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William Singer was first elected as the alderman of Chicago's 44th ward in 1969, with a victory of only 429 votes. He later led an insurgency with Reverend Jesse Jackson against Richard J. Daley at the Democratic National Convention in 1972, succeeding in replacing Daley's delegates. He later ran for mayor against Daley, but was defeated in a landslide. He ended his career in politics and entered into a private law firm in the 1980s.

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Cartoonist Thomas Nash invented the Republican Party symbol, the elephant, for a cartoon published in Harper's Weekly in 1874. The cartoon depicted a donkey, who was dressed as a lion, scaring the other zoo animals including an elephant labeled "The Republican Vote." Since that cartoon was published, the elephant has been a symbol of the Republican Party due to the fact that the animal is perceived as strong and dignified.

The Republican Party, or Grand Old Party (GOP), is one of the two major political parties within the United States of America. Beginning in the Northern states, the party preserved the Union and promoted the abolishment of slavery and provided equal rights to all men.  Anti-slavery advocates and other conservatives founded the Republican Party.  Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican President of the United States in 1860.  

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Republican Peter “Pete” Bensinger unsuccessfully ran for Sheriff of Cook County, Illinois in 1974 against Democratic incumbent Richard Elrod. Prior to running for Sheriff, Bensinger was the director of the Chicago Crime Commission, and served as the Chairman of the Illinois Youth Commission. He was also the director of the Illinois Department of Corrections under former Illinois Governor Richard Ogilvie. Despite losing the campaign to Elrod, Bensinger went on to serve as the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) from 1976 to 1981. He was appointed to the position by President Gerald Ford, and continued in the role under both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. In 1982, Bensinger founded the private professional services company Bensinger, DuPont & Associates. He currently serves as the company's President and CEO. 

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This button is in support of Republican Richard B. Ogilvie’s 1968 Illinois gubernatorial campaign. Ogilvie won the 1968 election with 51.2% of the vote. Ogilvie’s Lieutenant Governor, Paul Simon, was a Democrat. It was the only time in Illinois history that the Governor and Lieutenant Governor hailed from different political parties.

Despite serving only one term, Ogilvie is considered by some to have been one of the best governors in Illinois’ history. His notable achievements include establishing an income tax which boosted the state’s economy; creating an antipollution program; and developing or restructuring several agencies within the government like the Illinois Bureau of Investigation and the Human Rights Commission.

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This button is supporting the 1956 Democratic presidential ticket of Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kevauver. Stevenson and Kefauver lost the election to incumbent President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard M. Nixon 57.4% to 42%. 1956 was the second time Stevenson lost the election for U.S. president. In 1952, he and Senator John Sparkman of Alabama lost to Eisenhower and Nixon, 55% to 45%.

Stevenson had served as Governor of Illinois from 1949-1953 and, following his presidential runs, served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 1961-1965. During the October, 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Stevenson presented U-2 spy plane photos to the UN Security Council that showed evidence of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba.

Kefauver, a US senator from Tennessee, still held his senate seat after the 1956 defeat. He was named chair of the U.S. Senate Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee in 1957. He co-authored the 1962 Kefauver-Harris Amendments, which required drug manufacturers to disclose drug side effects and allowed their drugs to become available generically after the patents expired.

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Carol Mosley Braun began her political career in 1978 as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives.  Prior to her appointment, Braun was a prosecuting attorney for the United States Attorney's office in Chicago from 1973 to 1977.  Braun served as a United States Senator for Illinois from 1993 to 1999, making her the first female Senator from Illinois as well as the first African-American female to serve in the Senate.  Braun's Senatorial race was not without controversy, in 1993 the Federal Election Commission investigated Braun for over $249,000 of unaccounted-for campaign funds.  Braun proved it was all accounting errors and was not officially charged.  After her term as a Senator, she worked under President Bill Clinton from 1999-2001 as the Ambassador to New Zealand.

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Democrat Howard W. Carroll was born in Chicago in 1942. His father was a Democratic Party operative, and good friends with long-time Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley. Carroll earned his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Roosevelt University and his JD from the DePaul University School of Law. 

This button is from Carroll’s 1998 campaign for Illinois' 9th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Carroll lost the primary election to eventual winner Jan Schakowsky. Prior to his 1998 congressional run, Carroll served for 26 years as a state Senator in the Illinois General Assembly. Carroll was considered the “insider” in the 1998 congressional election due to his extended service in the Illinois state government, as well as his family’s connection to Chicago's Democratic "machine."

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This button was distributed in 1994 by radio talk show host Don Wade in the wake of the Whitewater scandal. The Whitewater scandal was a controversy concerning President Bill Clinton and his alleged involvement in illegal loans and real estate investments with the Whitewater Development Corporation. The controversy led to an investigation by Arkansas state judges as well as by the United States Congress, which led to a media frenzy. The Clintons were ultimately acquitted of any wrongdoing.

Don Wade was a popular radio broadcaster in Chicago, often reporting on local and national politics and known for putting his own satirical spin on the topics. Wade distributed the buttons from his belief that Clinton’s presidential career would not recover from the Whitewater controversy and that Al Gore, his vice-president, would run for the presidency later in 1994. Wade continued to be popular on the Chicago airwaves until his death in 2013, after 55 years on the radio.

Smith, Mitch. (2013, Sept 9). Longtime Radio Host Don Wade Dies at 72. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-09-09/news/chi-don-wade-dead-20130908_1_radio-host-radio-show-morning-show-host.

Whitewater Controversy. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitewater_controversy.

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In 1987 Donald Haider was chosen by Chicago's Republican Party to be their candidate in the mayoral election. Haider, a former city budget director, was at the time a professor of public management at Northwestern University. Running against him were incumbent Mayor Harold Washington, the city’s first African-American mayor, and Jane Byrne, the city’s first female mayor. Harold Washington won the election with 55% of the votes and stayed on for a second term as mayor, while Haider won only 3.5% of the votes, returning to Northwestern University after the election.

Chicago Mayoral Eleection, 1987. (n.d.). Retrieved November 6, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_mayoral_election,_1987.

Kass, John. (1986, Dec 3). GOP Committeemen Endorse Haider Over Epton for Mayor. The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-12-03/news/8603310514_1_bernard-epton-gop-candidate-donald-haider.

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Not Fonda Kerry was an anti-John Kerry organization that emerged during the 2004 United States Presidential Election. The organization supported the questioning of Kerry’s military service and Vietnam War record, which was a larger controversy that emerged during the campaign. The accusations first came from a group called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which called into question the legitimacy of Kerry’s military awards and missions during the Vietnam War. The allegations proved false, and the term “swiftboating” entered the common vernacular as a description of an untrue political attack  As of 2015, the website named at the bottom of the button is no longer active.