Going to a Runoff?

The Chicago Tribune quotes David Axelrod about Tuesday’s election in Chicago:

“I don’t think there’s any mathematical way, looking at the field and the number of candidates, that there wouldn’t be a runoff,” political strategist David Axelrod told the Tribune last week. Underscoring the slim possibility of a final decision Tuesday night, he said: “I mean, meteorologically there’s a way to get hit by lightning, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.”

Axelrod, the architect of former President Barack Obama’s political rise, said he thinks Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle likely will secure one of the two runoff spots with the backing of two powerful labor groups: the Chicago Teachers Union and Service Employees Union International. He recognizes, too, that she’s been politically damaged during the campaign, without mentioning her connections to 14th Ward Ald. Edward Burke, whom federal prosecutors last month charged with attempted extortion as part of a public corruption investigation at City Hall.

“The thing about this race, all the margins and polling you’ve seen, no outcome would be surprising other than Neal Sales-Griffin being in the runoff,” he said of the low-key tech entrepreneur who’s been a virtual ghost in the campaign. Preckwinkle “has the best chance to get in the runoff,” said Axelrod, who now runs the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. He says former U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Daley has a shot, as does Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, ex-federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot, businessman Willie Wilson and public policy consultant Amara Enyia.

I’ve already said that I don’t know what to do on Tuesday. I’m not nuts about any of the alternatives. Contrary to what some analysts have said I think that the only candidate who has a chance of avoiding a runoff is Bill Daley. If there’s a runoff between Toni Preckwinkle and Bill Daley I really won’t know what to do. I don’t want to leave my house and neighborhood and I can’t take it with me.