Nepotism in politics is back in the news, if it ever actually left. Alderperson Walter Burnett Jr. is resigning from the City Council, and hopes to see his 29-year-old son, Walter III, appointed to his seat. All indications are that Mayor Brandon Johnson will honor the father’s wish to pass his job down to the next generation of Burnetts. As Mike Royko wrote in Boss, nepotism “is part of the system of the Machine…A Chicago Rip Van Winkle could awaken to the political news columns and, reading the names, think that time had stood still.” Royko then offered a Biblical accounting of fathers who had passed down power to their sons: “Edward Dunne, mayor, begat Robert Jerome Dunne, judge; John J. Touhy, ward boss and holder of many offices, begat John M. Touhy, Illinois House Speaker,” and so on and so forth. In Chicago, power is not earned, it’s inherited. Here are profiles of some of our city’s most prolific political families.

The Harrisons: Carter Harrison III was the first Chicago mayor to be assassinated, shot by a deranged office seeker in 1893. Soon after, his son Carter IV was elected mayor and served for five terms.

The Stevensons: The Stevenson dynasty started with Adlai I, who was vice president during Grover Cleveland’s second term. He passed on the name Adlai to his grandson, who was governor of Illinois and twice lost presidential elections to Dwight D. Eisenhower. Adlai III was state treasurer, then U.S. senator, but lost two elections for governor. The family is up to Adlai V now, but younger Adlais have not been involved in politics.

The Ryans: Dan Ryan was president of the Cook County Board. His son, Dan Ryan, was a Cook County Commissioner. The Dan Ryan Expressway was named for the second Dan Ryan. The Daniel Ryan Woods Forest Preserve was named for the first Dan Ryan. Got that straight?

The Burkes: Ed Burke inherited his City Council seat and his position on the Cook County Democratic Party’s Central Committee from his father, Joe. Once he was in power, Burke began passing out offices to other family members. Because every ward boss needs a guy in Springfield, he got his brother Dan elected to the Illinois House of Representatives. Then he put his wife, Anne, on the state Supreme Court. It’s been a hard fall for the Burke family, though. Dan was defeated for re-election by an ally of Chuy Garica, a nemesis of Burke’s. In 2023, Ed finally gave up his City Council seat after 54 years. He was recently released from prison after serving nine months of a two-year sentence for racketeering and bribery.

The Mells: After moving to Chicago from Muskegon, Michigan, Dick Mell got into politics, winning election as alderperson of the 33rd Ward in 1975. Like his South Side counterpart Ed Burke, he also wanted a guy in Springfield, so he asked his son-in-law, Rod Blagojevich, to run for the legislature. With Mell’s support, Blagojevich was elected to Congress, then the governorship. (After Rod went to prison, Mell said he should have left the kid in the state legislature until he got bored and went back to practicing law.) Mell replaced his guy in the state House with a gal: his daughter Deb. Then he resigned from the City Council and handed the aldership to Deb, who held on to it until she was defeated by Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez.

The Daleys: The longest-lasting dynasty of them all began in 1936, when Richard J. Daley was elected to the state House. Daley patiently climbed the ladder, to state senator, county clerk, chairman of the county party, and finally, mayor. His cousin, John Daley, was a state legislator and ward boss. When Richard J.’s son Richard M. came of age, Daley persuaded a state senator to step down so Richie could take his seat. Running on the Daley name, Rich was elected state’s attorney, then mayor, where he served for 22 years, one year longer than his father. Rich’s brother John sits on the Cook County Board and is committeeman of the 11th Ward, like his father before him. Another brother, Bill, was Secretary of Commerce and White House chief of staff, but failed in his run for mayor in 2019. Richard J.’s grandson, Patrick Daley Thompson, who lives in the family bungalow on South Lowe Avenue, was 11th Ward alderperson, but had to step down for lying to federal bank regulators and filing false tax returns. Thompson was proof of the three generation rule: the first generation builds, the second generation maintains, the third generation throws it all away.

The Simons: Senator Paul Simon’s daughter, Sheila served a term as lieutenant governor, but failed to win election as comptroller, thus proving that the lieutenant governorship is a dead-end job, no matter how famous your name.

The Jacksons: Jesse Jackson Sr. moved to Chicago from North Carolina in 1966, handpicked by Martin Luther King to head the Chicago arm of the Southern Christian Leadership Council’s economic arm, Operation Breadbasket. After King was assassinated, Jackson emerged as the nation’s most prominent civil rights leader. When his son, Jesse Jackson Jr., was 30, he ran in a special election for a South Side Congressional seat, and won on the magic of the Jackson name. Jesse Jr. served 17 years, until he was convicted of spending $750,000 in campaign funds on personal purchases, such as a Michael Jackson fedora and  cashmere items. That did nothing to tarnish the family name. Jesse Jr.’s brother, Jonathan Jackson, was elected to the U.S. House in 2022, from the other South Side seat. And now Jesse Jr. is considering running again for his old seat, so there could be two Jacksons in the House from Illinois.