Rahm Emanuel Not Running for Mayor Again
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Will Not Seek Re-election
CHICAGO — Facing a wide field of challengers and critiques over a tenure that included clashes over police acquit, school closings and street violence, Mayor Rahm Emanuel appear on Tuesday that he would not be seeking re-election.
"This has been the job of a lifetime, but information technology is not a job for a lifetime," Mr. Emanuel, a 2-term mayor who was first elected in 2011, said during a news briefing at Urban center Hall. "You hire u.s.a. to get things done — and pass the torch when we've done our all-time to do what yous hired us to do."
The news stunned residents of Chicago, where mayors take sometimes held office for decades, and where Mr. Emanuel had been amassing entrada money at a pace that made it feel every bit though another race was already underway.
The announcement scrambled the political landscape in the nation'due south third-largest city: No clear front-runner has emerged among a dozen candidates who accept already indicated that they program to run in the election, which is set for February.
Until Tuesday, the race had largely been shaping up as a referendum on Mr. Emanuel'south record; it seemed sure now to grow into a broader debate over bug facing Chicago, including worries about fiscal turmoil, disparities between the urban center's neighborhoods, and a tense and ongoing overhaul of the city's police department.
The possibility of additional candidates — and perhaps more than prominent names — also emerged every bit word spread that the seat would exist open. Political strategists said they were already getting calls from would-be candidates mulling their options.
Mr. Emanuel, 58, has long been known for his blunt, frenetic and fierce style as an adviser to presidents and a member of Congress, and he has been no different in Chicago.
Over about eight years here, he won praise from supporters for his efforts to increase the public school system'south graduation rates and the time children spend in school, to secure coin for public transit, and to describe new businesses and development to Chicago, including a remaking of the city's riverfront. He pressed for a program to provide free tuition to the City Colleges — the local community college organisation — for public school students who graduate with a B average or amend.
"Chicago is in better, more than stable financial shape," said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a watchdog group in Chicago. "But many challenges remain."
Mr. Emanuel'southward critics blamed him for failing to stem gun violence in the urban center's neighborhoods, for closing nearly 50 schools during his first term, and for his administration's monthslong delay in releasing a video that showed a white constabulary officeholder shooting a blackness teenager, Laquan McDonald, on a Southwest Side street in 2014. The trial of the officer, Jason Van Dyke, was set up to begin on Midweek and was being closely watched in Chicago.
[ Read more about the murder trial of Officeholder Van Dyke. ]
The mayor's alliances in the Loop's gleaming downtown skyscrapers prepare a clash with outlying neighborhoods on the city's South and W Sides where schools were closed, and won him a nickname among critics: "Mayor i Percent."
"He came in like a wrecking ball," said Jesse Sharkey, the acting president of the Chicago Teachers Wedlock, which had clashed with Mr. Emanuel and had held its first strike in a quarter century nether his lookout.
The Rev. Ira Acree, a Due west Side minister, cheered Mr. Emanuel's planned departure from leadership equally a victory for the city, calling information technology "a concession that he can't defend his abysmal tape of the tale of 2 cities and all of the issues he has failed to ready."
Before he returned to Chicago to exist mayor, Mr. Emanuel had been President Barack Obama's chief of staff. Before that, he had served as a Autonomous member of Congress and had advised an earlier president, Nib Clinton. On Tuesday, both onetime presidents issued statements of praise; Mr. Obama described Mr. Emanuel equally "a tireless and bright public servant." Mr. Clinton said he had "served with vision, purpose, principle and impact."
Effectually the city, the mayor'southward critics and political strategists speculated that Mr. Emanuel was stepping down because he feared that he could not win. Some said the fallout from the law-shooting trial, likely to play out for weeks at the courthouse, could not come at a worse time for the mayor, every bit the ballot season was gaining steam.
"It'd be a tough go for him no matter how that came out," said Don Rose, who has worked equally a political consultant.
Only Mr. Emanuel's closest directorate said the decision had nothing to do with a fear of losing. David Axelrod, a longtime friend and ally of the mayor and the main strategist for Mr. Obama'southward presidential campaigns, said Mr. Emanuel had quietly weighed the issue for months, simply had merely reached a decision in the last 2 weeks. Mr. Axelrod said that Mr. Emanuel was not worried about losing the race; he was confident that he could win once again, he said.
"The more difficult question was: Do you want to serve another four years?" Mr. Axelrod said. "There was no one other thing other than his ain soul searching."
On Tuesday morn, Mr. Emanuel stood abreast his wife, Amy Rule, equally he read brief, sometimes emotional remarks during the news briefing, which had been announced not long before it began. He thanked his family, including his grandfather, who had immigrated to this land. He spoke of his 3 children, the youngest of whom has now left for college. He didn't say what he plans to practise after he finishes his last term side by side spring. He took no questions from reporters.
"In the end of the day, what matters most in public life is four more years for our children, not four more years for me," he said. "Together, since May of 2011, through thick and thin, we tried to practice right by our city's future."
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/04/us/rahm-emanuel-chicago-mayor.html
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