In a race that came down to just 102 votes, CPS teacher Tara Stamps forced the first runoff Ald. Emma Mitts has seen in her 15 years as alderman.
Mitts secured about 48.7 percent of the 8,023 total votes cast in Tuesday’s municipal election for the 37th Ward, according to the unofficial results compiled by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.
Her 3,910 votes fell short of the required 50.1 percent she needed to win another four-year term.
Stamps won 32 percent (2,593) of the vote Tuesday. Maretta Brown-Miller, a Chicago Park District employee, won 13 percent (1,056), while former CAPS beat facilitator Leroy Duncan came in last with about 6 percent (464).
Mitts and Stamps will meet in the April 7 runoff.
Mitts, who was appointed to the Chicago City Council in 2000 by then-Mayor Richard Daley, had garnered at least 58 percent of the vote in the past three municipal elections, city election records show. In her first run in 2003, she won 73 percent.
“I feel like a 6-year-old on Christmas,” Stamps said in an interview during her election party at Grill on Grand.
Stamps said she’ll spend Wednesday catching up on sleep, then get back to “saturating” the community with her message so residents show up to the polls in six weeks.
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