William "Billy" Meehan was the

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

leader of the

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Republican Party for the second half of the twentieth century, though he formally held a title of " of counsel"."The History of the United Republican Club" , url=https://www.urcphila.com/terms-of-service-4/ , access-date=1 March 2023 His father was

Austin Meehan Austin Andrew Meehan, Sr., (August 29, 1897 – October 5, 1961) was a Republican politician in Philadelphia who served as county sheriff. Before entering politics, Meehan ran his family's paving business and was known as a local basketball sta ...

, also an influential Philadelphia Republican and former sheriff of Philadelphia.The Philadelphia Republican Party, in the wake of the political realignment in Philadelphia politics starting with the Home Rule Charter in 1951 and the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

of "reform" Democrats, Richardson Dilworth and Joseph S. Clark as

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

, entered a period of gradual and persistent decline, after having dominated the city's politics for a century prior to home rule. Meehan managed the party with an accommodating practice to his counterparts on the Democratic side, often favouring for minor patronage-related jobs for party activists in various levels of city government. Meehan dominated the Party in a structure roughly analogous to old-style

machine politics In the politics of representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership co ...

, with an emphasis on strong personality leadership. With only one exception (

Frank Rizzo Francis Lazarro Rizzo (October 23, 1920 – July 16, 1991) was an American police officer and politician. He served as Philadelphia police commissioner from 1968 to 1971 and mayor of Philadelphia from 1972 to 1980. He was a member of the Democ ...

in 1991), no Republican Party candidate was able to be nominated for citywide office without Meehan's blessing. Meehan was noted for the annual summer

clambake The clambake or clam bake, also known as the New England clambake, is a traditional method of cooking seafood, such as lobster, mussels, crabs, scallops, soft-shell clams, and Hard clam, quahogs. The food is traditionally cooked by steaming the i ...

, which he held at his residence in the

Somerton Somerton may refer to: Places Australia * Somerton, New South Wales * Somerton Park, South Australia, a seaside Adelaide suburb ** Somerton Man, unsolved case of an unidentified man found dead in 1948 on the Somerton Park beach * Somerton, Victoria ...

section of Philadelphia, a heavily Republican stronghold. He was succeeded in the role of guiding the Philadelphia Republican Party, in an unofficial manner, by his son, Michael "Mike" Meehan.

References

Year of birth missing Year of death missing Pennsylvania Republicans {{Pennsylvania-politician-stub