page_title: John F. Fitzgerald
section_title: Political career
hierarchical_section_title: John F. Fitzgerald / Political career
caption_attribution_description: Postcard from the Boston, Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce with the slogan "A Bigger, Better Busier Boston".
context_page_description: John Francis "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald was an American politician. Fitzgerald was a Democratic U.S. congressman who won two terms as mayor of Boston and made several unsuccessful runs for statewide office. He made major improvements to the port, and became a patron of the baseball team now known as the Boston Red Sox. Fitzgerald maintained a high profile in the city, with his theatrical style of campaigning and his personal charm and charisma that earned him the nickname "Honey Fitz."
  His daughter Rose Kennedy married Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., a son of his political rival P. J. Kennedy. Rose and Joseph were the parents of President John F. Kennedy, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and Senator Ted Kennedy. In old age, Fitzgerald helped his grandson John F. Kennedy win his first election to Congress.
context_section_description: Fitzgerald was elected to Boston's Common Council in 1891. In 1892, he became a member of the Massachusetts Senate, and in 1894, he was elected to Congress for the 9th district, serving from 1895 to 1901. These early victories came about with support from the powerful boss of Boston's 8th ward, Martin Lomasney. In December 1905, Fitzgerald was elected Mayor of Boston, becoming the first American-born Irish-Catholic to be elected to that office.  In the process, he made an enemy of the powerful Lomasney, who had fielded one of his lieutenants, Edward J. Donovan, for the office. Fitzgerald served as mayor of Boston from 1906 to 1908, was defeated for re-election in December 1907, but won the January 1910 election and returned to the office from 1910 to 1914.
  Of his stylish manner, Robert Dallek wrote: "He was a natural politician—a charming, impish, affable lover of people..... His warmth of character earned him yet another nickname, "Honey Fitz," and he gained a reputation as the only politician who could sing "Sweet Adeline" sober and get away with it. A pixie-like character with florid face, bright eyes, and sandy hair, he was a showman who could have had a career in vaudeville.  But politics, with all the brokering that went into arranging alliances and the hoopla that went into campaigning, was his calling. A verse of the day ran: 'Honey Fitz can talk you blind / on any subject you can find / Fish and fishing, motor boats / Railroads, streetcars, getting votes.'  His gift of gab became known as Fitzblarney, and his followers as "dearos," a shortened version of his description of his district as 'the dear old North End.'"
  Fitzgerald's first term as mayor was little more than a poorly managed jobs-for-votes program, in which the city payroll expanded, and job-seekers were frequently granted provisional positions that did not require passing civil service exams.  He lost the 1907 election in part because his opponent, Republican George A. Hibbard, promised he would be "cleaning up the mess" of his opponent.  The Republican-controlled city and state then attempted to reduce the influence of Democratic Irish ward bosses in Boston politics by altering the city charter.  They eliminated the large common council, replaced the board of aldermen with a nine-seat city council, and extended the mayor's term to four years.  His January 1910 reelection bid was almost scuttled by a bribery scandal involving no-bid contracts with kickbacks during his first term.  Fitzgerald managed to escape prosecution, but made a long-term enemy in Daniel H. Coakley, an Irish lawyer who had defended one of the key figures in the business.  In addition to contending with Lomasney's renewed opposition, he also had to contend with the rising star of James Michael Curley, who was kept out of the race by offering him Fitzgerald's old Congressional seat.  Fitzgerald won a narrow victory in the election, against James J. Storrow, a stiff Protestant Boston Brahmin.
  Early in his first term as Boston's mayor, Fitzgerald formulated a plan to revitalize the commercial importance of the city under the banner of "A bigger, busier and better Boston".  This plan died with his first term, but gained traction after his reelection. Fitzgerald was able to persuade businesses and the Massachusetts legislature to invest $9 million for improvements to the port by 1912. Within a year, the investments began to pay off in the form of new port traffic to and from Europe.
  He was for years the most prominent political figure in the city of Boston, where P. J. Kennedy was a more behind-the-scenes Democratic Party figure. P. J. opposed Honey Fitz when the latter first ran for mayor, but they later became allies. In 1914, these two powerful political families (Kennedy and Fitzgerald) were united when P. J.'s son Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. married Fitzgerald's eldest daughter Rose.
  Fitzgerald had, in the runup to the January 1910 election, promised Curley that he would not run for another term as mayor, since it was a position Curley sought.  But in 1913, Fitzgerald decided to run for 
caption: The "Bigger, Busier and Better Boston" campaign, 1907.
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