UPDATED
U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) soon will convene an exploratory committee to consider running for the Chicago mayor’s office that Richard Daley said he would vacate next year, a source close to Gutierrez said Tuesday.
The committee will meet within the next few days and urge Gutierrez to run in the February 2011 election, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous and declined to name the people who will form the committee.
Gutierrez confirmed his interest in a statement released by his Washington office on Tuesday evening. “In the coming days, I will talk with my family and meet with my supporters and make a decision about my political future,” he said in the statement.
The congressman’s statement included only praise for Daley.
Gutierrez publicly pondered challenging Daley in 2007, when corruption scandals were swirling through the Daley administration, but he ultimately backed down from taking on the incumbent mayor.
The two men have had a hot-cold relationship over the decades. Gutierrez became a vocal critic of the Hispanic Democratic Organization, a pro-Daley political organization that dominated Latino politics in the city for many years.
Gutierrez heatedly denied federal court testimony linking him to the founding of the organization in the early 1990s, when Daley formed a multi-racial coalition to consolidate his power at City Hall.
Gutierrez was a Chicago alderman before he left the City Council for Congress in 1991. He represents a district that includes such Puerto Rican enclaves as Logan Square and Humboldt Park and the predominantly Mexican neighborhoods of Pilsen and Little Village.
Daley’s top Hispanic ally in the City Council, Ald. Daniel Solis (25th), is also close with Gutierrez. Solis said today it is very likely that there will be a Latino candidate and that Gutierrez could soon make his interest clear.
Solis said he was “surprised and shocked and a little saddened” that Daley was not running again.
“I had encouraged him to run and I thought he was seriously considering it, but he never said he was definitely going to, and never said definitely not,” he said.
One other possible Latino candidate is Manny Flores, the chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission and former alderman of the First Ward. Flores, who once worked for Gutierrez, told the Chicago News Cooperative that he’s considering a mayoral bid.
Flores said that while he’s focused on his work as chairman of the ICC, which oversees utilities and railroads, he’s been approached by “a number of business and civic leaders” about running but hasn’t made any decisions.
“I have a very strong passion for the city,” he said. “We’ll see.”
He didn’t provide a timetable for announcing his plans.
Flores won the First Ward seat in a runoff election over incumbent Jesse Granato in 2003. He was re-elected without opposition in 2007. In the council Flores was an advocate for environmental regulation and “green” jobs.
Along with 32nd Ward Alderman Scott Waguespack, he sponsored the so-called TIF Sunshine Ordinance, which requires the city to post detailed information about its tax increment financing program. Despite initial resistance from the Daley administration, the ordinance was passed in 2009, but the city has never fully complied with it. Flores characterized himself as a pragmatic independent, though some critics groused that he went along with Daley too often.
While remaining coy, Flores said if he decided to run he would focus on education, crime, and economic development—particularly “clean energy and clean technology.”
“And you also need to make sure that we have a city that represents everybody’s interests—that’s open and that people feel good about,” he said.
Flores was less than effusive in sizing up Daley’s tenure. “I think the mayor should be recognized for his service,” he said. “He’s served the city passionately.”