Black text on an orange background

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.

Blue text on a white background with a blue outer edge

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.

Black and white photograph of a woman's head in the center with blue text around the outer edge

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.

Red and blue text on a white background

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."

White text on a half blue and half red background

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.

Blue white and red background with white text

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.

White text on a blue background

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.

White text on a blue background

Barack Obama ran as the Democratic nominee in the 2004 election for the United States Senate.  He won 70% of the vote against Republican nominee, Alan Keyes.  Obama had previously served in the Illinois Senate, from 1997-2004.  He served as a U.S. Senator from 2005-2008, before being elected President of the United States in 2008.  

Red white and blue striped background with white text on the red and blue and red and blue stars on the white stripe

The Raleigh Bicycle Company was first established in 1885 in the United Kingdom, named after the street that the first shop was on. The company opened more shops and in 1899 began building motorcycles, exporting their vehicles to countries across Europe and North America through the 1960s. Rampar is a shortening of the name for the American branch of distribution, called Raleigh America Parts. The rights to the name Raleigh USA were bought by the Huffy Corporation in 1982, and both Raleigh and Huffy continue to sell bikes across the world. Today Raleigh bikes and motorcycles are treasured collectors items, and Raleigh is one of the oldest bicycle companies in the world.

Raleigh Bicycle Company. (n.d.). Retrieved November 3, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh_Bicycle_Company.

Color photograph of a woman with pinkish yellow text on top

Jane Byrne served as 50^th Mayor of Chicago, the only woman to hold the position. First entering politics as a volunteer for John F. Kennedy’s 1960 Presidential campaign, Byrne became head of the Consumer Affairs Department of Chicago in 1968. Byrne campaigned to be Mayor of Chicago in the 1979 election against incumbent Michael Bilandic. Against the odds, Byrne won the election and became mayor in 1979. Many cite her victory as a reaction to Bilandic's ineffective leadership in response to a blizzard that occurred during the campaign. Byrne’s term as mayor was characterized by social reforms including recognition of the LGBT community and instituting a ban on unregistered handguns in Chicago. Byrne is perhaps most well known for temporarily moving into the Cabrini-Green housing project, in an effort to highlight the dangerous living conditions in Chicago's public housing. 

Byrne ran for re-election in 1983, but lost to Harold Washington. She ran for mayor three more times, but lost each time. Byrne died in 2014, after which the Circle Interchange in downtown Chicago was renamed the Jane Byrne Interchange in her honor.

Jane Byrne. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Byrne.