We’re not done.
Following Tuesday’s balloting, Chicagoans have one more Election Day to get through to determine who will be mayor as well as several races for City Council.
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In five weeks, on April 4, voters will decide if former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas or Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson will be Chicago’s next mayor, as well as who will win the alderman’s seat in several council races. We’re here because none of the candidates in those races received more than half of the vote on Tuesday, triggering a runoff election in which the top two candidates face off.
It wasn’t always this way.
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Chicago used to have municipal primaries and general elections just like we see every two years for either statewide (governor, attorney general, etc.) or national (president) campaigns for office.
But that all changed in 1999 when a new state law went into effect that not only created the two-round structure for Chicago races, it also made municipal elections in Illinois nonpartisan. That’s right, even though every candidate running for mayor since has tried to wear their Democratic Party bona fides like a badge of honor, none of them were officially running as Democrats.
The legislation was passed in 1995 by the Republican-controlled Illinois General Assembly and signed into law by GOP Gov. Jim Edgar. But then-Mayor Richard M. Daley, a Democrat, didn’t object.
Many Black politicians saw the move as a coordinated scheme by white Democrats and Republicans to thwart African American mayoral aspirations. At the time, the Harold Washington Party, named after the city’s first Black mayor, was a significant third party in municipal elections, and party leaders thought making the city elections fully nonpartisan would hurt their chances.
After the new law went into effect, it certainly didn’t hurt Daley’s efforts for reelection. He won in 1999, 2003 and 2007 without ever being forced into a runoff.
In 2011, after Daley decided not to run for another term, Rahm Emanuel, the former congressman and chief of staff to President Barack Obama, won in the first round as well.
Chicago finally had its first runoff in 2015 when Jesús “Chuy” García forced Emanuel into a second round of voting, though Emanuel won.
In 2019, with 14 candidates running for an open seat because Emanuel opted against trying for a third term, Toni Preckwinkle and Lori Lightfoot were the two top vote-getters and made the runoff, with Lightfoot winning.
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So here we are again and city history will again be made as Vallas and Johnson participate in the city’s third-ever mayoral runoff.
