Peter Cacchione
{{short description|American politician}}
{{use mdy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Peter Cacchione
| image = Cacchione, Peter V. Undated Trim Edit.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Cacchione {{circa}} 1943
| office = Member of the New York City Council
from Brooklyn At-Large
| preceded =
| term_start = January 1, 1942
| term_end = November 6, 1947
| predecessor = Multi-member district
| successor = Jack Kranis
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1897|11|01}}
| birth_place = Syracuse, New York, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1947|11|06|1897|11|01}}
| death_place = New York City, U.S.
| nationality =
| party = Communist
| occupation = Labor Leader, attorney, activist, politician
| known_for = First Communist elected to the New York City Council
| education =
| spouse = Dorothy
| children = Bernard
}}
Peter Vincent "Pete" Cacchione (November 1, 1897 – November 6, 1947) was an American communist labor leader and politician who was the first member of the Communist Party elected to the New York City Council, serving from 1942 until his death in 1947.
Early life
Peter Vincent Cacchione was born to an Italian-American immigrant family in Syracuse, New York, on November 1, 1897, and grew up in Sayre, Pennsylvania. After graduating high school, he was director of sports activities for the Catholic Welfare Council, later becoming a steel worker in Bethlehem, a street car conductor, riveter and trainman on the Lackawanna Railroad. According to fellow communist city councilman Benjamin J. Davis and newspaper accounts, Cacchione served in World War I.{{Cite book |last=Davis |first=Benjamin J. |author-link=Benjamin J. Davis Jr. |title=Communist Councilman From Harlem |url=https://archive.org/details/communistcouncil0000unse/page/170/mode/1up |year=1969 |page=170 |publisher=International Publishers |location=New York}}{{cite web |title=Peter V. Cacchione Papers |url=https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/tamwag/tam_073/ |website=findingaids.library.nyu.edu |publisher=Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives |access-date=15 July 2025}}
Career
File:The Daily Worker 29 October 1937 Page 8.jpg, October 29, 1937]]
Cacchione joined the Communist Party USA in 1932 and led a delegation of the communist-affiliated Workers Ex-Service Men's League in the 1932 Bonus March on Washington, D.C. He became National Commander of the League in 1935.
Cacchione moved to the Bronx, New York in 1932 and was elected Bronx County Chairman of the CPUSA in 1934. After relocating to Brooklyn in 1936, he was elected Kings County Chairman of the CPUSA.
In 1936, New York City voters amended the City Charter to implement the proportional representation system for council elections beginning with the 1937 election cycle. Cacchione ran that year losing by a slim margin of only 300 votes. He ran again in 1939 but was thrown off the ballot along with all the other communist candidates on procedural technicalities. He was finally elected for the first time in 1941 and re-elected in 1943 and 1945; the last time receiving the full quota of 74,000 votes.
Immediately after his election in 1941, Councilman Hugh Quinn, Democrat of Queens, announced that he would challenge Cacchione's right to sit on the Council pursuant to the Devaney Law. Other Council members opined that they preferred him to openly disseminate his political doctrines on the council rather than to do so through "underground channels." Despite Cacchione's political affiliation, he came to be genuinely popular and well-liked by his fellow councilmen.
Personal life and death
File:The Daily Worker 7 November 1947 Front Page.jpg the day after Cacchione's death, November 7, 1947]]
Cacchione was an attorney by trade and married to his wife Dorothy with one son, Bernard, born in 1940.{{Cite news |date=7 November 1947 |title=CACCHIONE DEAD; COUNCIL MEMBER; First Avowed Communist Ever to Hold Elective Office in State Victim of a Heart Attack |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1947/11/07/archives/cacchione-dead-council-member-first-avowed-communist-ever-to-hold.html |work=The New York Times |location= New York |access-date=15 July 2025}}{{Cite news |date=13 November 1941 |title=New City Council Has 26 Members, One a Communist |work=The New York Times |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_new-york-times_1941-11-13_91_30609/mode/1up |location=New York |access-date=15 July 2025}}
On November 6, 1947, Cacchione died of a sudden heart attack at his home in Brooklyn. He had returned from a council meeting earlier that day. His death prompted condolences from mayor William O'Dwyer, fellow councilman Eugene P. Connolly, and the Communist Party itself.
Succession controversy
Under New York City law, council vacancies had to be filled by a member of the same political party as the previous officeholder, but when the Communist Party nominated Si Gerson, who had been Cacchione's campaign manager,{{cite news |last1=Fishman |first1=Joelle |title=Si Gerson, 95, journalist and electoral expert |url=https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/si-gerson-95-journalist-and-electoral-expert/ |access-date=15 July 2025 |work=People's World |date=28 January 2005 |location=Chicago}} the council refused on the grounds that the CPUSA was not legally a political party.{{cite news |title=BROOKLYN ENJOYS RACE ALL ITS OWN; All 3 Candidates in Election for City Council Vacancy Are Campaigning Hard |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1948/10/26/archives/brooklyn-enjoys-race-all-its-own-all-3-candidates-in-election-for.html |access-date=15 July 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=26 October 1948 |location=New York}} Instead, the seat was left vacant,{{cite news |last1=Harris |first1=Harold H. |title=Politics and People |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/686223717/?terms=%22Jack%20Kranis%22&match=1 |access-date=15 July 2025 |work=Brooklyn Eagle |date=9 July 1948 |location=Brooklyn}} and a special election was held the following year. Although Gerson received the nominations of the Communist and American Labor parties (earning 18,000 votes on the former ballot line and 132,000 votes on the latter), he came in third place with 15% of the vote, behind Republican Jacob P. Lefkowitz and Democrat Jack Kranis, the victor.{{cite web |title=Gerson, Simon W. |url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=60400 |website=ourcampaigns.com |access-date=15 July 2025}}
References
External links
- {{commons-inline}}
- [https://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=46277 Our Campaigns - Cacchione, Peter V. "Pete"]
- [https://archive.org/details/PeteCacchione--HisRecord Pete Cacchione -- his record]
- [https://archive.org/details/petestoryofpeter0000gers Pete: The Story of Peter V. Cacchione, New York's First Communist Councilman]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cacchione, Peter}}
Category:American trade union leaders
Category:American people of Italian descent
Category:New York City Council members
Category:People from Sayre, Pennsylvania
Category:Military personnel from Syracuse, New York
Category:Politicians from the Bronx
Category:20th-century New York (state) politicians