Daley easily defeated Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago Commissioner Joseph E. Gardiner by a margin of more that 30 points.

Daley's main challenge came from Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago commissioner Joseph E. Gardner.

[10] Candidates Themis Anagost[11] (an attorney),[12] Leon Beard,[13] and Raymond Lear[14][15] had been denied inclusion on the ballot due to issues with their petitions.

Candidates Phillip Morris[18] and Ilene Smith[19] had been denied inclusion on the ballot due to issues regarding their petitions.

[22] Late into the campaign, Burris issued demands for Daley to address corruption and misconduct by aviation employees, especially Dominic Longo, the manager of vehicle operations at O’Hare.

Burris also alleged that Longo has coerced airport employees into making donations to the Daley campaign in order to keep their jobs.

[2] In response to Wardingley's abysmal showing, the Republican-controlled Illinois General Assembly passed legislation creating a nonpartisan, runoff election system for citywide offices in Chicago.

Public Act 89-0095 was signed into law by Governor Jim Edgar and went into effect for the 1999 Chicago mayoral election.