Were there more democratic political machines than GOP machines?

[David T]

Philadelphia had a strong Republican machine, which controlled the mayoralty until Joseph Clark was elected mayor in 1951.

Until the 1930's, Chicago had strong Republican as well as Democratic machines. The latter usually won, but not always--e.g., "Big Bill" Thompson's two GOP administrations (1915-1923 and 1927-1931).

Pittsburgh also had a strong Republican machine in the days before David L. Lawrence.

One key to Republican success in pre-New Deal big cities is that the party had a broader ethnic base than is often realized.  For example, they sought with some success to appeal to Italian-American voters who resented Irish-American domination of the local Democratic machines.  African Americans were also mostly Republican in those days, and were a fairly significant group in many northern cities even before the World War I Great Migration.

[David T]

There were sf course also Republican suburban machines.  Delaware County, PA (in the Philadelphia suburbs) was long dominated by a Republican machine called the War Board.  In Nassau County, New York, Joseph Margiotta's Republican machine was dominant.  "Residents would often call a local Republican committeeman to deal with issues like broken streetlights instead of calling a county agency" according to the Wikipedia article on Margiotta.

[David T]

Recommended reading:  Peter McCaffery, When Bosses Ruled Philadelphia:  The Emergence of the Republican Machine, 1867–1933 (University Park: Penn State Press, 1993).   Lincoln Steffens wrote in 1903:  "All our municipal governments are more or less bad.  Philadelphia is simply the most corrupt and the most contented."

[David T]

Also see the Wikipedia article on William Flinn:  "Along with Christopher Magee (1848–1901), his political partner, the two ran the Republican Party machine that controlled the city [Pittsburgh] for the final twenty years of the 19th century."

[David T]

In the early 20th century, there was a powerful Republican machine in Cinciannti led by George B. Cox.  See

Miiller, Zane L. (1968). Boss Cox's Cincinnati: urban politics in the progressive era. Oxford University Press, LC #68-29722. Reprint: Ohio State University Press (2000)

Boyden, H.P. "Cincinnati's Battle With the Boss System", New York Times, August 24, 1903

Both cited in the Wikipedia article on Cox.