George Cox
George “Boss” Cox was a son of English immigrants who grew up in Cincinnati working in several different jobs of a rough and tumble nature. By the 1870s Cox had purchased a bar in one of the city’s most notorious neighborhoods, known as Dead Man’s Corner for the number of unsolved killings which occurred in the area.
As a bartender with a reputation for strong armed tactics, as well as being a large man, Cox was soon recruited to help elected officials gain illegal votes. In 1879 Cox, tired of the multiple raids by the Cincinnati Police on his bar, ran for and won a seat on the City Council, which he held for two terms. The raids on his business stopped.
By 1885 Cox held the position of Chairmen of the Hamilton County Republican Committee, making him the most powerful Republican in the County. He never ran for another government office, instead he used money and patronage to keep voters in his pocket, and selected the candidates for elected office which his voters would then support. Once his candidates were in office Cox directed them to award city jobs and contracts to his loyal supporters.
Cox routinely paid voters from nearby Indiana and Kentucky to vote illegally in Cincinnati elections, and sought support from Democrats by appointing 40% of city jobs to members of that party, for which he required a kickback of a portion of their salary to the Republican Committee. The money thus raised was used to pay for the illegal votes when needed.
Cox pushed his officials to enlarge the city by annexing several of the neighborhoods which surrounded it, hoping to enlarge his voter base and his influence. It proved to be his undoing. As more of the outlying areas entered the city he found a greater number of middle class voters who were not dependent on city largesse and could not be bought. In 1905 William Howard Taft, a Cincinnati native who was then Secretary of War, called the Cox machine “local despotism” despite Taft’s brother being one of Cox’s strongest supporters. Cox retired in 1911 after his candidate for Mayor failed to win election, signifying his control of Cincinnati politics was at an end. He died five years later.