The Nation - News from Sept. 17, 1986

Chicago Mayor Harold Washington’s reelection hopes got an apparent boost when a judge barred from the Nov. 4 ballot a referendum that proposed changing the way the city elects its mayor. Cook County Circuit Judge Joseph Schneider upheld the city elections board’s decision to bar the referendum, which asked voters whether to change the mayoral contest from its two-party primary format to a nonpartisan election. Supporters of Washington, the city’s first black mayor, had contended the referendum was a move to hinder his reelection in April.