Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has announced that he will not seek a seventh term in 2011:
Mayor Richard Daley says he will not run for re-election in 2011, saying it’s “time for me, it’s time for Chicago to move on.”
“The truth is I have been thinking about this for the past several months,” Daley said at a City Hall news conference that stunned the city. “In the end this is a personal decision, no more, no less.”
His wife Maggie stood by his side with the help of a crutch, smiling broadly as the mayor continued: “I have always known that people want you to work hard for them. Clearly, they won’t always agree with you. Obviously, they don’t like it when you make a mistake. But at all times, they expect you to lead, to make difficult decisions, rooted in what’s right for them.
“For 21 years, that’s what I’ve tried to do,” he said. “But today, I am announcing that I will not seek a 7th term as mayor of the city of Chicago.
“Simply put, it’s time,” said Daley, 68. “Time for me, it’s time for Chicago to move on.”
It’s hard to imagine how important an announcement this is, at the very least for Chicago. Richard Daley has been preparing to run for mayor, running for mayor, or serving as mayor for nearly half a century. Some of those who’ll vote for the first time in 2011 can’t remember a time when Daley wasn’t mayor.
Let the speculations begin! We’re going to see a lot of jockeying, horse-trading, speculating, and downright confabulation over the next couple of months. Many of the candidates that will be pondered over are unknown outside the city of Chicago. Some of them are probably unknown outside their own wards.
Here are some of the names that have already surfaced:
Among aldermen discussed as potential mayoral candidates are Robert Fioretti, 2nd; Sandi Jackson, 7th; Thomas Allen, 38th; Scott Waguespack, 32nd; Brendan Reilly, 42nd; and Thomas Tunney, 44th.
Earlier this year, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel voiced his mayoral ambitions. But the former North Side congressman quickly added that he wouldn’t take on Daley, for whom he served as a strategist and fundraiser in the mayor’s first winning bid. Likewise, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said he won’t run for mayor unless the office is open.
Outgoing Cook County Assessor James Houlihan, by contrast, was considered a potential candidate whether or not Daley runs again. Former Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman also has been mentioned, but he just lost a grueling Democratic U.S. Senate primary.
I think that Daley’s absence from the field poses some interesting questions. Will the black power structure in Chicago be able to solidify around a single candidate early on? And will we see a Hispanic candidate this cycle?
What no Blago? Obviously an innocent man crushed by forces that want to keep the little guy down.
It will be interesting to see if this expedites the returns to Illinois from the Obama administration, or if his stint there helped or hurt Rahm’s ambition.