1849 Chicago mayoral election

1849 Chicago mayoral election

←  1848 1850  →

Nominee James H. Woodworth Timothy Wait Lewis C. Kerchival Party Independent Democrat Others Others Popular vote 2,668 399 245 Percentage 80.02% 11.97% 7.35%

Mayor before election James H. Woodworth Independent Democrat Elected mayor James H. Woodworth Independent Democrat

In the Chicago mayoral election of 1849, incumbent James H. Woodworth was reelected in a landslide.

This election made Woodworth the first Chicago mayor to be successfully reelected to a second consecutive term (an accolade that would have belonged to Augustus Garrett had the results of the March 1844 Chicago mayoral election not been declared null). Woodworth was also only the third mayor to be elected to a second term, after only Benjamin Wright Raymond and Augustus Garrett.

Campaign

The election is notable for the lack of political party involvement. ^[1] With the major national political parties disintegrating over the national debate surrounding slavery, the 1849 mayoral campaign lacked party conventions to nominate candidates. ^[1] Instead, candidates were self-nominated. ^[1] There was also a lack of party-organized efforts to support any candidate. ^[1]

Results

With 80.02% of the vote, Hutchinson received the highest vote share than any Chicago mayoral candidate had ever received (surpassing the 66.86% that William B. Ogden had received in 1937). This has only once been exceeded in Chicago mayoral elections, (by Jane Byrne who received 82.05% in 1979).

1849 Chicago mayoral election ^{[1] [2] [3]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Independent Democrat	James H. Woodworth (incumbent)	2,668	80.02
	Other	Timothy Wait	399	11.97
	Other	Lewis C. Kerchival	245	7.35
	Other	S. D. Childs	22	0.66
Turnout			3,334

References

1. Goodspeed, Weston A. (February 6, 2017). The History of Cook County, Illinois. Jazzybee Verlag.
2. "Chicago Mayors, 1837-2007". www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
3. "RaceID=486028". Our Campaigns. Retrieved December 11, 2018.