[3][4] The only significant individual initially willing to put themselves forth as a candidate was Tom Carey, former chair of the Cook County Democratic committee during the mayoral administration of Carter Harrison IV.

[4] Sullivan and his deputy John Brennan sought to find a candidate that could unify the disparate factions of the Democratic Party.

[4] They appeared to have found a compromise candidate in congressman James McAndrews, who got key approval from the Harrison-Dunne faction of the party.

[4] While the Harrison-Dunne factions were not enthusiastic about Sweitzer, Sullivan appeased them by having former governor Dunne author the party's 1919 platform, which voiced commitment to home rule for utility matters (protecting such matters from the authority of the state legislature), lower gas truces and greater oversight of the city's traction companies.

[3] Disappointed by his performance in the 1918 Republican U.S. Senate primary, and eager to revive his political capital by winning reelection, incumbent mayor William H. Thompson announced his campaign relatively early, doing so in the autumn of 1918.

[3] Thompson had pressured city workers to rouse enthusiasm for him to seek reelection so he could artificially create a push to "draft" him for the third term.

[7] Olson also promised, "an administration of good, clean and honest housekeeping" and voiced interest in eugenics, the latter of which was off-putting to ethnic and black voters.

[2] Fresh off of serving the army in Italy, former Hyde Park alderman Merriam angled to be a true alternative to Thompson.

[2] His campaign literature read, "I may be standing with my back to the wall, but I do not intend to forsake the men and women who asked me to lead this fight, not desert the claims of Chicago at this critical moment.

[2] As a means of improving civic engagement and providing for responsible government directorship, Merriam had championed a program of centralized planning and bureaucratic control.

[2] He also made a campaign issue of the fact that the Thompson administration was perceived to have driven Theodore B. Sachs to commit suicide.

[2] Merriam warned of an "underworld" of "grafters and gunmen, gangsters and thugs" which was strongly connected with the "upper world" of urban politics.

Prosecuting officials, police, sheriffs, judges, mayors, governors were among the many meshes in the great net, recently designed to entwine and entangle the law.

Thompson planted city workers in the audience at to heckle Merriam at a January 6 debate between the two at the Masonic Temple, which ultimately resulted in fistfight breaking out.

[4] Merriam did not stop vigilante soldiers' and sailors' organizations from intimidating Thompson campaign workers in the city's downtown.

[7] It was considered surprising that Thompson managed to secure a large enough share of the vote to garner an absolute majority.

[2] Inspired by the Bolshevik revolution in Russia (the ramifications of which had not yet been fully understood in America), union figures organized to create the Independent Labor Party of Cook County.

[4] To formally nominate Fitzpatrick and a party ticket to run alongside him, an executive committee was formed and a convention of approximately 400 delegates was held.

[4] The party's stated goal was to create (modeled after the Bolsheviks) a soldiers and sailors council to promote the advancement of "political and industrial democracy at home".

[15]Thompson also focused on international affairs, such as advocating Irish independence and supporting for the free trade policies of former president Grover Cleveland.

[2] Thompson accused Sweitzer, as county clerk, of having ignored the tearful pleas of a White mother when he issued (African American) boxer Jack Johnson a license to marry the woman's daughter.

[2] This accusation, while a racist dog whistle, did not damage Thompson's own popularity in the city's Black wards.

[2] After Chicago's business elite threw their support behind Sweitzer, Thompson derided them as being, "tax dodgers, possessors of swollen fortunes and robbers of the working classes.

[4][7][15] All major newspapers were opposed to Thompson, with the exception of those owned by news magnate William Randolph Hearst.

He distributed bills with the slogan, "By voting for Mayor William Thompson you fight the commercialized newspapers who cheat the school children and you"[15] Thompson managed to avoid addressing criticisms brought by Sweitzer and Hoyne, and instead touted his own virtues, portraying himself as a patriotic American dedicated to protecting the citizens' constitutional rights.

"[10] Hoyne received the backing of parts of the remaining members of the Democratic Party's Harrison faction, as well as many of the Republicans that had supported Merriam.

[10] The contribution of Chicago's growing African-American population to the reelection of a mayor many in the city found to be abhorrent fed racial animosity.

[22] Thompson's victory was widely attributed to the four-way split of the vote, with Hoyne and Fitzpatrick siphoning off enough likely Democratic voters, acting as spoilers.