1907 Chicago mayoral election

Dunne was able to defeat a challenge from former mayor Carter Harrison IV for the nomination. Harrison had secured support from a number of ward bosses (including Robert E. Burke and John Powers) as well as the Sullivan-Hopkins wing of the party. On February 21, Dunne won the primary held at the Democratic convention. He won 624 votes to Harrison's 259. ==Republican nomination==

The Republican nomination was won by Chicago Postmaster Fred A. Busse. The few speeches Busse delivered when seeking the mayoralty had focused primarily on the desire to adopt a business-style approach to government and to develop a "greater Chicago". Busse was the sort of candidate which many Republicans had been hoping to nominate for mayor. He was a loyal party member who was scandal-free. There was some hope that Busse, being of the son of German immigrants, might also be a candidate that could appeal to some of Chicago's traditionally-Democratic ethnic voters. During his time in government, Busse had proven himself to be a competent individual that had made himself accessible to constituents. Busse had made few rivals during his time in government. He was considered to be a relatively unobjectionable personality. While Busse was the North Side Republican political boss, he had refrained from involving himself in the corrupt activities which often accompanied machine politics. Seeing themselves as having strong odds of taking back the mayoralty for the first time in more than a decade, the Republicans believed Busse was an individual that the party could unite around. ==Third-party nominations==

William A. Brubaker won the Prohibition nomination. George Koop won the Socialist nomination. ==General election==

Campaign The election campaign was particularly contentious. Busse supported the Settlement Ordinances of 1907, while Dunne was against them and was instead in favor of immediate municipal ownership. A voter referendum on the ordinance was held coinciding to the mayoral election. Dunne's campaign strategy was to stress party loyalty in traditionally Democratic wards and to promote his stance on municipal ownership in the wards where it had appeared to assist his 1905 campaign. Several lawsuits were filed for libel relating to newspaper coverage during the campaign. The German American vote was seen as having gone overwhelmingly to Busse. The election result was closer than many Republicans had been anticipating. Many Republicans believed Busse would win by a margin of between 30,000 and 40,000 votes, considerably greater than the mere 13,000 vote margin he actually won by. In coinciding elections, Republican John R. McCabe defeated Democrat Thomas F. Little for City Clerk and Democrat John E. Traeger defeated Republican Edward C. Young for City Treasurer. Additionally, Republicans won both seats on the Superior Court of Cook County that had coinciding elections. Republican O.J. Novak won the coinciding special election to fill a vacant seat on the Sanitary District's board of trustees. ==References==