WordNet
n. a politician who belongs to a small clique that controls a political party for private rather than public ends [syn: machine politician, political hack, hack]
Usage examples of "ward-heeler".
But they can't get a grip on him either -- and now, less than three weeks before the convention, he is so close to a first-ballot victory that the old hacks and ward-heelers who thought they had total control of the Party less than six months ago find themselves skulking around like old winos in the side alleys of presidential politics -- first stripped of their power to select and control delegations, then rejected as delegates themselves when Big Ed took his overcrowded bandwagon over the high side on the first lap.
They stomped every hack, ward-heeler, and "old-line party boss" from Buffalo to Brooklyn.