Mayoral Candidates React to News Emanuel Won't Seek Re-Election
The political bombshell was a stunning shift for candidates already prepping for the 2019 election
By Phil Rogers/Staff Report ••
Garry McCarthy called the news that Emanuel would not seek re-election an “interesting development.”
What to Know
In a last-minute press conference, the mayor revealed he would not be seeking re-election after serving since 2011
The mayor’s announcement takes place as Officer Jason Van Dyke’s trial begins in the Laquan McDonald case
Emanuel said he and his wife decided to "write another chapter together" as their three children have left for college
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's announcement Tuesday that he won't be running for re-election marked a big change for those in the upcoming race.
The political bombshell was a stunning shift for candidates already prepping for the 2019 election.
“Is there another shoe that’s going to drop here?” former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy asked following the news. “If you look at the way the present mayor got into office, it was handed up to him by the previous administration, and quite obviously there were deals cut. And there probably are deals cut right now.”
Emanuel's decision comes as the upcoming mayoral race began to take shape, with potential candidates already throwing their hats into the ring, including McCarthy, who was fired by Emanuel in the wake of the release of video showing the fatal police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
The mayor’s announcement took place one day before the trial begins for Officer Jason Van Dyke, who has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder following the shooting, which in part sparked a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the Chicago Police Department.
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Though Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel appeared poised to run for a third term, he made a bombshell announcement in September that he would not seek re-election to a third term. First elected in 2011, the 58-year-old former congressman and President Barack Obama's ex-White House chief of staff was forced to an historic runoff in his 2015 reelection campaign against Jesus "Chuy" Garcia. A central issue in that race was the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. McDonald was shot 16 times in Oct. 2014 by Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, who was convicted of second-degree murder in the case. The fallout of the shooting, which in part sparked a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the Chicago Police Department, was poised to play a key role in this race as well. Although he's stayed quiet on his future plans, Emanuel - a prolific fundraiser - had been steadily adding to his war chest, with more than $7.5 million in his political committee as of the most recent reporting period ending on June 30. With Emanuel out of the race, several challengers who had already emerged will engage in a drastically different battle than previously thought.
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Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, 64, announced her candidacy for mayor in April, despite an ongoing federal probe into allegations of bribery and corruption within her office. Earlier this year, prosecutors alleged that Brown took a $15,000 bribe from a man seeking a job with her office, disguised as a loan for the business she and her husband own, as well as another $10,000 loan from a separate employee of the clerk's office. The first man was sentenced to three years probation for perjury in February, the latest development in the years-long federal corruption investigation into Brown's office. Brown - whose home was raided by investigators in 2015 - has not been charged with a crime and has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, claiming in announcing her candidacy that people "trust" her and vowing to work "to make every square mile of the city of Chicago world-class."
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Gery Chico is running for Chicago mayor once again. Chico is an attorney who was former Mayor Richard M. Daley's chief of staff as well as board president of Chicago Public Schools before unsuccessfully running for U.S. Senate in 2004. He later served as president of the Chicago Park District and chairman of the City Colleges of Chicago board, then ran for mayor in 2011. Chico came in second of six candidates, earning 24 percent of the vote, behind Emanuel's 55 percent. In a statement announcing his run this time around, Chicago said he will focus on "violence, education, jobs and economic development."
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Having already taken over for him as White House chief of staff under President Barack Obama, Bill Daley is looking to replace Emanuel once again - this time as Chicago mayor. The former U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Bill Clinton is also following in the footsteps of his father Richard J. Daley, who served as mayor for 21 years, and his brother Richard M. Daley, who became the longest-serving Chicago mayor before declining to run for a seventh term in 2011. A familiar name in Chicago politics, Bill Daley briefly entered the race for Illinois governor in 2013 before taking himself out of the running, and most recently worked in finance - enabling him to quickly build a $1.2 million war chest, the largest of all the candidates who have entered the race so far.
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Attorney and community activist Amara Enyia is throwing her hat in the ring as well – for the second time. Enyia ran for mayor in 2015 before exiting the race to back then-Ald. Bob Fioretti’s unsuccessful bid. With a doctorate in education policy, she has worked as a public policy advisor in various capacities, recently for lieutenant governor candidate Ra Joy, who fell short in the Democratic primary alongside Chris Kennedy. Enyia, 35, lives in Garfield Park and is the director of the Austin Chamber of Commerce. She founded a social lab to educate on economic development, according to her website, and co-authored a book on municipal funding in Chicago.
Community activist Ja'Mal Green is a 22-year-old South Side native (making him the second youngest candidate) and prominent figure in Chicago's Black Lives Matter organization. Green served as a surrogate for Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign and parts of his platform include increasing investment in education, creating an elected school board and police reform - an issue he has been vocal about, taking part in a protest at the 2016 Taste of Chicago that ended in his arrest. Green pleaded guilty to resisting arrest but other charges in the case were dropped.
Jerry Joyce Jr. is the son of former 19th Ward Alderman and state Sen. Jeremiah Joyce, a political operative who worked closely with former Mayor Richard M. Daley. Joyce is an attorney and lobbyist from the city's Far South Side and previously served as a Cook County assistant state's attorney, according to multiple reports. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Joyce's father is part owner of a company that ran concessions at O'Hare Airport for years until Emanuel took office, awarding the lucrative contract to another company - though the paper noted that Joyce had reportedly told associates that dispute did not influence his decision to enter the race.
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The only Republican in the race, William Kelly has run for office multiple times. He unsuccessfully ran for the GOP nomination for Illinois comptroller in 2010, then announced campaigns for Chicago mayor in 2014 and Illinois governor in 2018 - though he did not make it onto the ballot in either race. Kelly hosts "The Citizen Kelly Show" on WCGO-AM and founded production company RevDigital, according to his website.
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Attorney John Kozlar is another candidate taking on Emanuel, looking to settle a score. The 30-year-old South Side native is a part of Aon plc’s risk solutions team and first ran for office in 2011, according to his website. He unsuccessfully ran for 11th Ward alderman at age 21, then mounted another bid for the same position in 2015, forcing a run-off against Patrick Daley Thompson, who ultimately won. Kozlar said Emanuel put $50,000 into that race against what he called an effort to defeat “machine politicians and elitists.”
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Former Chicago Public Schools principal Troy LaRaviere was the first to announce his intent to take on Emanuel, unveiling his campaign in January. LaRaviere is the president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, and has been an outspoken critic of Emanuel since his days as principal of Blaine Elementary School - a position he was removed from over allegations of insubordination. He supported Garcia for mayor in 2015, as well as Sanders for president in 2016, and with his background, education and creating an elected school board are key components of his progressive platform.
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Former Chicago Police Board president Lori Lightfoot is one of the candidates looking to take on their former boss. Emanuel appointed Lightfoot, 55, chair of the Police Accountability Task Force in the wake of the Laquan McDonald shooting, and she has used that experience - as well as her time leading the Police Board - to tout her credentials on law enforcement reforms. A former federal prosecutor, Lightfoot was most recently a partner at Mayer Brown LLP.
Ex-Chicago police superintendent Garry McCarthy, who was fired by Emanuel during the Laquan McDonald fallout, is another former member of the mayor's administration now running for the top job. After months of speculation, McCarthy officially announced his candidacy in March with a video saying "thousands" of Chicagoans had approached him asking him to run to "fix the city's problems." The 58-year-old Bronx native and self-described “conservative Democrat” worked as Chicago’s top cop for four years before being dismissed in 2015 in the aftermath of the McDonald shooting.
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At 20 years old, Matthew Roney is the youngest candidate in the field. A political science student at DePaul University, Roney’s website says he wanted to enter politics after working as a pharmaceutical technician and seeing customers unable to afford their medications. Roney says he is running for mayor under a new party he founded called “The Garden Party” to “help Chicagoans grow.”
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Tech entrepreneur Neal Sales-Griffin entered the race in April with a speech lasting nearly an hour and a half, saying he wanted to address issues like population decline in Chicago but without delving into specific policy proposals. Sales-Griffin, 30, runs a nonprofit coding school called CodeNow and is an adjunct professor at Northwestern University, saying he's running because Emanuel isn’t "doing a good enough job."
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Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, 64, led the district from 1995 to 2001 and has served as superintendent for multiple other school districts in New Orleans; Bridgeport, Conn.; and Philadelphia. He also ran for Illinois governor in 2002, losing in the Democratic primary to now-disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Vallas later ran for lieutenant governor with Pat Quinn and lost in 2014.
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An activist and perennial candidate, William 'Dock' Walls is running for mayor once again. He worked for former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington in the 1980s, according to his website, which says he also served as political director for Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH coalition. Walls has previously run for mayor in 2007, 2011 and in 2015.
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Dr. Willie Wilson, who ran for mayor in 2015, is running again. Wilson, a millionaire businessman who owned and operated several McDonald's franchises, also ran for president in 2016. Shortly after announcing his candidacy, Wilson donated $100,000 to his own committee - lifting the self-funding limit to allow candidates to contribute any amount to their own committees throughout the election. Wilson, 69, said his contribution is a "clear indicator of his determination to rid Chicago of the worse [sic] mayor it has ever had." Recently, Wilson came under fire for giving away cash from his charitable foundation at church and community events to help Cook County residents with property taxes. Opponents said the stunt was designed to buy votes, though the Illinois State Board of Elections ruled that it did not violate any campaign finance laws.
Emanuel's office came under scrutiny when the dashcam video of the shooting, which showed the white officer shooting the black teen 16 times as he appeared to walk away, was released a year after it happened. Some questioned whether politics played a role in the timing of the release.
The case was poised to play a key role in the race.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announces he’s not running for re-election.
No deals were evident, at least not yet, in the wake of Emanuel’s announcement. But most of those in the already-crowded race insisted his decision will make little difference in their campaign strategies.
“It doesn’t change what we’re fighting for, and it doesn’t change the needs of people in this city,” said former Police Board chief Lori Lightfoot. “We need to guarantee quality public schools and public safety…and nothing about that sense of urgency changes because of today’s news.”
Shortly after Emanuel broke the news, candidate Lori Lightfoot, former Chicago Police Board president, spoke to the public commending him for stepping up “to take on a difficult job at a difficult time in our city.”
Former public schools chief Paul Vallas echoed those no-change-in-strategy comments. After all, he said, the same problems exist today that existed before the Emanuel announcement.
“We have a murder rate that exceeds Los Angeles and New York combined,” he said. “Chicago schools have lost 70,000 students over the last decade.”
Community activist and candidate Ja'Mal Green praised Emanuel for "finally making a decision that's in the best interest of our city."
"We've got a lot of work to do and I think the fresh faces and fresh ideas in this unprecedented Chicago mayoral race will offer Chicagoans a chance to experience a greater Chicago," he said. "Much of the credit after this announcement goes to all of those activists and organizers who hit the pavement after the Laquan McDonald video each and every day protesting downtown, protesting the mayor’s house. Hundreds of protesters took charges over the last several years fighting against this establishment. Well, today’s announcement, we attribute this success to them – all of those, even me. I took charges at the Taste of Chicago protest fighting for a new Chicago."
Community activist and candidate Ja’Mal Green praised Emanuel for “finally making a decision that’s in the best interest of our city.”
Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown noted the announcement came on her birthday, but she too said she has no plans to change her strategy going forward.
"Mayor Rahm Emanuel withdrawing out of this race today, does not change my strategy," she said. "I have always run for the office of mayor and for the people and not against Mayor Rahm Emanuel."
Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown noted the announcement that Mayor Rahm Emanuelo wouldn’t seek re-election came on her birthday.
Attorney and community activist Amara Enyia, who threw her hat into the ring for a second a time, called Emanuel's announcement "a testament to the will of the people of Chicago who clearly reject his leadership."
Vallas conceded that he hoped some of the Emanuel fundraising largesse might now blow his way, but he quickly noted that he always expected to be outspent. And, he said, he still believes the election will be about more than who raises the most cash.
“Emanuel may have realized that,” he said, “which is perhaps maybe one of the reasons he decided to withdraw.”
Indeed, McCarthy, perhaps the bitterest rival in the crowded club of Emanuel rivals, suggested that many potential supporters may now emerge from the political closets.
“It makes it easier for people who were afraid of the bullying politics of City Hall to come forward and say we’re supporting you,” he said. “I’m counting on support from people who were afraid of him, not people who were supporting him.”
It’s a safe bet. The phone lines were humming Tuesday, among those who had been sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what Emanuel would do.
Lightfoot said she knows that, but reminded the electorate she was already there.
“Many of us have been out here for months, making our case to Chicagoans,” she said. “Anyone who decides to jump in and take advantage of today’s political news--I think a fair question to ask them is, where have they been?”
