Excerpt
Mayor Richard M. Daley dropped the bomb at a routine news conference at City Hall on Tuesday. With no prelude or fanfare, Mr. Daley announced that he would not seek re-election when his term expires next year.
“Simply put, it’s time,” he said. “Time for me. And time for Chicago to move on.” Later, he continued: “I’ve done my best. Now, I’m ready with my family to begin the next phase of our lives.”
The shock waves spread across the city — which years ago nicknamed Mr. Daley, a Democrat, Mayor for Life — and all the way to Washington, where the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said earlier this year that he would like the job.
On Tuesday, Mr. Emanuel issued a statement honoring the mayor’s service. He did not say whether he intended to run. (The filing deadline for the Feb. 22 election is Nov. 30.)
For the better part of 56 years — for better and for worse — the Mayors Daley will have run Chicago: first, Richard J. Daley, the current mayor’s father, from 1955 to 1976, when he died in office, then Richard M. Daley, from 1989 to 2011. The day after Christmas, he will become the longest-serving mayor in the history of the city, surpassing his father.
Historians may see that as a theme. The younger Daley, 68, inherited a city riven by racial strife and mired in official corruption. Even if he failed to eliminate those ills, some would say, he turned the city into an economic success story, paying particular attention to beautifying Chicago’s aging core.
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