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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.

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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.  

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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.

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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.

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James Dooley was a Democratic lawyer from the state of Illinois. Upon passing the Illinois Bar exam in 1937, he worked as an attorney and at Clarke College. In 1976, he successfully ran for the Supreme Court of Illinois. Dooley served in this capacity until his death in 1978.  

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Known as the "father of the Illinois constitution," Samuel W. Witwer was a Chicago lawyer who was born in Colorado in 1908. Witwer unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Paul H. Douglas in 1960. He attended Dickinson College and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1933. He was the Illinois state chairman for the Committee for Constitutional Revision from 1950-1957, and was chosen as president of an Illinois state constitutional convention in 1968. Witwer was board president of Dickinson College for 15 years and director of several civic organizations such as the Chicago Urban League, the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, and Citizens for a Greater Chicago. He died in 1998.

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William Joseph “Joe” Walsh is a Republican politician turned conservative talk radio host from the Chicago area. In 1996, Walsh was the Republican contender for Illinois’ 9th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He lost to the long-time incumbent Democrat Sidney R. Yates. This button is most likely from that campaign. In 1998, Walsh campaigned of the 58th district seat in the Illinois House of Representatives, eventually losing the election to the incumbent Democrat. 

Walsh considered himself a moderate Republican in the 1990s, but gradually grew more conservative. In the 2010 mid-term elections, Walsh surprisingly upset the incumbent Democrat and won Illinois’ 8th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He served one term in the House, from 2011 to 2013, and was a popular figure within the Tea Party movement. Walsh was defeated in the 2012 election by Democrat Tammy Duckworth, and, as of 2015, he hosts a Chicago-based conservative talk radio show.