It would be impossible to write a history of Local 103 without discussing the role politics played since the union’s inception.

The membership of a union determines the quality of its fabric and politics determines the weave. Quality fabric interwoven with a high degree of politics results in a quality labor union. Politics carried Local 103 to new plateaus of previously uncultivated fields of endeavor. Local 103 held annual elections from 1900 until 1930, when by action of a special constitution committee formed by new President Harry Broach, it was decided to hold biennial elections. In 1972, by action of the IBEW convention, elections were changed to the present three year interval.

Back in 1918, the Press Secretary of Local 103 referred to "the annual knife-throwing contest" and that fervor over elections is still present today. Candidates for local union office were unique in that they had parallel views, goals, and objectives, (such as full employment, higher wages, and more benefits and working conditions), as opposed to most other candidates for public office who were directly opposed to one another’s viewpoints, (such as Democrats and Republicans and Hawks and Doves). Nevertheless the contests were just as heated and parties aligned.

At different times the candidates are referred to as the "Ins and Outs" or the "Silver-toned orators and the rebels", and members were known by their political favorites such as "an O’Brien man or a Monahan man." The program or platform of all candidates was the same as that of the electorate, although ulterior objectives could easily go hand in hand with the primary objectives of the membership that had elected them and would continue to re-elect them as long as progress continued.

Politics in the local union strictly involves members. Locals that had two, three, or four candidates for the same office were healthy. Locals where two or three members serve in multiple office become lackadaisical. This occurs when good members, working hard, long hours at multiple jobs, knowing no-one else was interested in putting forth an equal effort, lose their competitive edge to represent.

A political union has many candidates vying for the same job and compete with one another for the privilege of serving their fellow members. Even in a healthy competitive union, only one in thirty members attend union meetings. Each member who attends a meeting is actually a delegate with thirty votes to cast.

Without exaggeration, Local 103 has always had keen competition in politics and officers who produced for their membership. The grateful membership returns its officers to office again and again. However, there is an exception to the rule, an important factor which occurs occasionally - unemployment. On several occasions, over the years, where unemployment of some duration beset Local 103, the membership, desperate for an end to "pacing the bricks," ousted officers with many years of accomplishment. The Business Manager has predominantly been victimized during these periods and 1932 was the culmination of four years of depression with 40 million people unemployed.