Almost perfect wasn't enough

Gerald McLaughlin, a Chicago police officer, defeated a Democratic Machine incumbent in 1983 to win election as Alderman of the 45th ward, where Harold Washington had lost overwhelmingly in the mayoral election.

He immediately allied with Mayor Washington’s opponents and voted with them on almost everything.

But the local Democratic ward organization that had campaigned against Washington in the primary and general elections and whose candidate he had beaten, fielded someone in the next election who claimed the new Alderman’s opposition to the Mayor wasn’t strong enough.

And McLaughlin was defeated for re-election in 1987.