Mayor Richard M. Daley calls for citizens to step up to help solve the murder of Chicago police officer Michael Bailey during the Chicago City Council meeting at City Hall Wednesday, September 8, 2010. John Konstantaras/Chicago News Cooperative
Facing questions from reporters for the first time since he announced his retirement, Mayor Richard M. Daley said Wednesday he felt “good, very good” about his decision not to seek another term and would not endorse any candidate to replace him in next year’s election.
Asked why he had decided not to run for re-election, Daley replied, “There is no reason. It’s just how you feel.”
The mayor denied, however, that his decision had been influenced by his low standing in the polls.
“I knew I was not going to lose. I don’t get in to lose. I don’t get in to lose. And that’s not arrogance. Don’t say I’m arrogant.”
Daley said his aides conducted polls but, “I never looked at a poll.”
He said he did not need polls to tell him that people were angry about the economy. “I’m out in the street and I know what people say.”
He said he had mulled his move for six months, “more so in the last month and a half.”
After presiding over the City Council meeting, Daley joked with reporters that every alderman now wants his job but said he would not get involved in what could be a free-for-all for the spot that he is vacating.
“The people of Chicago will make the recommendation,” he said.
He said he heeded the advice of his late father and predecessor, who told him in the early 1970s to keep mull such choices internally.
“My decision was my decision,” Daley said. “That’s the idea of making a decision.”
Since announcing his plans to quit after finishing his sixth term in May, Daley said he had spoken to many people, including Rahm Emanuel, his former campaign aide and White House chief of staff who has expressed interest in succeeding him as mayor.
“We did not get into politics,” Daley said. “There was no conversation whatsoever about who is running for mayor.”
Daley said he also spoke with David Axelrod, another former aide now in President Barack Obama‘s White House, as well as former Vice President Al Gore, talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Gov. Pat Quinn.
The mayor declined to discuss what he might do next. “My job will be a citizen of this great city,” he said, saying he had no plans to move from Chicago.
One thing Daley said he would never do is criticize his successors, “out of respect for the office.”