Mayor of Chicago

Mayor of Chicago
Seal of City of Chicago
Incumbent Rahm Emanuel since May 16, 2011
Term length	4 years
Inaugural holder	William Butler Ogden
Formation	1837
Website	Office of the Mayor

For the recent election, see Chicago mayoral election, 2011.

The Mayor of Chicago is the chief executive of Chicago, Illinois, the third largest city in the United States. He or she is charged with directing city departments and agencies, and with the advice and consent of the Chicago City Council, appoints department and agency leaders.

Appointment powers

The Mayor appoints the Commissioner of the Chicago Fire Department and Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. He or she is also responsible for appointing the heads of city departments, the largest of which are the Water Management Department (formed by the consolidation of the former Water Department and Sewer Department under Richard M. Daley) and the Streets & Sanitation Department. He or she additionally appoints members to the boards of several special purpose municipalities including the Chicago Park District, Chicago Public Library, Chicago Housing Authority, Chicago Transit Authority, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, et al. Under Richard M. Daley, the Illinois legislature granted the mayor power to appoint the Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools and subordinated the district under the mayor's authority; the district had long been an independent political field.

The Chicago City Clerk and City Treasurer are elected separately, as are the fifty aldermen who form the City Council. The mayor is empowered, however, to fill vacancies in any of these fifty-two elected offices by appointment. In turn, the City Council elect one of their own in the event the mayor's office is vacated.

Election

The Mayor of Chicago is elected by popular vote every four years, on the last Tuesday in February. A run-off election, in the event no candidate garners more than fifty percent of the vote, is held on the first Tuesday in April. The election is held on a non-partisan basis. Chicago is the largest city in the United States of America not to limit the term of service for its mayor.

History

Main article: Political history of Chicago

The first mayor was William Butler Ogden. Two sets of father and son have been elected Mayor of Chicago: Carter Harrison, Sr. and Carter Harrison, Jr. as well as Richard J. Daley and Richard M. Daley. Carter Harrison, Jr. was the first of the mayors to have been born within city limits. The first, and only woman to hold the office was Jane Byrne. The first Black mayor was Harold Washington. As an interim mayor, David Duvall Orr has the shortest mayoral term. Richard M. Daley was originally elected in 1989 and re-elected for the sixth time in 2007. In September 2010, Daley announced he would not seek a seventh term re-election as mayor. On December 26, 2010, Daley became the longest serving mayor of the city, surpassing his father's record.^[1] Rahm Emanuel is the current Mayor, having won the 2011 election with 55% of the votes to 25% for his closest opponent, Gery Chico. Emanuel was sworn in on May 16, 2011.

List of mayors

The mayoral term in Chicago was one year from 1837 through 1863, when it was increased to two years. In 1907 it was again lengthened to four years, the present duration. Until 1861, municipal elections were held in March. In that year, legislation changed them to April. In 1869, however, election time was changed to November, and terms expiring in April of that year were lengthened. In 1875, the election day was moved back to April by the city's vote to operate under the Cities and Villages Act of 1872.

#	Name	Term	Party	Notes
1	William Butler Ogden	1837–1838	Democratic
2	Buckner Stith Morris	1838–1839	Whig
3	Benjamin Wright Raymond	1839–1840	Whig
4	Alexander Loyd	1840–1841	Democratic
5	Francis Cornwall Sherman	1841–1842	Democratic
6	Benjamin Wright Raymond	1842–1843	Whig
7	Augustus Garrett	1843–1844	Democratic
8	Alson Sherman	1844–1845	Independent Democrat
9	Augustus Garrett	1845–1846	Democratic
10	John Putnam Chapin	1846–1847	Whig
11	James Curtiss	1847–1848	Democratic
12	James Hutchinson Woodworth	1848–1850	Independent Democrat
13	James Curtiss	1850–1851	Democratic
14	Walter S. Gurnee	1851–1853	Democratic
15	Charles McNeill Gray	1853–1854	Democratic
16	Isaac Lawrence Milliken	1854–1855	Democratic
17	Levi Day Boone	1855–1856	American Party
18	Thomas Dyer	1856–1857	Democratic
19	John Wentworth	1857–1858	Republican
20	John Charles Haines	1858–1860	Democratic
21	John Wentworth	1860–1861	Republican
22	Julian Sidney Rumsey	1861–1862	Republican
23	Francis Cornwall Sherman	1862–1865	Democratic
24	John Blake Rice	1865–1869	Republican
25	Roswell B. Mason	1869–1871	Citizens	Mayor during the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
26	Joseph Medill	1871–1873	Fireproof	Born in Canada
27	Harvey Doolittle Colvin	1873–1875	People's
28	Monroe Heath	1876–1879	Republican
29	Carter Harrison, Sr.	1879–1887	Democratic	father of Carter Harrison, Jr.
30	John A. Roche	1887–1889	Republican
31	DeWitt Clinton Cregier	1889–1891	Democratic
32	Hempstead Washburne	1891–1893	Republican
33	Carter Harrison, Sr.	1893	Democratic	Assassinated in office; father of Carter Harrison, Jr.
34	George Bell Swift	1893	Republican	Mayor Pro Tem
35	John Patrick Hopkins	1893–1895	Democratic
36	George Bell Swift	1895–1897	Republican
37	Carter Harrison, Jr.	1897–1905	Democratic	First Chicago born mayor; son of Mayor Carter Harrison, Sr.
38	Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne	1905–1907	Democratic
39	Fred A. Busse	1907–1911	Republican
40	Carter Harrison, Jr.	1911–1915	Democratic
41	William Hale Thompson	1915–1923	Republican
42	William Emmett Dever	1923–1927	Democratic
43	William Hale Thompson	1927–1931	Republican
44	Anton Cermak	1931–1933	Democratic	Assassinated in office; second foreign born (in Austria -Hungary)
45	Frank J. Corr	1933	Democratic	32 days, Acting Mayor
46	Edward Joseph Kelly	1933–1947	Democratic	Act of the Illinois legislature permitted City Council to elect a non-alderman to fill the vacancy.
47	Martin H. Kennelly	1947–1955	Democratic
48	Richard J. Daley	1955–1976	Democratic	Died in office; father of Richard M. Daley
49	Michael Anthony Bilandic	1976–1979	Democratic
50	Jane Margaret Byrne	1979–1983	Democratic	First female mayor
51	Harold Washington	1983–1987	Democratic	Died in office; first Black/African-American mayor
52	David Duvall Orr	1987	Democratic	8 days, Interim Mayor
53	Eugene Sawyer	1987–1989	Democratic	Elected by city council to complete Mayor Washington's term
54	Richard M. Daley	1989–2011	Democratic	Longest serving mayor; son of Richard J. Daley
55	Rahm Emanuel	2011–present	Nonpartisan1	First Jewish mayor

¹ Rahm Emanuel is a Democrat, but he and all other candidates in the 2011 election officially ran as nonpartisans. Under a 1995 Illinois law, "candidates for mayor . . . no longer would run under party labels in Chicago."^[2]

See also

Chicago portal

• Law and government of Chicago

References

1. ^ "Daley now Chicago mayor 1 day longer than father" Associated Press December 26, 2010
2. ^ "Gov. Edgar To End City Partisan Votes". Chicago Tribune. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1995-07-07/news/9507070087_1_nonpartisan-election-election-commissioners-first-black-mayor. 

• "A Chronology of Chicago's Mayors". Chicago Public Library. http://www.chipublib.org/cplbooksmovies/cplarchive/mayors/mayorlist.php. Retrieved May 26, 2010. 

External links