1977 Chicago mayoral special election

The Chicago mayoral election of 1977 was a special election held on June 7, 1977, to complete the remainder of the unexpired mayoral term of Richard J. Daley who died of a heart attack in December 1976. The election saw Interim Mayor Michael A. Bilandic win the election. Bliandic defeated Republican city council member Dennis H. Block by a landslide 56% margin.

The election was preceded by February primary elections to determine the Democratic Party and Republican Party nominations. Bilandic won a strong victory over several opponents in the Democratic primary, including Congressman Roman Pucinski, State Senator Harold Washington, and former Cook County state's attorney Edward Hanrahan. Block easily defeated three opponents in the Republican primary.

Background After the death in office of Richard J. Daley on December 20, 1976, Bilandic had been selected by the Chicago City Council to serve as acting mayor for six months until an election would be held. On December 24, Bilandic told alderman and other city hall leaders that he would not be competing in the upcoming special election for the remainder of Daley's term. However, the following week, Bilandic reneged on this pledge, and announced that he would be open to a draft. By 1977, Chicago had not elected a Republican mayor, and had only elected Democratic mayors, for a half-century, with the last Republican elected having been William Hale Thompson in 1927. Dating back to Edward J. Kelly, who took office in 1933, all Chicago mayors up to this point (Kelly, Martin H. Kennelly, Richard J. Daley, and now Bilandic) had hailed in some sense from Bilandic's 11th Ward.

Primaries and nominations 47.07% of registered voters participated in the primary elections.

Democratic primary Candidates Ran Michael A. Bilandic, incumbent acting mayor Edward Hanrahan, former Cook County state's attorney (1968–72) Anthony Robert Martin-Trigona, attorney Roman Pucinski, alderman from the 41st ward since 1973 and former U.S. congressman (1959–1973) Ellis Reid, attorney Harold Washington, state senator

Declined to run The following individual was speculated to run, but did not: William Singer, former alderman (1969–1975); candidate for the Democratic mayoral nomination in 1975

Campaign On December 28, 1976 (the same day that Bilandic was appointed acting mayor), alderman Pucinski became the first candidate to formally declare themselves a candidate for the special election. Two weeks later, Bilandic announced that he would be open to running in the election if drafted to do so. This was despite having promised during negotiations that secured his appointment as acting mayor that he would not run in the special election.

Bilandic won the Democratic Party's primary. Bilandic had a well-staged "draft" effort. He won the Cook County Democratic Party central committee's endorsement. Pucinski had entered the race at the point when Bilandic had yet to reverse course on his pledge to not seek election. The party organization had pressured him to drop out of the race for Bilandic's benefit, which he refused to do. Pucinski sought to receive strong support from the city's sizable Polish-American electorage. He also sought to challenge Bilandic to a series of debates, which Bilandic declined. Pucinski was considered Bilandic's foremost opponent in the primary.

Puncinski argued that a Bilandic administration would present more, "politics-as-usual". Pucinski focused much of his campaign on addressing the issue of unemployment. He alleged that Bilandic had been using unfair campaign tactics, alleging that Puncinski campaign workers and supporters had received threats from landlords and city inspectors. State Senator Harold Washington's campaign was underfunded and lacked strong organization. He also suffered due to the impact of personal legal issues. He focused his campaign on the black wards of the city's South Side. Washington was an African American, and was counting on receiving strong African American support. Also running was disgraced former Cook County State's Attorney Edward Hanrahan. Minor candidates in the primary were lawyers Anthony R. Martin-Trigona and Ellis E. Reid, the latter of whom was African American.

Wanting to be seen by voters as a competent administrator and chief executive, Bilandic refused to be drawn into controversy and largely ignored his opponents. He sought to also present himself as a friend to business and a successful labor mediator. During the campaign, he made appearances at ribbon-cutting ceremonies, charity dinners, and other events. The Washington Post noted that, largely absent from the discourse of the primary, had been the issues of industries leaving the city, public transport, the quality of schools, and racial integration.

Results Bilandic won a plurality of the vote in 38 of the city's 50 wards. Pucinski won a plurality of the vote in 7 wards (all on the North and Northwest Sides). Washington won a plurality of the vote in 5 wards. Bilandic had won Southwest Side Polish wards that Pucinski had been counting on winning. After the election results came in, Washington alleged that there had been, "massive vote fraud".

| % |- | colspan="2" align="left" | Total | || %

Results by ward Ward Michael Bilandic Roman Pucinski Harold Washington Edward Hanrahan Anthony RobertMartin-trigona Ellis Reid Total Votes % Votes % Votes % Votes % Votes % Votes % Votes 1 7,899 70.1% 1,833 16.3% 1,043 9.3% 374 3.3% 72 0.6% 44 0.4% 11,265 2 5,246 51.3% 1,612 15.8% 2,931 28.6% 173 1.7% 109 1.1% 160 1.6% 10,231 3 4,578 56.8% 1,088 13.5% 2,121 26.3% 116 1.4% 72 0.9% 85 1.1% 8,060 4 4,973 48.2% 1,845 17.9% 3,101 30.1% 186 1.8% 86 0.8% 123 1.2% 10,314 5 3,118 29.6% 2,799 26.6% 3,995 38.0% 250 2.4% 156 1.5% 204 1.9% 10,522 6 4,446 41.4% 1,244 11.6% 4,557 42.4% 135 1.3% 85 0.8% 280 2.6% 10,747 7 3,565 36.1% 2,973 30.1% 2,854 28.9% 257 2.6% 108 1.1% 112 1.1% 9,869 8 5,436 38.4% 1,622 11.5% 6,514 46.1% 161 1.1% 141 1.0% 268 1.9% 14,142 9 3,419 40.3% 1,241 14.6% 3,462 40.8% 157 1.9% 90 1.1% 108 1.3% 8,477 10 11,452 61.4% 4,332 23.2% 1,938 10.4% 690 3.7% 163 0.9% 85 0.5% 18,660 11 22,644 86.8% 2,532 9.7% 369 1.4% 435 1.7% 67 0.3% 45 0.2% 26,092 12 10,480 53.0% 7,884 39.9% 328 1.7% 915 4.6% 144 0.7% 22 0.1% 19,773 13 16,552 62.7% 8,029 30.4% 99 0.4% 1,484 5.6% 209 0.8% 20 0.1% 26,393 14 10,103 60.3% 5,053 30.1% 809 4.8% 649 3.9% 119 0.7% 31 0.2% 16,764 15 7,899 57.6% 2,785 20.3% 2,265 16.5% 587 4.3% 114 0.8% 70 0.5% 13,720 16 5,335 56.4% 1,074 11.3% 2,770 29.3% 125 1.3% 62 0.7% 100 1.1% 9,466 17 3,517 43.1% 1,015 12.4% 3,395 41.6% 93 1.1% 64 0.8% 76 0.9% 8,160 18 11,242 54.9% 4,832 23.6% 2,852 13.9% 1,264 6.2% 178 0.9% 93 0.5% 20,461 19 12,891 63.6% 4,860 24.0% 682 3.4% 1,625 8.0% 173 0.9% 41 0.2% 20,272 20 4,622 50.9% 1,219 13.4% 2,909 32.1% 147 1.6% 79 0.9% 100 1.1% 9,076 21 5,157 39.3% 1,400 10.7% 5,960 45.4% 163 1.2% 143 1.1% 293 2.2% 13,116 22 6,278 55.5% 3,556 31.4% 884 7.8% 470 4.2% 91 0.8% 39 0.3% 11,318 23 12,466 54.9% 8,722 38.4% 82 0.4% 1,194 5.3% 189 0.8% 44 0.2% 22,697 24 4,651 55.0% 1,166 13.8% 2,414 28.5% 107 1.3% 61 0.7% 63 0.7% 8,462 25 7,954 70.6% 2,448 21.7% 513 4.6% 260 2.3% 60 0.5% 28 0.2% 11,263 26 8,149 58.3% 5,013 35.9% 310 2.2% 401 2.9% 65 0.5% 30 0.2% 13,968 27 7,122 70.0% 1,224 12.0% 1,538 15.1% 163 1.6% 70 0.7% 51 0.5% 10,168 28 3,990 54.3% 1,094 14.9% 2,001 27.2% 125 1.7% 67 0.9% 71 1.0% 7,348 29 3,505 49.5% 1,096 15.5% 2,200 31.1% 129 1.8% 91 1.3% 57 0.8% 7,078 30 6,622 44.8% 7,042 47.7% 164 1.1% 781 5.3% 134 0.9% 32 0.2% 14,775 31 10,886 70.7% 3,611 23.5% 391 2.5% 381 2.5% 90 0.6% 30 0.2% 15,389 32 6,518 50.7% 5,592 43.5% 201 1.6% 416 3.2% 96 0.7% 32 0.2% 12,855 33 6,171 50.4% 5,186 42.4% 156 1.3% 576 4.7% 120 1.0% 32 0.3% 12,241 34 5,430 47.9% 1,183 10.4% 4,342 38.3% 134 1.2% 122 1.1% 128 1.1% 11,339 35 4,886 29.6% 10,558 63.9% 81 0.5% 808 4.9% 152 0.9% 44 0.3% 16,529 36 11,011 46.0% 10,993 46.0% 126 0.5% 1,501 6.3% 234 1.0% 54 0.2% 23,919 37 5,700 50.6% 2,961 26.3% 1,769 15.7% 636 5.6% 147 1.3% 62 0.5% 11,275 38 7,393 34.5% 12,506 58.4% 87 0.4% 1,140 5.3% 239 1.1% 54 0.3% 21,419 39 8,000 46.9% 7,824 45.8% 189 1.1% 824 4.8% 193 1.1% 44 0.3% 17,074 40 6,247 44.2% 6,667 47.1% 148 1.0% 784 5.5% 234 1.7% 64 0.5% 14,144 41 6,343 23.1% 19,724 71.8% 97 0.4% 1,114 4.1% 161 0.6% 39 0.1% 27,478 42 7,861 57.3% 4,021 29.3% 1,006 7.3% 569 4.1% 141 1.0% 113 0.8% 13,711 43 6,129 44.9% 5,822 42.6% 725 5.3% 677 5.0% 212 1.6% 100 0.7% 13,665 44 6,018 49.7% 4,795 39.6% 475 3.9% 564 4.7% 192 1.6% 67 0.6% 12,111 45 7,922 34.7% 13,562 59.4% 86 0.4% 1,038 4.5% 196 0.9% 29 0.1% 22,833 46 5,317 50.1% 3,931 37.1% 638 6.0% 539 5.1% 122 1.2% 57 0.5% 10,604 47 9,960 61.0% 5,005 30.6% 208 1.3% 931 5.7% 163 1.0% 63 0.4% 16,330 48 5,327 47.7% 4,355 39.0% 627 5.6% 657 5.9% 138 1.2% 61 0.5% 11,165 49 7,007 48.5% 5,658 39.1% 639 4.4% 815 5.6% 226 1.6% 109 0.8% 14,454 50 8,967 45.6% 9,208 46.8% 271 1.4% 923 4.7% 234 1.2% 65 0.3% 19,668 Total 368,404 51.1% 235,795 32.7% 77,322 10.7% 28,643 4.0% 6,674 0.9% 4,022 0.6% 720,860

Republican primary The Republican nomination was captured by 48th ward alderman Dennis H. Block, who had originally been supportive of Bilandic's interim mayoralty before the incumbent mayor reneged on his pledge not to run for a full term. Block was urged by Governor James R. Thompson to run for mayor so as not to leave the office in the hands of the Democrats.

Block handily won the Republican primary over three other Republican candidates. Block, at the time, was the city's sole Republican alderman (among 50). He had been elected an alderman two years prior. Block was the first mayoral candidate since Martin H. Kennelly to be a resident of Edgewater. Thus, he was the first candidate from Edgewater since 1955 and the first general election nominee since 1951 to hail from Edgewater. He was the fourth overall mayoral candidate from the neighborhood, and would have been the third mayor from the neighborhood if elected.

Other nominations Dennis Brasky (Socialist Workers Party) Gerald Rose (U.S. Labor Party)

General election and result The general election generated little interest. At 40%, turnout was considered low. Bilandic won a majority of the vote in each of the city's 50 wards.

1977 Chicago mayoral special election

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