Ald. Hairston Weighs Mayoral Run

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Aug 10, 2010 4:30PM

There must be something in the coffee in the City Council chamber these days. While a number of aldermen are packing it in or thinking about it come next February's civic elections, a few are actually considering taking a run at Mayor Daley. Aldermen Scott Waguespack (32nd), Robert Fioretti (2nd), and Tom Allen (38th) have all expressed some form of interest in kinda/sorta/maybe considering a run. And you can now add Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) to that list. Like Waguespack, Hairston voted against the parking meter lease, a topic of conversation that's seen new life of local political discourse thanks to the fact it's making someone a boatload of money while the city has almost blown through all the money it got from the deal.

Hairston dipped her toe in the water like most of the other candidates have so far: by talking to the Sun-Times' Fran Speilman. Hairston insists her focus is on defending her council seat even as she weighs her options. "Right now, I'm running for re-election as alderman. That's where my primary focus is. But, I won't rule anything out. You always keep your options open." And those options will remain open until people come back to her with the Mayor's reaction to her indirect hemming-and-hawing to a City Hall reporter that will, ultimately, be used to arrange some sort of sweet deal for her ward in exchange for not running, right?

Not that Hairston's alone; we don't see any of the names out there actually going through with a run at Mayor. As of right now, while Daley has yet to officially announce his reelection run, he's saying all the things that point in that direction and the Reader's Whet Moser extracts another argument of why it's likely MayDay will be aiming to stay entrenched on the Fifth Floor making it less likely any City Council member will look to make their job even harder by challenging the mayor. Hell, if even Rahmbo plans on waiting until Daley retires before taking his shot, it just seems unlikely an alderman would go to all the trouble and risk of upsetting Daley with a run.