Rahm Emanuel feeling out other potential Chicago mayor candidates

[Stella]

Chicago Tribune:


September 22, 2010

Posted by Hal Dardick and Peter Nicholas at 9:57 a.m.; last updated at 1:50 p.m. with Quigley comments

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is feeling out other potential candidates for Chicago mayor.

West Side U.S. Rep. Danny Davis met with Emanuel last night. Chicago Ald. Thomas Tunney, 44th, said Emanuel called him Friday. North Side U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley is scheduled to meet with Emanuel this afternoon in Washington.

"I got the impression it is very likely he is going to do this,'' said Davis, who spoke to Emanuel for about half an hour at the Caucus Room, a D.C. restaurant at the chief of staff's request. "We talked about, if we were to become candidates, what kind of campaigning that should be done — that it's important to try and keep the city as harmonized as possible and that the city not become split and divided.


Emanuel has commissioned a poll to test his viability and spoken to various elected officials and neighborhood and civic leaders. He has said he wants to be mayor but has not yet publicly declared his candidacy.

But an Emanuel resignation could come sooner than that.

The filing deadline is Nov. 22, and Emanuel's friends --- including U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) --- want him to make an announcement quickly. Others have come forward to declare their candidacy, and Durbin said Emanuel couldn't afford to linger in the White House as the race unfolded.

Emanuel would need to submit 12,500 valid signatures to qualify for the Feb. 22 ballot.

Hal Dardick contributed from Chicago. Peter Nicholas contributed from the Tribune's Washington Bureau.