Yes, there were an awful lot of runoffs Tuesday night.
The last time we had this many was before Rahm Emanuel and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia were even born.
Not only will this be the first mayoral contest thrown into a runoff since the city held its first nonpartisan mayoral election in 1999, but Chicagoans have not seen this many aldermanic runoffs since 1947.
In both 1947 and this year, 19 aldermanic contests went into overtime.
And the aldermen who will face voters again on April 7 should be a bit nervous. Challengers do better than incumbents in runoffs — but just barely.
Of the 118 sitting aldermen who were forced into runoff elections from 1947 through 2011, just a hair over half — 60 — lost their seats.
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So get ready for a six-week stretch the likes of which Chicagoans have not seen since Babe Ruth was still alive and Milton Berle was still dreaming of a TV career.
Aldermanic contests have been conducted under the nonpartisan system much longer than mayoral contests. The nonpartisan system requires a candidate to win a majority in February to avoid an April runoff. The runoff pits the top two vote getters against one another in a head-to-head contest.
Here’s a look at aldermanic runoffs and defeats over the years.
ELECTION YEAR
NUMBER OF ALDERMANIC RUNOFFS
INCUMBENTS DEFEATED IN FEBRUARY AND APRIL
*1947 19121951 55*1955 1461959 361963 641967 721971 241975 83*1979 109*1983 1471987 1491991 1871995 1131999 922003 542007 128*2011 1442015191 (Feb. only)* = New mayor elected.
Note: Richard M. Daley was first elected in 1989 in a special election
