable.
  • Support as nominator. – John M Wolfson (talk • contribs) 18:28, 5 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  • (Note: This is in fact an FA, but it might not appear it immediately since the FACBot hasn't gone through yet.) FACBot has gone through. – John M Wolfson (talk • contribs) 19:26, 5 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  • Trimming to proper blurb length, 925-1025 characters. Also, per my note on the FAC talk page, I'm adding this sentence, which comes from the Thompson article: "Historians rank him among the most unethical mayors in American history." - Dank (push to talk) 12:42, 8 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    I'm not entirely sure about the addition of the sentence, as it's from a different article and may be WP:UNDUE/NPOV. As this is my first TFAR, I'll leave it up to the community to decide. I appreciate the rest of your copyediting. – John M Wolfson (talk • contribs) 13:44, 8 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    Good point. I think if Wikipedians believe that whatever sources are relevant support the "most unethical" claim, then this is probably something that needs to be mentioned in the blurb. If it's "true" (in some Wikipedian sense), then it's probably important. Anyone have thoughts on this? Should we ask a question about the statement on the talk page of William Hale Thompson? About the copyediting: happy to help. Even after 11.5 yrs of FAC copyediting, it still makes me nervous ... I don't want you to think your stuff wasn't up to par, I've just got a job to do (condensing, in this case), and I've found that if I have to do it anyway, it's best if I follow my instincts. Feel free to fiddle with it. - Dank (push to talk) 13:54, 8 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    @Dank: I put the "unethical" statement and its source in the article (in the "Aftermath" section), and have copyedited the blurb accordingly. I'll leave it up to the community to sort out any NPOV issues they may see. – John M Wolfson (talk • contribs) 03:15, 9 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    Looks good. I had "American" in the second sentence because people complain with some regularity at WP:ERRORS if we don't mention the country soon enough. (I don't take a position on that.) I don't think there's anything wrong with leaving it the way you have it ... people will change it at ERRORS if they want to. - Dank (push to talk) 03:39, 9 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    Perhaps. I'd like to think that Chicago being in the US should be common knowledge per WP:SKYBLUE, etc., but if they change it they change it. I'll leave it as-is. – John M Wolfson (talk • contribs) 03:45, 9 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support – I would have avoided using "notorious" on the Main Page but I doubt anyone else would complain about that. --- Coffeeandcrumbs 03:53, 9 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
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