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In theChicago mayoral election of 1849, incumbent James H. Woodworth was reelected in alandslide.
This election made Woodworth the first Chicago mayor to be successfully reelected to a secondconsecutive term (an accolade that would have belonged toAugustus Garrett had the results of theMarch 1844 Chicago mayoral election not been declared null). Woodworth was also only the third mayor to be elected to a second term, after onlyBenjamin Wright Raymond and Augustus Garrett.
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]
With 80.02% of the vote, Hutchinson received the highest vote share than any Chicago mayoral candidate had ever received (surpassing the 66.86% thatWilliam B. Ogden had received in1937). This has only once been exceeded in Chicago mayoral elections, (byJane Byrne who received 82.05% in1979).
| 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 | |||
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| Elections |
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1 tenure as acting officeholder. 2 Election declared null and void. | ||
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