Most Chicagoans Think Daley Doing a Good Job

By Amy Hart in News on Feb 15, 2006 5:10PM

A new Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV poll shows that 56% of Chicago voters think Mayor Daley is doing a good job. But if he runs for reelection next year, he could face a strong challenge from Jesse Jackson Jr., and if Luis Guitierrez enters the race, Daley could be forced into a runoff with Jackson.

18% of voters believe Daley had no knowledge of the Hired Truck scandal or the city’s corrupt hiring practices. So while the vast majority of voters (70%) believe he knew about it, many are willing to overlook it and focus on what they perceive as an overall positive performance. Many think corruption would take place no matter who is in charge.

Interestingly, a recent Tribune poll regarding the Illinois gubernatorial election revealed 70% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans thought ending public corruption was very important. Surely some of those polled were Chicagoans. So do we hold our local elected officials to a different standard, or are we just getting so used to corruption at all levels of government that we are now willing to overlook it?