the recently deceased Republican candidate David Shanahan. Daley's name was not printed on the ballot due to the closeness of Shanahan's death to the election, but he was able to defeat Shanahan's friend Robert E. Rodgers. After his election, Daley quickly moved back to the Democratic side of the aisle. After the death of incumbent Democratic Senator Patrick J. Carroll in 1938, Daley was elected to the Illinois Senate. That year Gormley and Jezierny were successfully reelected with Republican William S. Finucane taking the third spot. In 1939, Illinois State Senator William "Botchy" Connors remarked of Daley, "You couldn't give that guy a nickel, that's how honest he is." Daley served as Minority Leader of the Illinois Senate from 1941 through 1946. He suffered his only political defeat in 1946, when he lost a bid to become Cook County sheriff. In the late 1940s, Daley became Democratic Ward Committeeman of the 11th Ward, a post he retained until his death. He was appointed by Governor Adlai Stevenson II as head of the Illinois Department of Finance, serving in that role from 1949 through 1950, the year he made a successful run for Cook County Clerk. Daley held that position until being elected Chicago's mayor. Daley became chairman of the Central Committee of the Cook County Democratic Party, i.e. boss of the political machine, in 1953. Holding this position along with the mayoralty in later years enhanced Daley's power. A recorded phone conversation which Daley had with President Lyndon Johnson on January 27, 1968, revealed that despite his Irish Catholic background, he also privately had at times tense relations with the Kennedy family and that he declined an offer to vote against President Harry Truman when he was serving as a delegate at the 1948 Democratic National Convention. Early mayoralty Daley was first elected mayor, Chicago's 48th, in 1955. He was reelected to that office five times and had been mayor for 21 years at the time of his death. During his administration, Daley dominated the political arena of the city and, to a lesser extent, that of the entire state. Officially, Chicago has a "weak-mayor" system, in which most of the power is vested in the city council. However, Daley's post as de facto leader of the Chicago Democratic Party allowed him to rule the city with an iron hand and gave him great influence over the city's ward organizations,