Editing Jane Byrne (section)

==Mayor of Chicago (1979–1983)==
===1979 election===
{{see main|1979 Chicago mayoral election}}

Months after being fired as head of the consumer affairs department, Byrne challenged Bilandic in the 1979 Democratic mayoral primary, the real contest in the heavily Democratic Chicago. Officially announcing her mayoral campaign in August 1977, Byrne partnered with Chicago journalist and political consultant Don Rose, who served as her campaign manager.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lib.niu.edu/1979/ii790710.html|title=Don Rose analyzes Jane Byrne's victory|website=www.lib.niu.edu}}</ref> At first, political observers believed she had little chance of winning. A memorandum inside the Bilandic campaign said it should portray her as "a shrill, charging, vindictive person—and nothing makes a woman look worse".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Yardley|first1=William|title=Jane Byrne, Only Woman to Lead Chicago, Dies at 81|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/15/us/jane-byrne-only-woman-to-lead-chicago-dies-at-81-.html|access-date=November 17, 2014|work=The New York Times|date=November 14, 2014}}</ref> 

Nevertheless, the January [[Chicago Blizzard of 1979]] paralyzed the city and caused Bilandic to be seen as an ineffective leader. Bilandic's ineffective leadership caused [[Jesse Jackson]] to endorse Byrne. Even many Republican voters voted in the Democratic primary to help beat Bilandic. Infuriated voters on the [[Community areas in Chicago|North Side]] and [[Northwest Side, Chicago|Northwest Side]] retaliated against Bilandic for the Democratic Party's slating of only [[South Side, Chicago|South Side]] candidates for the mayor, clerk, and treasurer (the outgoing city clerk, John C. Marcin, was from the Northwest Side). These four factors combined to give Byrne a 51% to 49% victory over Bilandic in the primary.<ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/chi-chicagodays-byrne-story-story.html | title = When Jane Byrne was elected mayor | work = [[Chicago Tribune]] | edition = online | date = November 14, 2014 | first = R. Bruce | last = Dold | access-date = March 30, 2018 }}</ref> Positioning herself as a reformer, Byrne then won the [[Chicago mayoral election, 1979|main election]] with 82.1% of the vote, still the largest margin in a Chicago mayoral election.<ref name="MayorGeneral1979">{{Cite web|url=http://chicagodemocracy.org/ElectionResults.jsp?election=crdd_general,crdd_1979_general_election,il_chi_mayor|title=Election Results for 1979 General Election, Mayor, Chicago, IL|website=chicagodemocracy.org|access-date=August 26, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200617050514/http://chicagodemocracy.org/ElectionResults.jsp?election=crdd_general,crdd_1979_general_election,il_chi_mayor|archive-date=June 17, 2020|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Tenure===
====Leadership and general politics====
[[File:Chicago MIdway Airport - Sign on 55th and Cicero (51557076107).jpg|thumb|Early 1980s sign at [[Midway Airport]] listing Byrne as the city's mayor]]

Byrne made inclusive moves as mayor such as shepherding the hiring of the city's first [[History of African Americans in Chicago|African-American]] and female school superintendent [[Ruth B. Love]],<ref name="crusader1">[https://chicagocrusader.com/electing-a-black-mayor-in-chicago-part-two-of-five/ ELECTING A BLACK MAYOR IN CHICAGO – PART TWO OF FIVE, Posted By crusader -November 21, 2018]. Retrieved April 15, 2020.</ref><ref>[https://www.newcity.com/2014/11/19/dime-stories-a-tribute-to-jane-byrne/ NewCity, Dime Stories: A Tribute to Jane Byrne, NOVEMBER 19, 2014]. Retrieved April 15, 2020.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=QFfUq0Ytjv8C&q=Jane+Byrne+Ruth+B.+Love Press Summary - Illinois Information Service, 1989]. Retrieved April 15, 2020.</ref> and she was the first mayor to recognize the [[LGBT culture in Chicago|gay community]]. Byrne helped to make Chicago more welcoming to the gay community.<ref name="Kogan1"/> She ended the police department's practice of raiding [[gay bar]]s,<ref name="Hautzinger"/> and declared the city's first official "Gay Pride Parade Day" in 1981.<ref name="Kogan1"/> However, during her tenure, Byrne drifted away from many of the [[Progressivism in the United States|progressive]] tenets she had campaigned on.<ref name="Hautzinger">{{cite web |last1=Hautzinger |first1=Daniel |title=Chicago's First (And Only) Female Mayor |url=https://interactive.wttw.com/playlist/2019/03/12/jane-byrne |website=WTTW Chicago |access-date=June 6, 2020 |date=March 12, 2019}}</ref> Byrne began to collaborate with aldermen [[Edward M. Burke]] and [[Edward Vrdolyak]], whom, during her 1979 campaign, she had denounced as an "evil cabal".<ref name=Felsenthal/><ref name="Hautzinger"/>

In 1982, she supported the Cook County Democratic Party's replacement of its chairman, County Board President [[George Dunne]], with her city council ally, Alderman Edward Vrdolyak.<ref>{{cite news|title=Mayor Byrne's Choice Wins Post as Cook County Leader|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/03/30/nyregion/mayor-byrne-s-choice-wins-post-as-cook-county-leader.html|access-date=November 17, 2014|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=March 30, 1982}}</ref>

[[File:Mayor's office,1981 (?),courtesy of Graphics and Reproduction Center,City of Chicago - Chicago City Hall, 121 North LaSalle Street, Chicago, Cook County, IL HABS ILL,16-CHIG,94-6 (1).tif|thumb|Byrne's mayoral office at the [[City Hall-County Building]], photographed circa 1981]]

Byrne and the Cook County Democratic Party endorsed Senator [[Ted Kennedy]] for president in the [[1980 Democratic presidential primaries]], but incumbent President [[Jimmy Carter]] won the Illinois Democratic Primary and even carried Cook County and the city of Chicago. Byrne's endorsement of Kennedy was later considered detrimental because of her controversial tenure, and Kennedy's loss in the city was a key moment in the [[1980 Democratic Party presidential primaries]] because of Chicago's role in delivering his brother [[John F. Kennedy]] the [[1960 Democratic National Convention|1960 Democratic presidential nomination]]. When Byrne and Kennedy walked in the annual [[Saint Patrick's Day in the United States|Saint Patrick's Day]] parade they were sometimes booed by hecklers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ward |first=Jon |url= |title=Camelot's End: Kennedy vs. Carter, and the Fight that Broke the Democratic Party |publisher=Twelve |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-4555-9138-1 |edition=1 |location=New York |pages=211–212 |language=en |oclc=1057244725}}</ref>

Simultaneously, Byrne and the Cook County Democratic Party's candidate in [[1980 Cook County State's Attorney election|the 1980 election]] for [[Cook County State's Attorney]] (chief local prosecutor), 14th Ward Alderman [[Edward M. Burke]], lost in the Democratic primary to Richard M. Daley, and Daley then unseated GOP incumbent Bernard Carey in the general election.

The ''[[Chicago Sun Times]]'' reported that Byrne's enemies publicly mocked her as "that crazy broad" and "that skinny [[Bitch (slang)|bitch]]" and worse.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Steinberg |first1=Neil |title=Ex-Mayor Jane Byrne left colorful legacy during time of change |url=http://politics.suntimes.com/article/chicago/ex-mayor-jane-byrne-left-colorful-legacy-during-time-change/fri-11142014-1127am |access-date=November 17, 2014 |work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |date=November 14, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141116165902/http://politics.suntimes.com/article/chicago/ex-mayor-jane-byrne-left-colorful-legacy-during-time-change/fri-11142014-1127am |archive-date=November 16, 2014 }}</ref>

====Appointments and personnel====
In her first year in office, significant instances of turnover in prominent city positions led critics to accuse Byrne of running a "revolving door administration".<ref name="CSMJun1980"/>

While Byrne initially made inclusive moves with regards to appointments as mayor: shepherding the hiring of the city's first African-American and female school superintendent [[Ruth B. Love]] which she later pivoted away from this.<ref name="crusader1"/> Among the later steps that Byrne took that upset many of the progressives and Blacks that had supported her in the 1979 mayoral campaign was replacing Black members of the [[Chicago Board of Education]] and [[Chicago Housing Authority]] board with White members, some of whom even held stances that critics viewed as racist.<ref name=Felsenthal/><ref name="Hautzinger"/>

During the 1979 mayoral election, Byrne pledged to fire [[Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department]] [[James E. O'Grady]], accusing him of having "politicized" the department.<ref name="battleforthebadge">{{cite web |last1=Dold |first1=R. Bruce |title=BATTLE FOR THE BADGE ESCALATES IN COOK COUNTY |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1986-10-31-8603220079-story.html |website=Chicago Tribune  |access-date=November 2, 2020 |date=October 31, 1986}}</ref><ref name="Gradel">{{cite web |last1=Gradel |first1=Thomas J. |title=Chicago Mayors Have History Of Axing Top Cops Instead Of Cleaning Up System |url=https://will.illinois.edu/news/story/illinois-issues-chicago-mayors-have-history-of-axing-top-cops-instead-of-cl |website=Illinois Public Media |access-date=June 18, 2020 |language=en |date=June 7, 2016}}</ref> Days after her inauguration, O'Grady resigned.<ref name="Gradel"/> Later that year, she relieved interim superintendent Joseph DiLeonardi of command.<ref name="chicagocop">{{cite web |title=HEADS OF THE CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT {{!}} ChicagoCop.com |url=https://www.chicagocop.com/history/people/heads-of-the-chicago-police-department/ |publisher=ChicagoCop.com |access-date=December 3, 2019}}</ref> She appointed [[Samuel Nolan]] interim superintendent in his place,<ref name="heise1">{{cite web |last1=Heise |first1=Kenan |title=Sam Nolan, First Black Police Superintendent |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-10-09-9710090153-story.html |website=Chicago Tribune  |access-date=November 3, 2020 |date=October 9, 1997}}</ref> Nolan was the first African American to serve as head of the [[Chicago Police Department]].<ref name="dna1">{{cite web |title=Many Superintendents Have Tried To Reform the Chicago Police (Timeline) |url=https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20151218/downtown/many-superintendents-have-tried-reform-chicago-police-timeline/ |website=DNAinfo Chicago |access-date=October 30, 2020 |date=December 8, 2015 |archive-date=November 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201102232745/https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20151218/downtown/many-superintendents-have-tried-reform-chicago-police-timeline/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="tribune11jan">{{cite web |last1=Lee |first1=William |last2=Schlikerman |first2=Becky |title=Fred Rice, 1926–2011 |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-xpm-2011-01-11-ct-met-obit-fred-rice-20110110-story.html |website=Chicago Tribune |access-date=October 30, 2020 |date=January 11, 2011}}</ref> In January 1980, [[Richard J. Brzeczek]] took office as permanent superintendent, having been appointed by Byrne.<ref name="chicagocop"/> On her last day in office, after the resignation of Brzeczek as superintdendent, Byrne appointed James E. O'Grady as interim superintendent.<ref name=chicagocop/> By this time, Byrne had rescinded her past criticisms of O'Grady.<ref name="battleforthebadge"/> In 1980, Byrne appointed William R. Blair as [[Chicago fire commissioner]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Zielinski |first1=Graeme |title=RETIRING CHIEF KEPT POLITICAL FIRE AT BAY |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1996-11-15-9611150148-story.html |website=Chicago Tribune |access-date=November 15, 2021 |language=en |date=November 15, 1996}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=HISTORY OF THE CHICAGO FIRE DEPARTMENT |url=https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/cfd/general/PDFs/HistoryOfTheChicagoFireDepartment_1.pdf#:~:text=1922%20November%2022%2C%20John%20Cullerton%20is%20appointed%20as,Blue%20Island.%201927%205-11%20cards%20put%20in%20service. |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/cfd/general/PDFs/HistoryOfTheChicagoFireDepartment_1.pdf#:~:text=1922%20November%2022%2C%20John%20Cullerton%20is%20appointed%20as,Blue%20Island.%201927%205-11%20cards%20put%20in%20service. |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live |website=chicago.gov |publisher=City of Chicago |access-date=June 19, 2021}}</ref>

====Arts====
During her campaign for mayor, Byrne promised to provide strong support to the [[performing arts]].<ref name="Kogan1"/> ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' [[art critic]], [[Richard Christiansen (critic)|Richard Christiansen]], hailed Byrne for having made, "the arts and amusements of the city a most significant part of her" mayoral administration.<ref name="Kogan1"/>

As mayor, she provided $200,000 to the [[Lyric Opera of Chicago]] for the express purposes of providing family-friendly entertainment.<ref name="Kogan1"/> She provided a similar amount to [[Auditorium Theatre]] for them to acquire a new [[lighting board]].<ref name="Kogan1"/> As mayor, Byrne funded the construction of the ''[[Miró's Chicago]]'' [[sculpture]] by artist [[Joan Miró]].<ref name="Kogan1" /> Byrne also allowed Chicago to be used as a filming location, pushing for such movies as ''[[The Blues Brothers (film)|The Blues Brothers]]'' to be shot in Chicago.<ref name="Hautzinger" />

==== Cabrini–Green ====
On March 26, 1981, Byrne decided to move into the crime-ridden [[Cabrini–Green|Cabrini–Green Homes]] housing project on the near-north side of Chicago after 37 shootings resulting in 11 murders occurring during a three-month period from January to March 1981.<ref>[http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1981/03/26/page/37/article/jane-byrne-is-making-history Chicago Tribune – Jane Byrne is making history – March 26, 1981]</ref> In her 2004 memoir, Byrne reflected on her decision to move into Cabrini–Green: "How could I put Cabrini on a bigger map? ... Suddenly I knew—I could move in there."<ref name="csm-remembers"/>  Prior to her move to Cabrini, Byrne closed down several liquor stores in the area, citing the stores as hangout for gangs and murderers. Byrne also ordered the Chicago Housing Authority to evict tenants who were suspected of harboring gang members in their apartments, which affected approximately 800 tenants.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}} 

Byrne moved into a 4th floor apartment in a Cabrini extension building on North Sedgwick Avenue with her husband on March 31 around 8:30&nbsp;p.m. after attending a dinner at the [[Hilton Chicago|Conrad Hilton hotel]].<ref>[http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1981/04/01/page/1/article/byrne-moves-into-cabrini-gang-raided Chicago Tribune – Byrne Moves Into Cabrini; Gang Raided – April 1, 1981]</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/02/us/chicago-s-mayor-spends-lovely-night-at-project.html|title=CHICAGO'S MAYOR SPENDS 'LOVELY' NIGHT AT PROJECT|first1=Douglas E.|last1=Kneeland|first2= New York|last2=Times|work=The New York Times |date=April 2, 1981|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref> Hours after Byrne moved into the housing project, police raided the building and arrested eleven street gang members who they had learned through informants were planning to have a shootout in the mayor's building later that evening. 

Byrne described her first night at Cabrini-Green as "lovely" and "very quiet".{{citation needed|date=September 2018}} She stayed at Cabrini-Green for three weeks to bring attention to the housing project's crime and infrastructure problems. Her stay there ended on April 18, 1981, following an Easter celebration at the project which drew protests and demonstrators who claimed Byrne's move to the project was just a publicity stunt.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/visuals/|title=Photography |website=Chicago Tribune|date=June 20, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Jane Byrne Cabrini-Green Easter: A Look Back At A Mayor's 1981 PR Fail That Ended In Shame|type=video|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/31/jane-byrne-cabrini-green-_n_2989015.html|access-date=November 17, 2014|work=[[HuffPost]]|date=March 31, 2013}}</ref><ref>[http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1981/04/18/page/21/article/mayor-byrnes-move-to-cabrini-green Chicago Tribune – Mayor Byrne move to Cabrini-Green – April 18, 1981]</ref><ref>[http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1981/03/27/page/36/article/symbolism-of-politics-is-jolted-by-jane-byrne Chicago Tribune – Symbolism of politics is jolted by Jane Byrne – March 27, 1981]</ref>

====Finances====
One of the crises that Byrne faced in her first year as mayor was a major shortage of funds in both the [[Government of Chicago|municipal government]] and by the [[Chicago Board of Education]] (the city's school board). This arose due to questionable past borrowing practices, and necessitated both budget cuts and further borrowing to resolve.<ref name="CSMJun1980">{{cite web |last1=Mouat |first1=Lucia |title=Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne's Trial By Fire |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1980/0618/061851.html |website=Christian Science Monitor |access-date=November 15, 2021 |date=June 18, 1980}}</ref>

====Handgun ordinance====
In January 1982, Byrne proposed a controversial ordinance effectively banning new handgun registration. The ordinance was created to put a freeze on the number of legally owned [[handgun]]s in Chicago and to require owners of handguns to re-register them annually.<ref>[http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1982/01/15/page/1/article/byrne-pushes-strict-gun-law Chicago Tribune – Byrne Pushes Strict Gun Law – January 15, 1982]</ref> The ordinance was approved by a 6–1 vote in February 1982.<ref>[http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1982/02/26/page/1/article/council-panel-oks-byrne-handgun-ban Chicago Tribune – Panel Ok's Byrne Handgun Ban – February 26, 1982]</ref> The ordinance was struck down by the Supreme Court in the 2010 case ''[[McDonald v. City of Chicago]]''.

====Hosting of special events====
Byrne also used special events, such as [[ChicagoFest]], to revitalize [[Navy Pier]] and the downtown [[Chicago Theatre]].{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} ChicagoFest had first been held the year prior to her election. One of Byrne's first efforts as mayor had been an attempt to cancel future editions of the event. But, after facing complaints from citizens and unions, Byrne allowed the festival to continue as an annual event, and formally renamed it "Mayor Jane M. Byrne's ChicagoFest".<ref name="Kogan1">{{cite web |last1=Kogan |first1=Rick |title=Jane Byrne's lasting impact on culture in Chicago |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-jane-byrne-kogan-met-20141114-story.html |website=Chicago Tribune |access-date=November 12, 2021 |date=November 14, 2014}}</ref> 

Festivals inaugurated during her tenure included [[Taste of Chicago]].<ref name="Hautzinger" /> Byrne held a number of smaller-scale events in neighborhoods all across the city, wording  them with the prefix "Mayor Byrne's".<ref name="Kogan1" /> As mayor, Byrne was a strong supporter of the planned [[Chicago 1992 World's Fair]].<ref>{{cite news | author =Scott Kraft| title =Triumph Crumbles : Dreams of '92 World's Fair Die in Chicago| work =Los Angeles Times | date =October 13, 1985 | url =https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-10-13-mn-15797-story.html | access-date=November 18, 2019}}</ref> In 1980, Byrne announced that the city would host a [[Championship Auto Racing Teams]] "Indy Car" automobile race at [[Grant Park (Chicago)|Grant Park]] on the 4th of July weekend of the following year. However, after facing criticism, Byrne quickly canceled these plans.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Pryson |first1=Mike |title=NASCAR Needs Better Luck with Chicago Street Race than CART Had in '81 |url=https://www.autoweek.com/racing/nascar/a40664902/nascar-needs-more-luck-with-chicago-street-race-than-cart-in-1981/ |website=Autoweek |access-date=February 7, 2023 |date=July 20, 2022}}</ref>

====Labor====
In her first year in office, she faced strikes by labor unions as the city's transit workers, public school teachers, and firefighters all went on strike.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dold |first=R. Bruce |title=When Jane Byrne was elected mayor |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/chi-chicagodays-byrne-story-story.html |access-date=April 14, 2022 |website=Chicago Tribune|date=November 14, 2014 }}</ref>

====Transportation====
There had been plans under Daley and Bilandic to demolish [[The Loop (CTA)|the Loop]] elevated rail and replace it with a subway. Byrne appointed a commission that ultimately recommended that the Loop should be retained along with modernization.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ehrenhalt |first1=Alan |title=Chicago's L: the Ugly Duckling that Made a City |url=https://www.governing.com/assessments/chicagos-l-the-ugly-duckling-that-made-a-city.html |website=Governing |access-date=December 24, 2021 |language=en |date=December 4, 2020}}</ref> In 1981, Byrne disbanded the [[Chicago Transit Authority]]'s dedicated security force, transferring its duties instead to the [[Chicago Police Department]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Thomas |first1=Karen M. |title=NEW POLICE PATROLS ARE WELCOME CTA PASSENGERS |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-03-16-8701200852-story.html |website=Chicago Tribune |access-date=November 15, 2021 |language=en |date=March 16, 1987}}</ref>

====Other matters====
In November 1981, the Chicago City Council approved a new [[redistricting]] map for the city's aldermanic wards which was drawn by Byrne's administration. The [[U.S. Court of Appeals]] would find, in 1984, that the map was in violation of the federal [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]].<ref>{{cite web |title=A New Map, A New Era |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1985-10-31-8503140614-story.html |website=Chicago Tribune |access-date=November 14, 2021 |language=en |date=October 31, 1985}}</ref>

On November 11, 1981, [[Dan Goodwin]], who had successfully climbed the [[Sears Tower]] the previous spring, battled for his life on the side of the [[John Hancock Center]]. William Blair, Chicago's fire commissioner, had ordered the [[Chicago Fire Department]] to stop Goodwin by directing a full-power fire hose at him and by using fire axes to break window glass in Goodwin's path. 

Mayor Byrne rushed to the scene and ordered the fire department to stand down. Then, through a smashed out a 38th floor window, Byrne told Goodwin, who was hanging from the building's side a floor below, that though she did not agree with his climbing of the John Hancock Center, she certainly opposed the fire department knocking him to the ground below. Byrne then allowed Goodwin to continue his climb unimpeded to the top.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Constable |first1=Burt |title=Wallenda supported, Spider-Dan nearly killed |url=http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20141102/news/141109798/|access-date=November 17, 2014|work=[[Daily Herald (Arlington Heights)|Daily Herald]]|date=November 4, 2014}}</ref>

Byrne also initiated the idea for creating a unified lakefront museum campus, which was implemented subsequent to her tenure as [[Museum Campus]], as well as the idea of renovating [[Navy Pier]], also implemented subsequent to her tenure.<ref name="Hautzinger" /> Byrne additionally expanded [[O'Hare International Airport]].<ref name="Hautzinger"/>

===Bid for reelection===
{{See main|1983 Chicago mayoral election}}

In August 1982, Byrne decided that she would seek a second term as mayor. At the beginning of her re-election campaign, she was trailing behind [[Richard M. Daley]], then Cook County State's Attorney, by 3% in a poll done by the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' in July 1982.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1982/0823/082307.html|title=Jane Byrne: off and running for reelection in Chicago|date=August 23, 1982|journal=Christian Science Monitor}}</ref> Compared to the 1979 mayoral election in which Byrne received 59.3% of the African-American vote,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eA6VI8_du2cC&dq=jane+byrne+election+1979+african+american+percentage&pg=PA176|title=Contours of African American Politics: Race and Representation in American Politics|first=Georgia A.|last=Persons|date=August 1, 2012|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=9781412847872 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Byrne had lost half of that vote. Byrne was defeated in the 1983 Democratic primary for mayor by [[Harold Washington]], also an anti-machine politician and African-American congressman; the younger Daley ran a close third. Washington won the Democratic primary with just 36% of the vote; Byrne had 33%. Washington went on to win the general election.<ref name="auto"/>

===Assessments===
A 1993 survey of historians, political scientists and urban experts conducted by Melvin G. Holli of the [[University of Illinois at Chicago]] saw Byrne ranked as the tenth-worst American big-city mayor to serve between the years 1820 and 1993.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Holli | first = Melvin G. | title = The American Mayor | publisher = PSU Press | year = 1999 | location = University Park | url = https://archive.org/details/americanmayorbes0000holl | isbn = 0-271-01876-3 }}</ref> When the survey was limited only to mayors that were in office post-1960, the results saw Byrne ranked the fourth-worst.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Holli |first1=Melvin G. |title=American Mayors: The Best and the Worst since 1960 |journal=Social Science Quarterly |date=1997 |volume=78 |issue=1 |pages=149–157 |jstor=42863681 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/42863681 |access-date=March 1, 2023 |issn=0038-4941}}</ref>