Certain individuals have been able to maintain an unusually strong control over state and local politics. Often known as "party bosses," these men used shady methods to obtain office and manipulate policy for their own purposes. This collage shows William Marcy ?Boss? Tweed from New York City in the 1860s-1870s, James Michael Curley Massachusetts between 1900-1950, and more recently Richard Joseph Daley from Chicago in the 1950s through 1976.