Quigley in mix for mayor? Daley's foes wonder if county reformer could force runoff

Chicago Sun-Times

October 1, 2006

By Abdon M. Pallasch

Richard M. Daley, Jesse Jackson Jr., Dorothy Brown, William "Dock" Walls and . . . Mike Quigley?

The Service Employees International Union -- the folks Mayor Daley beat on the "big-box" ordinance -- are conducting a poll this weekend to see who has the best numbers to go up against Daley in next year's mayoral election.

The union plans to throw Cook County Commissioner Michael Quigley's name into the mix, along with the mayor, congressman, Circuit Court clerk and former aide to the late Mayor Harold Washington.

The union, Jackson and the other challengers reportedly would love a high-profile Irish-American challenger to jump in the race and siphon white votes from Daley to push the mayor below a majority in the February election and force an April runoff.

Quigley has been one of the few elected officials in Cook County to stand up to Daley in recent years, trying to get a domestic violence courthouse on the river where Daley did not want it, and more recently, fighting against Daley's plans to expand special taxing districts downtown.

DALEY LOYALISTS QUASH QUIGLEY PLAN

The mayor's allies were able to squash a proposal from Quigley on Thursday that would have allowed voters to see on their tax bills how much of their tax money was going into the ever-expanding tax increment financing districts.

The special districts allow Daley's administration to take tax money that would otherwise go to the Chicago Public Schools, forest preserves and other local government bodies and divert it to a fund designed to encourage development in what it considers to be blighted neighborhoods.

But one of the biggest areas of TIF expansion is booming downtown Chicago, which Quigley argues does not need any help from TIF districts.

On the heels of Daley's allies tabling Quigley's measures to stop the spread of the special tax districts, SEIU officials called Quigley on Thursday to let him know they were adding his name to this weekend's poll. He told them to go ahead.

Quigley is not saying whether or not he would consider running for mayor. He said he first wants to fight the TIF-district battles and take a look at the poll.

"I'm aware I'm on the poll," Quigley said. "It's all very interesting. But I'm focused on other stuff right now, like the TIFs."

The previous week, as the tug-of-war between Quigley and Daley over TIF districts heated up, Quigley said police officers in the City Council's anteroom approached Quigley as he was talking to Ald. William Beavers (7th) and others and told him they had been asked to escort him out.

Copyright 2006, Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.

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