William Matthew Malone (July 7, 1900 – December 6, 1981) was an American lawyer and political boss who chaired the California Democratic Party during and after World War II.
An attorney with a small personal injury law practice he shared with Raymond L. Sullivan, Malone was akin to a political "boss" whose influence extended throughout the state.
His interest was in dispensing patronage and winning elections to gain and maintain power and his campaign expertise was highly regarded by such liberal candidates as Helen Gahagan Douglas, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in 1950 who was defeated with "red-baiting" tactics by Richard Nixon.
Hardly on a par with the Mafia kingpins whom Kefauver's committee subpoenaed elsewhere in the country, a half dozen Malone associates (including James G. Smyth, the former State Assembly clerk and Democratic campaign manager whom Truman appointed, and then fired, as Collector of Internal Revenue for northern California) were called to account for alleged misdeeds.
[8] Malone's influence was still felt in 1968, when he backed Joseph Alioto's winning bid to succeed the sickly Shelley as Mayor, a blow to the so-called "Burton Machine" which had been grooming a candidate of its own.