Rahm Emanuel will not seek re-election as mayor of Chicago

By A.R.| CHICAGO

TO WIN elections, a certain degree of likeability is indispensable. That was a problem for Rahm Emanuel, who surprised everyone on September 4th by saying he won’t, after all, seek re-election as Chicago’s mayor after two terms in office. It appears that he expected to be humiliated in the election early next year. “Rahmbo”, as he is known, renowned as a tough fighter in his 23 years in politics, thus made an uncharacteristically meek decision to bow out.

It was probably the right one. Problems were piling up for the mayor of America’s third-largest city. Mr Emanuel, once chief of staff for President Barack Obama and close to the Clintons, is an abrasive figure with no strong base of local support. He won comfortably in 2011 but then struggled to beat an ill-prepared opponent in a run-off in 2015. In both elections more than half of his support came from wards dominated by black residents. (Chicago is heavily segregated and split roughly evenly between white, black and Latino blocks of voters.)