Report: Giannoulias to meet Friday about mayor run
Alexi Giannoulias lost the recent Senate race to Mark Kirk, but a source tells ABC7 Giannoulias is considering a run for mayor.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports Giannoulias is scheduled to meet Friday with aldermen about the effort.
Giannoulias lost to Kirk in the mid-term election earlier in November, and then had a beer with him.
"Almost half of Illinois voted for him to be their senator, and I think you have to respect that voice," Kirk said on November 3.
"I told him [Kirk], I said, 'Listen, I know you will stay true to your advice and yourself. I hope and I believe when he says he's going to be a good senator,'" Giannoulias said on Election Day.
According to one report, Giannoulias has been reaching out to aldermen about the possibility of a mayoral run.
A Friday meeting would come ahead of a big weekend for other hopefuls Rahm Emanuel, Danny Davis and James Meeks who, plan to announce their candidacy officially.
All candidates can file nominating petitions with the Board of Elections beginning Monday. They have one week to complete that process. So, if Giannoulias wants to run, he would have to hurry to get the 12,500 required signatures to get on the ballot, all of this on the heels of a nasty U. S Senate race.
"This race was about something bigger. The fact that all of you went to war and worked so hard for almost two years says more about all of you than it does about me," Giannoulias told his supporters after he lost in the race for Senate.
Sources say labor unions ran a poll about Giannoulias and that poll showed that he was well ahead of Rahm Emanuel.
It does appear that Giannoulias is considering seriously a run to replace Mayor Daley.