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Chicago Votes for Mayor, Obama Advisor Leads Polls

   VOA News  February 22, 2011
   Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel (file)

Photo: AP

   Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel (file)

   Residents of Chicago, the third-largest city in the United States, are
   voting  Tuesday  for a new mayor, with a key advisor to U.S. President
   Barack Obama leading in pre-election polls.
   Rahm  Emanuel,  who  was  Mr. Obama's chief of staff until he resigned
   last  fall  to  run  for  Chicago mayor, has held a commanding lead in
   polls and campaign fundraising leading up to Tuesday's voting.
   Emanuel  or  another candidate must win more than half the vote in the
   Midwestern  city  or  face  a  runoff  election  April  5  against the
   second-place  finisher.  Also in the race are Carol Moseley Braun, the
   first African American woman elected as a U.S. senator, former Chicago
   school board president Gery Chico and City Clerk Miguel del Valle.
   Mr.  Obama  has  endorsed  the 51-year-old Emanuel, as has former U.S.
   President  Bill  Clinton, for whom Emanuel was a senior advisor in the
   1990s.
   Emanuel, known as "Rahmbo" for his blunt and often foul-mouthed way of
   speaking,  quickly  became  the  favorite to succeed long-time Chicago
   Mayor  Richard  Daley  when he left Washington to return to his native
   city.
   Emanuel's  political  opponents tried to keep him off the ballot since
   he  had  not  met  a  city  requirement to live in Chicago in the year
   preceding  the  election.  A  court decision briefly threw him off the
   ballot, but the Illinois Supreme Court reinstated his name.
   Emanuel  has  often  said his dream was to become Chicago's mayor. One
   pre-election  poll  showed him with the support of 58 percent of those
   surveyed, with his opponents trailing far behind.
   Whoever  wins  the  election  faces daunting city financial woes. Like
   many local and state governments in the United States, Chicago faces a
   huge  cash  shortfall  in its 2011 budget, more than $600 million. The
   city  also  has not funded an estimated $20 billion it owes to retired
   municipal workers.

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