Updated
U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, who replaced Rahm Emanuel in Congress, will endorse Emanuel for mayor Thursday.
In a telephone interview, Quigley said he is backing Emanuel because he believes he is the only candidate who would exhibit “enough grit to stand up to interests” and solve the city’s budget problems.
“You have to be tough enough to say no and make the budget fit reality,” Quigley told the Chicago News Cooperative. “
Quigley said Emanuel was the only candidate who approached him to seek his counsel on dealing with budget issues, which he often focused on in his previous jobs as a Cook County commissioner and City Council aide. Quigley said he and Emanuel first discussed city fiscal matters at the White House in September, after Mayor Richard M. Daley announced that he would not seek re-election and before Emanuel quit President Barack Obama‘s administration to return to Chicago.
“We walked through what I meant by reinventing government,” Quigley said. “When I told people that, everybody said to me, ‘Baloney, you guys talked about politics.’ Honest to God, we talked about tax-increment financing. Rahm doesn’t need any help with politics.”
Quigley disputed the notion that Emanuel’s close ties to Daley and other Chicago politicians make it unlikely that he would truly reform City Hall.
“Everybody is an insider,” he said. “I don’t even know what the hell that means. All of the big issues — public safety, education, everything — all fail if you don’t deal with the budget issue. He understands those things.”
Quigley, a Democrat, won the 2009 special election to fill the vacancy created when Emanuel gave up his North Side congressional seat to become White House chief of staff. After completing Emanuel’s un-expired term, Quigley won a full two-year term in the November election.
Most of the Democratic ward committeemen in Quigley’s district were among the early backers of Emanuel’s mayoral bid, directing their loyalists to collect signatures to place his name on the Feb. 22 ballot.