You look back at history and it's been generally Democratic politicians that have been in bed with the mob. Reasons vary but include the unions, Democrats running a lot of big cities where the mob had a presence, etc. It was Reagan that really gave law enforcement the support to go after the mob in the 1980s.
What?!?!?
It is common knowledge and documented history that Bobby Kennedy restructured the Justice department to target the mob. Bobby Kennedy all but ended ended Sam Giancana's reign, arguably the most powerful era of organized crime in U.S. history. The mafia wanted both Bobby and JFK dead because of how aggressively the Kennedy Justice department targeted the mob (whether or not they actually played a role in the Kennedys' deaths is another discussion altogether, but if not, it wasn't for a lack of determination).
It was because of the Kennedys that the Teamsters began to endorse Republicans, starting with Nixon in '72 and then, you guessed it, Ronald Reagan in 1980. The mob families that had a chunk of the Teamsters were certainly glad Reagan wasn't as tough on them as you'd like to believe.
Reagan had a certain charisma that really reignited the conservative movement in America, and to this day he still has a rock star status on the right, but his hands were never clean, not in Hollywood, Sacramento nor Washington. Read Dark Victory by Dan Moldea for more.
