Being Mayor Daley

By Amy Hart in News on Dec 13, 2005 9:17PM

As 2005 comes to an end, Mayor Daley is taking some time to reflect upon his time in office, the Hired Truck scandal, and the prospects of running for another term.

Last Friday Daley appeared on Chicago Tonight and said of the City Hall corruption scandal:

People give me a public trust. ... When [corruption] takes place, I get mad at myself. You get depressed. You get upset. But you lift yourself up. ... It's been a difficult, tough year. But you don't collapse. You don't fall down and stay down. ... Just because there's a challenge there and an obstacle, you don't collapse and give up. ... You keep your vision strong. ... These challenges I have today, I'm gonna overcome those challenges.

Daley said he was undecided about running for a sixth term, but that he still had a “passion” for the job.

One person who appears to have a passion for taking over Daley’s job is US Representative Luis Gutierrez, pictured with Daley, who has decided to run for an eighth and final term in Congress before maybe setting his sites on becoming Chicago’s mayor in 2007.

Gutierrez is banking on the Hispanic Democratic Organization (HDO), a group which previously strongly supported Daley, to not recover from its involvement in City Hall scandal. The Congressman and Daley have grown apart since HDO has consistently been on the opposite side of Gutierrez, although the two men now say they have buried the hatchet.

Daley is not surprised that Gutierrez wants to be a mayor, as he believes it is one of the most coveted governmental positions in the country. Although Gutierrez has not yet publicly announced his decision to run for mayor, he is already being referring to as “alcalde” (Spanish for mayor) by his constituents and is planning on starting a new Latino political organization, a.k.a. the un-HDO, designed to foster “local political power.”