Even as the chatter about Mayor Richard M. Daley‘s potential successors intensified Wednesday, many veteran City Hall players continued to grapple with their shock at his retirement announcement a day ago.
“The sun still rose today,” said one longtime City Council aide, laughing outside the council chambers.
Alderman Richard Mell (33rd Ward) said he would have bet $100,000 that Daley would seek a seventh term and others told him they would have put the odds against his retirement at 1 million to one.
“I was more than surprised,” said Mell, who has been a City Council member for more than 30 years and is the father-in-law of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
“If anybody actually says, ‘Oh, no, I knew he wasn’t going to run again,’ they are smoking something,” he added
As for Daley’s successor, to be determined at the polls next year, Mell said the next mayor should have executive experience, be able to raise a lot of campaign cash and attract support across racial lines.
Mell also noted the close ties between Daley and Chicago’s business leaders.
“The business community loved Mayor Daley,” he said. “They are trembling right now.”
Toni Preckwinkle, the 4th Ward alderman who is the Democratic nominee for Cook County board president, said it would be difficult to do what she did in the Democratic primary, expanding her support beyond a narrow base in her constituency.
Preckwinkle said she forsees a tense battle to replace Daley and predicted that no candidate would be able to win an outright majority in the Feb. 22 primary, forcing a runoff election in April.