Peter Cacchione


Peter Vincent "Pete" Cacchione 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. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I.

Career

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, serving in that position for the rest of his life.
In 1936, New York City voters amended the City Charter to implement the proportional representation system for council elections beginning with the 1937 [New York City Council election|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

Cacchione was an attorney by trade and married to his wife Dorothy with one son, Bernard, born in 1940.
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, the council refused on the grounds that the CPUSA was not legally a political party. Instead, the seat was left vacant, and a special election was held the following year. Although Gerson received the nominations of the Communist and American Labor parties, he came in third place with 15% of the vote, behind Republican Jacob P. Lefkowitz and Democrat Jack Kranis, the victor.