# 1905 Chicago mayoral election

Elections in Illinois :
Federal government
U.S. Presidential elections
1820
1824
1828
1832
1836
1840
1844
1848
1852
1856
1860
1864
1868
1872
1876
1880
1884
1888
1892
1896
1900
1904
1908
1912
1916
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1940
1944
1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
Dem
Rep
1988
1992
1996
Dem
Rep
2000
Dem
Rep
2004
Dem
Rep
2008
Dem
Rep
2012
Dem
Rep
2016
Dem
Rep
2020
Dem
Rep
2024
Dem
Rep
U.S. Senate elections
1818
1819
1823
1824
1824 sp
1825
1830 sp
1831
1835
1837
1843
1846
1849
1849 sp
1853
1859
1861
1863 sp
1867
1879
1882
1885
1885 sp
1887 sp
1888
1890
1894
1896
1897
1901
1903
1907
1909
1913
1913 sp
1914
1918
1920
1924
1926
1928 sp
1930
1932
1936
1938
1940 sp
1942
1944
1948
1950
1954
1956
1960
1962
1966
1968
1970 sp
1972
1974
1978
1980
1984
1986
1990
1992
1996
1998
2002
2004
2008
2010
2010 sp
2014
2016
2020
2022
2026
U.S. House elections
1818
1819
1820
1822
1824
1826
1828
1831
1832
1834
1836
1838
1840
1842
1844
1846
1848
1850
1852
1854
1856
1858
1859
6th sp
1860
1861
6th sp
1862
1864
1866
1868
1870
1871
AL sp
1872
1874
1876
1878
1880
1882
1884
1886
1888
1890
1892
1894
1895
10th sp
18th sp
1896
1898
1900
1902
1904
1906
1908
1910
1912
1914
1916
1918
4th sp
1920
1922
AL sp
1923
2nd sp
4th sp
1924
1926
1928
1930
1932
1934
1936
1938
1940
1942
1944
19th sp
1946
1948
1950
1952
1953
7th sp
1954
1956
1957
7th sp
1958
1960
1962
1964
1966
1968
1969
13th sp
1970
6th sp
1972
15th sp
1973
7th sp
1974
1975
5th sp
1976
1978
1980
10th sp
1982
1983
1st sp
1984
1985
14th sp
1986
1988
21st sp
1990
1991
15th sp
1992
1994
1995
2nd sp
1996
1998
2000
1st
2002
2004
2006
2008
14th sp
2009
5th sp
2010
17th
2012
2013
2nd sp
2014
2015
18th sp
2016
2018
2020
2022
1st
2024 :
State government
General elections
1936
1938
1940
1942
1944
1946
1948
1950
1952
1954
1956
1958
1960
1962
1964
1966
1968
1969
1970
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
Gubernatorial elections
1818
1822
1826
1830
1834
1838
1842
1846
1848
1852
1856
1860
1864
1868
1872
1876
1880
1884
1888
1892
1896
1900
1904
1908
1912
1916
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1940
1944
1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1978
1982
1986
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
Lieutenant Gubernatorial elections
1818
1822
1826
1830
1834
1838
1842
1846
1848
1852
1856
1860
1864
1868
1872
1876
1880
1884
1888
1892
1896
1900
1904
1908
1912
1916
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1940
1944
1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
Attorney General elections
2018
2022
Secretary of State elections
2022
Comptroller elections
2016
Senate elections
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
House of Representatives elections
1964
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
Judicial elections
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024 :
Ballot measures and referendums
State capitol referendum (1834)
Cutback Amendment (1980)
Crime Victim Rights Amendment (1992)
Illinois Governor Recall Amendment (2010)
Public Pension Amendment (2012)
Marsy's Law (2014)
Right to Vote Amendment (2014)
Transportation Taxes and Fees Lockbox Amendment (2016)
Fair Tax (2020)
Right to Collective Bargaining Amendment (2022) :
Chicago
General elections
2019
2023
Mayoral elections
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
1844
1845
1846
1847
1848
1849
1850
1851
1852
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860
1861
1862
1863
1865
1867
1869
1871
1873
1876
1877
1879
1881
1883
1885
1887
1889
1891
1893
1893 sp
1895
1897
1899
1901
1903
1905
1907
1911
1915
1919
1923
1927
1931
1935
1939
1943
1947
1951
1955
1959
1963
1967
1971
1975
1977 sp
1979
1983
1987
1989 sp
1991
1995
1999
2003
2007
2011
2015
2019
2023
2027
Aldermanic elections
1923
1925
1927
1929
2011
2015
2019
2023
Chicago Board of Education elections
2024
2026 :
Cook County
County elections
1946
1980
State's Attorney
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024 :
vte :
In the Chicago mayoral election of 1905, Democratic nominee Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne defeated Republican nominee John Maynard Harlan and Socialist nominee John Collins.
This was the final regularly-scheduled Chicago mayoral election for a two-year term. Subsequent elections have been for four-year terms.
The general election took place on April 4.
Ahead of the election, both major parties selected their nominees at nominating conventions in February. Incumbent Democrat Carter Harrison IV did not seek renomination. Edward F. Dunne, with the backing of a number of political forces, and without opposition from any major player in his party, easily secured support for the Democratic Party nomination and was delivered by acclamation at the party's convention. The Republican Party nominated Harlan at their own convention. In addition, Socialists nominated John Collins at their convention.

## Nominations

Chicago held mayoral primary elections. These were indirect primaries, electing delegates to conventions (with the delegates in turn selecting the nominee).

### Democratic primary

The Democratic primary held on February 24.
Incumbent Democrat Carter Harrison IV had, shortly after his 1903 reelection, declared that he would not seek an additional term in 1905. While there was a possibility he could reverse course and seek another term, by 1905 he was facing declining prospects of winning nomination to a fifth consecutive term. Labor unions had come out in support of municipal ownership of the city's streetcars, a stance that Harrison had neither adopted nor was keen on adopting. He was out-of step with the political tides on this issue, as both parties had come to regularly support the idea of municipal ownership. Municipal ownership was a particularly immensely important item to the city's reformers. Harrison had also fractured political relations during the course of the 1904 elections, particularly having made an enemy of William Randolph Hearst and his allies by opposing Hearst's campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Additionally, many Chicagoans were growing impatient with Harrison's inability to resolve the city's traction issue. Even before this rise in public dissatisfaction towards his mayoralty, Harrison had only eked out a relatively narrow margin of victory in the city's previous mayoral election. Thus, Harrison decided to announce that, on November 21, 1904, he would indeed not be seeking a fifth consecutive term as mayor.
At the same time that Harrison was seeing a decline in his political prospects, Edward F. Dunne began to rise in prominence. On June 26, 1904, at a Democratic Party picnic, Dunne delivered a speech in which he criticized Harrison for not towing the party's line in its support municipal ownership. Rumors immediately arose that he would challenge Harrison by running as an independent candidate, but Dunne denied this, declaring that he was a loyal Democrat. Former judge William Prentice (a leader of the Chicago Federation of Labor) said that he would run as an independent candidate in support of municipal ownership unless Dunne was the Democratic nominee. In November 1904 Dunne declined a nomination from the Municipal Ownership League to run for mayor as a third-party candidate under their banner.
Murray F. Tuley of the Municipal Ownership League heralded a January draft effort to convince Dunne to run for the Democratic nomination, issuing an open letter on January 15, 1905, calling on Dever to run. On January 23, 1905, delegations from 23 of Chicago's 35 wards urged Dunne to run. Dunne declared he was willing to accept the nomination, but that he would not resign his seat as a judge until he began campaigning. He also pledged to accept no corporate donations.
Dunne had an easy path to the nomination. While the Harrison-aligned Democratic Central Committee did not issue any endorsement, Dune was strongly supported by both the Bryan-Altgeld and Hearst wings of the party. He experienced no strong opposition from the ward bosses or from the Sullivan-Hopkins wing of the party. Despite receiving strong buzz as a prospective candidate, alderman William Emmett Dever did not run against Dunne.
At the party's February nominating convention, Dunne was nominated by acclamation. In his acceptance speech he declared that his central issue as mayor would be implementing municipal ownership of the city's streetcars.

### Republican primary

The Republican primary was held on February 13.
To compete with Dunne, by then known to be the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, Republicans nominated maverick Republican John Maynard Harlan. Republicans hoped that Harlan might be able to capture some of the support that Dunne would otherwise capture from supporters of municipal ownership. Harlan had campaigned in 1897 on a platform strongly supporting municipal ownership. However, unlike Dunne, Harlan did not back immediate municipal ownership in 1905.
In addition to previously having run a third-party effort 1897, Harlan had run for the Republican nomination in 1901 and in 1903.
Harlan had served an Alderman for two years (1896 through 1898), and was the son of then-sitting United States Supreme Court Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan.

### Socialist primary

The Socialist primary was held on March 4. The primary also saw the election of ward delegates for the party. With John Collins being the only candidate for mayor, he won the mayoral primary. 4,360 votes were cast in the Socialist primary. The cost to taxpayers to hold the primary was $7,620. Collins had received the party's mayoral nomination in 1901 and had also run as the party's nominee for governor of Illinois in 1904. He was also a delegate to the party's 1904 presidential convention.
The Socialists were coming off of a strong performance 1904 United States presidential election in Illinois. Despite this, the party had initially pledged that it would not run its own mayoral candidate if Dunne were to run. However, despite Dunne's presence atop the Democratic ticket, the party nominated John Collins for mayor.

### Prohibition nomination

Oliver W. Stewart received the Prohibition Party nomination.

## General election
### Campaign

A judge on the Cook County Circuit Court, Dunne had no prior executive experience. His positions were relatively mainstream among municipal reformers ("social reformers" and "urban liberals") . Like other municipal reformers, Dunne favored having political power be shared with the lower echelons of society rather than being exclusively held by the upper echelons. He also was supportive of labor unions. He was tolerant towards ethnic and cultural diversity and also tolerant towards those with disabilities and impairments. He was a contemporary with progressive leaders of both parties in other American cities, including Tom L. Johnson, Samuel M. Jones, Mark Pagan, Hazen Pingree, and Brand Whitlock.
Dunne was so passionate about municipal ownership that he aspired to, ultimately, have his life be remembered most for two things: being the mayor that would bring municipal ownership to Chicago's transit system and for being the father to his thirteen children. He strongly favored immediate municipal ownership.
Dunne's lack of campaign experience did not hamper him, as he ran a very strong and well-organized campaign. To drive turnout among Democratic voters, Dunne held party rallies in each of the city's wards and delivered remarks aimed at appealing towards strong-Democrats, as well as remarks aimed at winning over the city's ethnic voters. Dunne worked to unite the various wings of the party around support for immediate municipal ownership. Dunne also made active efforts to court independent voters, with the goal of winning-over at least 50,000.
A number of political action groups supported Dunne's candidacy.
Dunne largely avoided endorsing or opposing the reelection campaigns of several ward bosses. However, he did endorse a few that had strongly supported immediate municipal ownership and oppose a few that had opposed it. For instance, in the 19th Ward he supported immediate municipal ownership proponent Simon O'Donnell's challenge to John Powers, an opponent of immediate municipal ownership. Even then, however, he only went as far as lending his support to O'Donnell, and did not directly criticize Powers. In the First Ward, where Michael Kenna enthusiastically backed both Dunne and immediate municipal ownership, Dunne returned the favor by endorsing Kenna.
In 1905, Harlan did not support immediate municipal ownership. While de supported making "ample provision for municipal ownership and operation", he stated that he believed that this could only be implemented at a later date when, "the city can be legally and financially able to successfully adopt it". This differed from his past stance on municipal ownership, and was quite similar to the stance that Carter Harrison IV had held.
Some reformers supported and campaigned on behalf of Harlan. However, many reformers that had supported Harlan's previous 1897 campaign supported Dunne's candidacy instead. Many were dissatisfied with his sudden change in position on the traction issue.
Harlan garnered the support of Harold L. Ickes, William Kent, Raymond Robbins, and Graham Taylor, who together formed the "Non Partisan Harlan Club" to support his candidacy. They supported Harlan due to his strong support for a new municipal charter and out of disapproval of Dunne's political alliances with the Democratic political bosses of the city's wards.
Not only was Harlan opposed by notable figures that had endorsed him in 1897, but he also found significant levels of support from groups which had opposed him in 1897. These included the city's business and banking community, establishment members of the Republican Party, and Republican-leaning newspapers.

### Endorsements

Individuals
* Jane Addams, activist and proprietor of Hull House
* Clarence Darrow, lawyer and activist
* Michael Kenna, alderman
* Louis F. Post, Georgism activist
* Donald Richberg, attorney
Individuals
* Harold L. Ickes
* Graham Taylor, minister, activist, educator
* William Kent
Organizations
* Civic Federation
* Municipal Voters League

### Results

Dunne's number of votes was the most votes any candidate had ever received in a Chicago mayoral election, up to that time.
1905 Chicago mayoral election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Democratic | Edward F. Dunne | 163,189 | 49.74 |
| | Republican | John Maynard Harlan | 138,548 | 42.23 |
| | Socialist | John Collins | 23,034 | 7.02 |
| | Prohibition | Oliver W. Stewart | 3,294 | 1.00 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 228,065 | 81 |
Dunne received 64.99% of the Polish-American vote, while Harlan received 29.73% and Collins received 4.78%.