Yesterday’s mayoral election here in which incumbent Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel sought re-election against a field of opponents, many of whom most Chicagoans had never heard, will be forced into a run-off election:
Rahm Emanuel failed to win a second term Tuesday, suffering a national political embarrassment as little-known, lesser-funded challenger Jesus “Chuy†Garcia forced the mayor into the uncharted waters of an April runoff election.
It’s the first time Chicago has had a runoff campaign for mayor, which is what happens when none of the candidates eclipses the 50 percent benchmark in round one.
With 98 percent of the city’s precincts counted, unofficial results showed Emanuel with 45.4 percent and Cook County commissioner Garcia at 33.9 percent. Businessman Willie Wilson had 10.6 percent, 2nd Ward Ald. Bob Fioretti had 7.4 percent and frequent candidate William “Dock†Walls was at 2.8 percent.
Emanuel, who spent millions on TV ads to try to repair his image with voters following a difficult four years, attempted to portray optimism and patience despite the results.
The prevailing wisdom on this result echoes what the mayor and his supporters have been saying—Emanuel will win the run-off in a walk. I strongly suspect it will be a hard-fought race. Everything depends on what you think happened yesterday.
I think that a majority of Chicagoans were too dispirited too vote and the majority of those that did voted for “Anybody But Emanuel”. The open questions about the run-off are whether more voters will show up for the run-off than did for the general election and whether those who do will support Emanuel.
The mayor’s position, apparently, is that he will be able to attract enough Garcia voters, Wilson voters, Fioretti voters, and Walls voters to garner 50% of the vote plus 1. Maybe. But he will still be Rahm Emanuel and Chuy Garcia won’t be.
There’s more commentary in the round-up at memeorandum.
We had 21.32% turnout in a five-person mayoral race that saw the incumbent place third. This was a positive race, with three credible candidates. I can’t help but think cold weather and a willingness to wait until the second round depressed turnout. Or maybe the election was too boring.
Given the way people make their decisions it’s even money that many thought they were voting for Jesus.
In any event, Rahm needs to worry that Willie Wilson meant what he said – he wasn’t prejudiced against “whitey” – and will deliver some of that vote for Garcia…………..oh, and that they haven’t perfected personality transplants.
Seriously, it will be a test case. Chuy the Spender vs Darth “Can You Even Make Miniscule Union Cuts in Chicago” Emanuel.
Don’t get me wrong. I think that Garcia is a lunatic who genuinely believes in the “roomful of money” theory. However, I think that Emanuel is a lunatic, too, and an obnoxious one with grand ambitions to boot.