How Rahm Emanuel won Chicago
Rahm Emanuel posted a convincing win in the Chicago's mayor's race, getting the majority of votes even in a multiple-candidate race and taking it without need for a runoff. A map of the results, prepared for CBS News by Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science (above), overlays 2010 census demographic data by the city's wards, and illustrates just how decisive that win was.
Emanuel won in wards across most areas of the city, north and south, garnering at least 40 percent and often over 50 percent almost everywhere save some western wards (see map, above right). The deep red shades show that some of his biggest margins (with over 70 percent of the total vote) came in northern wards and along the lakeshore, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, and northward (his old Congressional district is on the north side too.) He ran very strongly on the south side, as well, though, getting over 50 percent in many wards south of the Loop.
A look at the census racial composition of the wards shows that Emanuel did very well in wards with both white and African American voters (see map, above left). He did less well in wards with higher numbers of Hispanics, but well enough that it didn't keep him from securing a majority overall. Chicago's wards, as shown on the map at left, are for the most part majority white in the north and majority black on the south side. Emanuel did well in both places. Emanuel, of course, was chief of staff to fellow Chicagoan President Obama, and that connection appears to have helped.
In a map that shows a direct comparison to his closest competitor Gery Chico, Emanuel won more votes in wards almost everywhere except some of the western areas of the city (see map, above center).
Rahm Emanuel readies for hard work as Chicago mayor after victory
Emanuel elected Chicago mayor
Steve Ansolabehere is Professor of Government, Harvard University; Joe Williams is a PhD Candidate at Harvard University; Anthony Salvanto is CBS News Elections Director
