Daley Wins 6th Term As Mayor Of Chicago

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley won a sixth term of office Tuesday, overcoming a City Hall corruption scandal and putting himself on course to eclipse his legendary father's record as the city's longest-serving mayor.

"I will keep working as hard as I can for the next four years to justify your faith and confidence in me," Daley told cheering supporters.

Serving out another full four-year term would keep him on the job for 22 years. His father, Richard J. Daley, died in office in 1976 at age 74, having served 21 years.

After voting near his home on the city's South Side, Daley, 64, shrugged off questions about setting the mayoral record.

"You don't run for office just to be there and say I beat a record," said Daley, first elected in 1989. "You really want to accomplish things."

Daley's challengers in the nonpartisan election - Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown and William "Dock" Walls, an aide to the late Mayor Harold Washington - tried to make an issue of corruption and a federal investigation at City Hall that began with bribes paid to city officials for trucking work and expanded to city hiring practices.

"We need to put trust back into City Hall," Brown said. "We need to put integrity in City Hall."

Daley, however, coasted to victory amid low turnout. With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Daley had 312,195 votes, or 71 percent of the total while Brown had 87,063 votes, or 20 percent, and Walls had 38,060, about 9 percent.

Daley was not accused of wrongdoing - which he has blamed on a "few bad apples" - but the investigation has snagged dozens of people, including his former patronage chief and a former city clerk. The mayor has emphasized his efforts to retool the city's hiring system and limit fundraising. He touted them again during his victory speech Tuesday night.

Daley's record also includes taking over the Chicago Public Schools in 1995 and then the Chicago Housing Authority a few years later. There's also Millennium Park, a popular tourist destination along Michigan Avenue, and his "greening" of the city with trees and flowers.

Now, Daley is trying to lure the 2016 Summer Olympic Games to Chicago. The U.S. Olympic Committee will decide in April whether to advance Chicago or Los Angeles as the American bid city. The International Olympic Committee won't pick the 2016 host until 2009.

"We have come a long way," Daley said, but he added there is more to do to improve schools, public safety and neighborhoods with more affordable housing and jobs.

If Daley surpasses his legendary father and becomes Chicago's longest-serving mayor in a few years, he's not worried about his legacy or who might play him in the movie.

"Once you start worrying about legacies, you start making decisions to make your legacy," Daley said. "You get too caught up in this, 'I have to write a book, I'm worried about my legacy, I'm worried about maybe a movie, a documentary. I think it's not worth it."

Daley said education would be a major priority this term, including a push to extend the school day because he says students don't get enough instruction time.

"How are you going to compete as a country if students are going to school less every year?" Daley said after his victory speech.

Ann Tonjes voted for Daley, just as she has for all the 10 years she has lived in Chicago.

"There's always going to be allegations flying around, but overall (Daley is) doing a good job," said Tonjes, 34.

Mike DeMarty, 61, wasn't bothered by the corruption allegations and also voted for Daley.

"People talk about alleged corruption, but when you have a city this size, he can't possibly know what's going on at all levels," DeMarty said, adding that Daley has kept Chicago's economy strong. "Some cities are desolate, but Chicago has vitality."

Daley would have been looking at a much tougher re-election bid if two other formidable opponents - Democratic Reps. Luis Gutierrez and Jesse Jackson Jr. - had gotten into the race. But they both decided to keep their jobs in Washington after Democrats won control of Congress in the last election.

While Jackson decided not to run, his wife, Sandi Jackson, ran for alderman, defeating three other candidates by an overwhelming margin.

All 50 aldermanic seats in the Chicago City Council were at stake.

One incumbent alderman, Arenda Troutman, was recently charged in a federal bribery case for allegedly taking a $5,000 payoff to help a bogus developer move forward on a building project. She maintained her innocence, but with 96 percent of precincts reporting, she appears to have been bounced out of office, trailing an opponent 32 percent to 63 percent.

Two former aldermen convicted of graft fell short in their bid to get their old jobs back: Percy Giles, who was busted in the federal government's Operation Silver Shovel investigation in the 1990s, and Wallace Davis Jr., convicted of extortion and taking bribes in a separate federal probe in the 1980s.

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled last week that two other aldermen convicted in Operation Silver Shovel were ineligible to be on the ballot. City elections officials left Giles and Davis on the ballot since no one challenged their candidacies.

Chicago requires local candidates to garner more than 50 percent of the vote. Otherwise, the top two vote-getters advance to an April 17 runoff.