Word: curleys
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Boston's "Battle of the Plans" is just one more phase in the struggle between the friends of James Michael Curley and the opponents of James Michael Curley. In trying to strengthen his hold on the city, the Mayor has made some enemies, some in his own party, many more among the independent vote. The opposition got a glimmer of hope last year when the Massachusetts State Legislature passed a bill enabling Boston to take advantage of the Uniform Charter Act, which allows a city to choose between five types of city charter if the citizens want a revision. Curley...
...goes on to specify that members of the Council be elected by proportional representation. This means that each citizen would vote on all Council seats, numbering his choices among the candidates in order of preference. Thus the plan wipes out the ward system, the basis for the machine; Curley's power would be sharply narrowed at the bottom, where it means the most...
...factions supporting one or another of the plans. Second-and this made the opposition split fatal-the law states that only one plan may be voted on in any single election; that plan getting the required petition signatures first gets on the ballot to the exclusion of all others. Curley made the most of the situation. The battle shaped up between backers of Plan A, supporters of Plan E and a smaller group behind Plan D. The boss, although stating emphatically that he wanted no change, finally put his organization behind Plan A; it's the least of three evils...
...Plan E backers internally. Finally, officials used a technicality in the law to give petition sheets to Plan A supporters ahead of the others. Plan E people have the case in court now, but regardless of the decision Plan A is almost certain to get on the ballot. Curley's organization has delivered twice the number of necessary signatures once; it can do it again...
...after Christmas that the first menacing signs appeared. The snow waned under furious rains, fought back for one cold night, and then slipped down the drains. For once, the Almighty had come to the rescue of James M. Curley, and had taken away what He had put there. But stranger things were in store: the thermometers climbed to the fifties, resort owners tore their hair, and each succeeding day brought a strange bright glare to the usually gray skies...