Just days before Carol Moseley Braun’s latest attempt at a political comeback ended in overwhelming defeat, a top aide to Ms. Braun’s mayoral campaign condemned “phony polls and other last-minute foolishness” and suggested that the candidate was doing far better than polls and pundits suggested.

In a series of internal campaign e-mails obtained by The Chicago News Cooperative, David Schaffer, an adviser to Ms. Braun, said “all factors” indicated that Ms. Braun would finish second and qualify for a runoff election against Rahm Emanuel by winning the vast majority of black votes.

“We remain confident — with a high degree of certainty — that Carol has 50 percent of the AA vote today and will have at least 60 percent (hopefully more) by election day,” Mr. Schaffer wrote in an e-mail on Feb. 15. A week later, Ms. Braun, the former United States senator, finished fourth in the six-candidate field with no more than 23 percent backing in any ward.

A review of more than a dozen e-mails written during the final weeks before the vote lends an impression of a campaign fraught with infighting. Aides were overly optimistic about black support, and they were dealing with a candidate who often upbraided them in sharply worded messages.