spoilsman means A politician who serves only for a share of the spoils. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “spoilsman” is a great word
SPOILSMAN — [Noun] A politician whose primary purpose is to secure a portion of the patronage and plunder distributed after a political victory. From the English 'spoils' (plunder or public offices taken as political plunder) + 'man' (person). First attested in the mid-19th century in the context of the U.S. spoils system. Unlike a "statesman" (who is ostensibly guided by principle and public good) or a "patronage appointee" (who is a passive beneficiary of the system), the spoilsman is the active engine of distribution, the broker of loyalty for reward. He is the cigar-chomping ward boss tallying his due, the hand ever outstretched not to build but to claim, the architect of a government run not by ideas but by inventory—a portrait of politics stripped to its most transactional bones.
Etymology
From spoils + man.
noun
- A politician who serves only for a share of the spoils.“Cameron's notoriety as a spoilsman who had been in turn a Democrat, a Know-Nothing, and had flirted with Whiggery, militated against his candidacy among delegates concerned that the party should appear to be as pure as Caesar's wife.”