D'Alesandro was born in Baltimore on August 1, 1903. He was the son of Maria Petronilla and Tommaso G. D'Alesandro, who were born in Montenerodomo, Abruzzo, Italy. D'Alesandro attended Calvert Business College in Baltimore. Before beginning his political career, he worked as an insurance and real estate broker.
Career
A Democrat, D'Alesandro served as a member of the Maryland State House of Delegates from 1926 to 1933. After serving in Annapolis, D'Alesandro was then appointed as General Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue, a post in which he served during 1933–1934. He then was elected to serve on the Baltimore City Council from 1935 to 1938. D'Alesandro was then elected to the 76th Congress and to the four succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1939, until he resigned on May 16, 1947. While in Congress, D'Alesandro strongly supported the Bergson Group, a "political action committee set up to challenge the Roosevelt Administration's policies on the Jewish refugee issue during the Holocaust, and later lobbied against British control of Palestine" despite his equally strong support for Roosevelt's other policies. Following his service in Congress he was Mayor of Baltimore for 12 years from May 1947 to May 1959. D'Alesandro served on the Federal Renegotiation Board from 1961-1969 after being appointed by President John F. Kennedy
Political campaigns
D'Alesandro was a strong contender for Governor of Maryland in 1954, but was forced to drop out due to being implicated in receiving undeclared money from Dominic Piracci, a parking garage owner convicted of fraud, conspiracy, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Piracci was the father of D'Alesandro's oldest son and namesake Thomas D'Alesandro III's wife, Margie Piracci D'Alesandro. Mayor D'Alesandro was later exonerated and never indicted. Rather than lose the election, D'Alesandro withdrew and tacitly supported University of Maryland President Curley Byrd who would go on to lose by 54.5% to 45.5% to the Republican incumbent and D'Alesandro's predecessor as Mayor of Baltimore Theodore McKeldin. McKeldin would later defeat the man who defeated D'Alesandro for Mayor and then would be succeeded as mayor by D'Alesandro's son, who was married to the aforementioned Mr. Piracci's daughter. In 1958, D'Alesandro ran for the United States Senate in a bid to defeat Republican incumbent J. Glenn Beall who in 1952 defeated perennial candidate/contractor George P. Mahoney. D'Alesandro had to first spend money and time dispatching the fiery Mahoney in the Democratic primary. D'Alesandro then ran a strong and close, but eventually unsuccessful campaign, against Beall. This was the first time D'Alesandro ever lost an election. In 1959, D'Alesandro was narrowly defeated in a bid for another term for Mayor of Baltimore by J. Harold Grady.
Criticism
In 2017, conservative commentators noted that in 1948, D'Alesandro dedicated the Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee Monument in his capacity as Mayor of Baltimore, along with the then-Governor of Maryland, William Preston Lane Jr. His son, Thomas D'Alesandro III, who later served as Mayor of Baltimore from 1967 to 1971, said about his father "His whole life was politics. He was not what you would call a flaming liberal, but he was a progressive."
Personal life
He was married to Annunciata M. Lombardi. Together, the couple had six children, five sons and a daughter, including.
Thomas L. J. D'Alesandro III, who also served as Mayor of Baltimore from 1967 to 1971.
