1951 Chicago mayoral election
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| Turnout | 56.8%  13.51 pp[1][2] | ||||||||||||||||
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| Elections in Illinois |
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The Chicago mayoral election of 1951 was held on April 3, 1951. The election saw Democrat Martin H. Kennelly being reelected for a second term, defeating Republican Robert L. Hunter by a double-digit margin.[3]
Background
[edit]The state of Illinois in 1944 had passed legislation which aimed to tighten the state's previously overly-lax voter registration laws.[4][5] One measure of this was that, after the November elections in presidential election years, county clerks would begin the process canceling the registration of those who had not voted in the previous four years.[4] There were a number of other measures which would result in the cancellation of voter registrations.[4]
Nominations
[edit]For the first time in more than 50 years, no primary elections were held for mayor (Chicago had first instituted direct primary elections for mayoral nominations in 1911). This was due to the fact that each party had had only a single candidate qualify to run for its nomination. Incumbent mayor Martin Kennelly was the only candidate to seek the Democratic nomination. Robert L. Hunter was the only candidate left seeking the nomination of the Republican Party. Additionally, the two parties' nominations for city clerk and treasurer were also uncontested. With none of the nominations for citywide offices being contested, the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners ruled that these offices would be excluded from ballots in the citywide primaries elections on February 21 and the candidates that had registered for the nominations would become the nominees by default. This would save the city money, as in certain wards in which aldermanic nominations for a party were uncontested they would be able run the elections with a reduced number of polling places and ballot papers required.[6]
Democratic nomination
[edit]Incumbent mayor Martin Kennelly became the Democratic nominee unopposed.[6]
Republican nomination
[edit]Originally seeking the Republican nomination was congressman and former judge Edgar A. Jonas. However, in early January, Jonas made a surprise withdrawal from the election.[7] The Cook County Republican Party organization thereafter gave their endorsement to Hunter,[7] who resigned from his on the Illinois Civil Service Commission in order to run for mayor.[8] After Walter E. Pancanowski's candidacy petition was rejected, Hunter was left the only candidate seeking the party's nomination and won it by default.[6]
Before Republican governor Dwight H. Green had appointed Hunter to the Civil Service Commission, Hunter had previously twice unsuccessfully sought elected office. He had run unsuccessfully in the 1936 Republican primary for Illinois's 6th congressional district (having placed second behind P. H. Moynihan in a field of six candidates). He also ran in 1947 for chief justice of the Cook County courts. He had also played college football with the 1921 Iowa Hawkeyes football team and professional football with the Hammond Pros.[8]
General election
[edit]
Hunter attacked Kennelly, characterizing him as a "do-nothing mayor".[9] He called for the defeat of not just Kenelly, but of the political machine that had put him forth for mayor.[10] He argued that big-city Democratic machines needed to be defeated in order to save the country.[10]
The Chicago Tribune and Hunter's candidacy were initially closely linked. Hunter would meet twice or thrice weekly with the newspaper's editor Don Maxwell.[10] He effectively adopted their editorials as his own campaign platform.[10] For instance, he adopted the Tribune's stance against municipal ownership of the water supply.[10] The Tribune, and therefore Hunter, blamed the local Democratic Party for having helped President Harry S. Truman win reelection.[10] They therefore litigated what they regarded to have been Truman's misdeeds as presidents, including extending New Deal policies and entering the nation into the Korean War.[10] Local Republicans campaigning for Hunter, including Senator Everett Dirksen, regularly focused their campaign on national and international issues such as the Cold War and the Korean War.[10] They also accused Kennelly of "dodging" national issues.[10] Illinois' Democratic Governor Adlai Stevenson II derided the Republicans' national-politics focused approach to a local election as, "a political absurdity".[10] The Tribune weakened its support of Hunter after he attacked Commonwealth Edison's new contract with the city under Kennelly, since the chairman of the board for Commonwealth Edison was also on Tribune Company board of directors.[10] Hunter had accused that Kennelly helped the company win a new municipal contract, despite several Chicago City Council members having objected that the terms "did not adequately protect the city's interests."[8]
Hunter also alleged that Kennelly had caused a 300% increase in narcotics use among Chicago youth during the course of his mayoralty. He pledged, "Give me command of the city’s army of more than 7,000 policemen, and I will break the back of the drug traffic in Chicago." His wife regularly made appearances in support of his candidacy Aiming to win support from African American voters, he regularly visited African American church congregations for Sunday services.[8]
Hunter campaigned vigorously.[10] Nevertheless, the election generated very little interest, contributing to its low turnout.[9] Contributing to voter apathy may have been findings by the United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce that shined a negative light on the underworld of Chicago politics.[9] Findings by this committee also harmed Kennelly, as he was perceived by the electorate to have done little to stamp out organized crime in the city.[9] However, Hunter also failed to demonstrate to voters ability on his part to solve the crime issue in the city, and refused to take any strong stance against elements of the Republican party that were allied with gangsters[9] Kennelly had, by 1951, seen a loss of support among African American electorate that had strongly supported him four years earlier.[11]
Results
[edit]Kenelly outperformed Hunter in 34 wards. Hunter outperformed Kenelly in sixteen wards (more than double the number of wards that Kennelly had trailed the Republican nominee in four years earlier).[11]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Martin H. Kennelly (incumbent) | 697,871 | 56.14 | |
| Republican | Robert L. Hunter | 545,326 | 43.87 | |
| Turnout | 1,243,197 | |||
References
[edit]- ^ Denvir, Daniel (May 22, 2015). "Voter Turnout in U.S. Mayoral Elections Is Pathetic, But It Wasn't Always This Way". City Lab (The Atlantic). Retrieved December 11, 2018.
- ^ "Mayoral race one for history books; will turnout be headline or footnote?". Chicago Sun-Times. February 8, 2019. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
- ^ "Mayor Martin H. Kennelly Biography".
- ^ a b c ELECTIONS (10 ILCS 5/) Election Code.; Illinois General Assembly
- ^ The Evolution of American Investigative Journalism by James Aucoin (page 38)
- ^ a b c "Cancel Chicago Primary Feb. 27 For Mayoralty". Chicago Daily Tribune. January 27, 1951. Retrieved December 22, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Tagge, George (January 5, 1951). "G. O. P. Expected to Name Hunter for Mayoral Race". Chicago Tribune – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d Heuer, Robert (April 25, 1991). "The Life and Times of Judge Robert Hunter". Chicago Reader.
- ^ a b c d e Peterson, Virgil W. (2018). Barbarians in Our Midst: A History of Chicago Crime and Politics. Pickle Partners Publishing. pp. 584–585. ISBN 978-1-78912-460-6. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Heuer, Robert (April 25, 1991). "The Life and Times of Judge Robert Hunter". Chicago Reader. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
- ^ a b Green, Paul M.; Holli, Melvin G. (January 10, 2013). The Mayors: The Chicago Political Tradition, fourth edition. SIU Press. p. 159. ISBN 9780809331994. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
- ^ "Board of Election Commissioners For the City of Chicago Mayoral Election Results Since 1900 General Elections Only". Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. July 18, 2004. Archived from the original on July 18, 2004. Retrieved March 26, 2023.