Emanuel Wants to Be Chicago Mayor
Rahm admits he’s got his eye on Daley’s seat
April 20, 2010
Rahm Emanuel looks on at a Blair House diplomatic meeting earlier this month.(Olivier Douliery—Pool/Getty Images)
It’s official: Rahm Emanuel wants to take the helm of the Windy City. “I hope Mayor Daley seeks reelection. I will work and support him if he seeks reelection,” Emanuel told PBS’s Charlie Rose yesterday. “But if Mayor Daley doesn’t, one day I would like to run for mayor of the city of Chicago.”
NBC blogger Edward McClellan seems to support the possibility, asking readers, “Are you ready for a mayor who can speak in complete sentences, even if those sentences can’t always be aired on television?” McClellan points out that Richard M. Daley, 68, will have already beat his father’s record as longest-serving mayor of the city, and that he and Emanuel have a history of mutual support. “While Daley is a character out of Chicago’s past—an inarticulate Irishman from Bridgeport, raised in a political dynasty—Emanuel represents the modern Chicago that Daley built,” he writes. “Emanuel doesn’t eat Polish sausage at a White Sox game. He races triathlons and roots for the Cubs…The best thing about Emanuel is that inside that professional-looking package is a man as profane and greedy as any of Chicago’s old-time mayors.”
Emanuel once aspired to be Speaker of the House, and has been denying his interest in the mayoral position since January. He is committed to remain President Obama’s chief of staff until the end of the year, but could be running for office as soon as the next mayoral election in February, 2011. Your move, Daley!
Hadara Graubart was formerly a writer and editor for Tablet Magazine.
