State Court Rules Chicago Must Elect Mayor in 1989

Chicago must hold a mayoral election next year to fill the two years remaining on the term of the late Mayor Harold Washington, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled today.

The high court ruled without dissent. It said a reading of state election law, along with the state law governing municipalities, requires that a special election be held to fill a vacancy that occurs with more than 28 months left on a four-year term.

Washington, the city’s first black mayor, died of a heart attack Nov. 25, 1987, with 3 1/2 years left of his second term.

“The scheme recognizes the importance of the voters not to have a mayoral appointee who is not of their own choosing for more than 28 months,” Justice Joseph Cunningham wrote in the court’s opinion.

A lower court ruling already has called for a primary Feb. 28, followed by a general election April 4.

The decision was eagerly awaited by a crowded field of announced and unannounced mayoral candidates. Unannounced candidates include the incumbent acting mayor, Eugene Sawyer, and front-runner Richard M. Daley, son of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley who died in 1976.

Daley just won a landslide reelection as Cook County state’s attorney and was the leader in a recent poll of potential mayoral contenders.

Sawyer, who is black, was appointed acting mayor a year ago by a bitterly divided City Council after receiving the support of Washington’s white council opponents.