Back in 1995, the Chicago Republican Party was in a sorry state. Its candidate for mayor, Ray Wardingley, best known for entertaining children as Spanky the Clown, had received only 2.8 percent of the vote in a race that saw Democrat Richard M. Daley reelected to a second full term.

Republicans in Springfield wanted to prevent such embarrassments in the future. After all, the city hadn’t elected a Republican mayor since 1927. So the GOP-controlled legislature passed a bill that brought Chicago in line with most other Illinois municipalities by dropping party labels from city election ballots. Partisan primaries were replaced by a new system: If no one received a majority of votes, the top two finishers, regardless of party, would enter a runoff.

Black politicians cried foul, charging the new law was an attempt to prevent the election of another Harold Washington, who had won the 1983 Democratic primary with a plurality, and would likely have lost a runoff against runner-up Jane Byrne. And in fact, that was the reason machine Democrats had earlier pushed for nonpartisan elections: In that racially polarized era, they figured a Black mayoral candidate couldn’t win a runoff in a Black-minority city. Lori Lightfoot and Brandon Johnson would prove otherwise, of course.

Send your questions about the Chicago area to emcclelland@chicagomag.com.