Not only was Mayor Rahm Emanuel forced into a primary runoff for the first time in Chicago history, there was a strong showing by progressives across the board:

Emanuel's weakness was felt all across the ballot. He'd created a super-PAC, Chicago Forward, to bail out 17 of his allies on the council and to beat progressive incumbents. Only seven of them won outright: Will Burns, Mike Zalweski, Danny Solis, Robert Maldonado, Margaret Laurino, Pat O'Connor, and Debra Silverstein. The rest were forced into runoffs, including Deb Mell, the sister-in-law of disgraced former Governor Rod Blagojevich. Meanwhile, Chicago Forward had lobbed mailers at two aldermen–Scott Waguespack and John Arena–who'd asked the SEC to investigate the legality of donations to Emanuel from the executives of companies managing the city's pension funds. Arena narrowly missed a win and will head to a runoff; Waguespack won outright.

It was not all progressives wanted, but it was not what the super-PAC had wanted either. The progressive bloc was expected to expand to 12 of the council's 50 seats.

"The good guys won Round One," said Working Families Party national director Dan Cantor in a statement. "Forcing Mayor 1% into a run-off is a remarkable achievement. Along with the run-off, the progressive caucus on the Council is poised to make gains."

MoveOn, which had endorsed Garcia after taking a poll of its members, was just as rapturous. "Rahm Emanuel’s millions of dollars weren’t enough to whitewash his record of siding with big-money corporate interests over regular people," said MoveOn executive director Ilya Sherman. "The fact that a majority of Chicagoans voted for change is a clear rejection of Mayor Emanuel’s policies that have left too many behind." Just three years earlier, Sheyman had beenlosing a progressive primary for Congress in the Chicago suburbs.

Why did progressives–why do progressives–want to humble Emanuel? The answer's beenblaring from magazines like In These Times and Rolling Stone and the Nation for months. In the election-month cover story of In These Times, for example, progressive historian Rick Perlstein explained why the deal Emanuel cut with a company to remake the city's transit cards never stopped hurting him

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