That's right, Rahm Emanuel will be Chicago's next mayor. The former White House chief of staff took 55 percent of the vote Tuesday, enough to avoid a runoff. By itself that would not be so noteworthy, but he was facing five challengers.
The Chicago Tribune reported:
In a city with its share of racial divisions, Emanuel appealed to voters across those lines. He won the predominantly white wards of his former congressional district on the North and Northwest sides. And the former chief of staff to President Barack Obama also scored substantial margins in predominantly African-American neighborhoods.
"All I can say, you sure know how to make a guy feel at home," Emanuel, who faced a high-profile legal challenge to his residency, told a packed room at a plumbers union hall on the Near West Side. "Because of the people of Chicago, this is the warmest place in America."
Emanuel will become Chicago's first Jewish mayor and 46th overall. He'll succeed Mayor Richard Daley, the city's longest-serving chief executive.
Thoughts?
