 Casey was a Jacksonian Democrat before becoming an Independent.In 1848, a candidate for Mayor of Chicago, James Hutchinson Woodworth, labelled himself an Independent Democrat to distance himself from what was at the time a corrupt and disorganized Chicago Democratic party organization; he preferred being described as an Independent Democrat rather than as a Whig as that party was itself experiencing a transition.He won election in his first campaign by an overwhelming majority and then was re-elected for a second term.