Former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn will pass on a run for Chicago mayor, closing the door on a long-shot bid for City Hall’s top job, he said Thursday.
“After much thought, I decided not to run for mayor of Chicago,” Quinn announced at a press conference on Thursday afternoon.
Quinn said he talked to all mayoral candidates, including first-term incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and said he sees the “good” in all of them. But he also declined to endorse anyone just yet.
“I want to organize,” Quinn said. “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and organize.”
In calling the press conference, Quinn touted the arc of his political career, from his first petition drive in 1976 and future aspirations of championing referendums, property tax relief and more.
Quinn made his announcement at the Allegro Hotel, a historic Chicago hotel that has been the site of scores of Quinn press conferences for decades. It sits across the street from City Hall and kitty-corner from the Thompson Center, the seat of state government in Chicago where Quinn had offices while he was lieutenant governor and later governor.
Quinn, who lost his 2014 campaign for reelection to Republican businessman Bruce Rauner and has made term limits for Chicago mayors the main focus of his political efforts in recent years, spent weeks collecting petitions but ultimately passed on the campaign.
First elected to the Cook County Board of Appeals in 1982, Quinn has run for a series of offices over the years and ultimately succeeded in 2002 when he was elected lieutenant governor when Rod Blagojevich was first elected governor. Quinn ascended in 2009 to become the state’s chief executive when Blagojevich was indicted by federal prosecutors on corruption charges and impeached and ousted by state legislators.
Quinn in 2010 won election as governor, narrowly defeating Republican Bill Brady of Bloomington but lost four years later to Rauner.
Although Quinn is well known throughout the city and state, he hasn’t found much political success in recent years, losing a primary bid to succeed Lisa Madigan as Illinois attorney general and failing to gain traction with his efforts to impose term limits on Chicago mayors.
Still, Quinn is a vigorous campaigner with higher name recognition than most of his rivals and could have caused problems for Lightfoot among some voters, including those on the city’s North Side.
Even though Quinn won’t run, the mayor’s race remains a crowded field with Lightfoot, U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, Ald. Sophia King, activist Ja’Mal Green, Ald. Roderick Sawyer, former Chicago Public Schools chief Paul Vallas, state Rep. Kambium “Kam” Buckner, Ald. Raymond Lopez, business owner Willie Wilson and Cook County commissioner Brandon Johnson.
Filing to run in the Feb. 28 election begins Monday and lasts one week. If no one gets at least 50% of the vote, a runoff will take place April 4.
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