RAHM EMANUEL, who until last October was president Barack Obama’s flamboyant and abrasive chief of staff, was elected mayor of his home town, Chicago, on Tuesday night, winning 55 per cent of the vote.
Mr Emanuel, 51, was an adviser in the Clinton White House and served three terms as a congressman for the north side of Chicago before becoming Mr Obama’s chief of staff. He earned more than $15 million as an investment banker during a two-year break between the Clinton administration and Congress.
At his victory celebration, he said he had just spoken to president Obama and to mayor Richard M Daley, who will step down in May after 22 years in office.
“I want to extend my congratulations to Rahm Emanuel on a well-deserved victory tonight,” Mr Obama said in a statement. “As a Chicagoan and a friend, I couldn’t be prouder.”
Mr Emanuel’s volatile temper and use of expletives are legendary. But his kinetic energy served him well during the five-month campaign, during which he raised $12 million and staged 360 campaign events, mostly in public transport stations.
He won support from the white, African-American and Hispanic communities, easily defeating five other candidates who included Gery Chico, a former aide to mayor Daley, and Carol Moseley Braun, the first black woman elected to the US Senate.
A lower court ruled last month that Mr Emanuel did not fulfil the requirement for a year’s residence prior to the election. That was overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court.
During a 12-hour hearing, Mr Emanuel argued that he and his wife had left their belongings, including her wedding dress, in their home, which they had rented out when they had moved to Washington. Mr Emanuel threatened to put the dress on if the hearing entered a 13th hour.
"They made a terrible mistake challenging his residency," David Axelrod, a fellow Chicagoan and veteran of the Obama White House, told the Washington Post. "Rahm isn't often a sympathetic figure and they made him a sympathetic figure."
Mayor Daley and his father, Richard J, have run America’s third-largest city for 43 of the past 55 years. Their Irish-American dynasty has now shifted to the White House, where Bill Daley, brother of the outgoing mayor, has taken Mr Emanuel’s old job as chief of staff.
Mr Emanuel is a long-time ally of mayor Daley and benefited from his party machine during the election campaign. “This city bears his imprint and he has earned a special place in our hearts and our history,” Mr Emanuel said of Daley in his victory speech.
“I expect the way Emanuel will govern will very much be a continuation of the way that Daley governed,” John Brehm, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, told Bloomberg News.
Mr Emanuel told the New York Times of his pride at becoming the first Jewish mayor of Chicago: “For me, as Rahm Emanuel, the grandson of Herman Smulevitz, who came to this city in 1917 from the Russian-Romanian border as a 13-year-old to leave the pogroms, and son of Benjamin Emanuel, who came here in 1959 from Israel to start a medical practice, there’s a personal sense of accomplishment,” he said.
As mayor of the city of 2.7 million people, Mr Emanuel will face the same financial challenges that are disturbing US politics nationwide. Chicago expects a $600 million budget shortfall next year. The population — and tax base — are declining. Mayor Daley has already exhausted the possibilities of privatising city property.
Mr Emanuel has taken a conservative approach to these problems, calling for a spending freeze and $75 million in cutbacks. Some analysts predict he will clash with public sector unions over pension costs.