Former First Ward Ald. Manny Flores confirmed reports that he is circulating nominating petitions to get on the ballot in the race to replace retiring Mayor Richard M. Daley.
“I am collecting signatures,” Flores told the Chicago News Cooperative Thursday. Flores first told the CNC last week that he was considering a bid, hours after Daley announced he wouldn’t run for re-election.
Flores will “make a special announcement” at a meeting of the First Ward’s Democratic activists on Saturday, according to an invitation sent Wednesday by his successor as alderman, Proco “Joe” Moreno.
A high-ranking source in First Ward Democratic politics said Flores plans to tell ward activists that he will run at the meeting at Lazo’s Tacos. The source, who asked for anonymity to avoid trumping Flores’ announcement, said Flores is expected to make a formal announcement of his candidacy sometime next week.
But Flores insisted that he has not yet planned a formal announcement, though he sounds increasingly like a mayoral candidate.
“Like many people, I’m just as concerned as everyone about the very difficult challenges the city’s facing,” he said Thursday. “We need to be creative. We need leadership that’s going to work with everyone and should avoid identity politics. We have to take a look at a new playbook. Those are the issues I’ve been reflecting on, and going forward I’m hoping to be part of the dialog in this city.”
Flores, 38, was elected alderman in 2003 in an upset of pro-Daley incumbent Jesse Granato, and he won a second term without opposition in 2007.
He shocked many observers of Chicago politics when he gave up his City Council seat last year to accept an offer from Gov. Pat Quinn to head the Illinois Commerce Commission. The move backfired, however, as enemies he made in Latino political circles have blocked Flores’ confirmation for a full term as ICC chairman. A Quinn defeat in the November election would end Flores’ tenure at the ICC.
If Flores does not end up as a candidate for mayor, it would not mark the first time that he geared up to run for higher office, only to back down ultimately. Flores raised a large sum three years ago — much of it from real estate developers doing business in his gentrifying ward — to run for Congress. But he backed down after the incumbent congressman, his former boss Luis Gutierrez, changed his mind and decided to seek another term after all.
Flores could be one of only several candidates from Latino community, including Gutierrez, City Clerk Miguel del Valle and former Daley chief of staff Gery Chico.
The only other major candidates who have said they are circulating petitions are Gutierrez, del Valle, Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd Ward) and state Sen. James T. Meeks, pastor at a massive church on the Far South Side.