Sheriff Dart out of mayor's race
The two candidates challenging Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart in his re-election bid believe he bowed out of the Chicago mayoral race for reasons other than wanting to have more time with his family.
Dart made the surprise announcement Wednesday that he wouldn't run for mayor of Chicago in February, saying the pressures of campaigning and actually being mayor would make it impossible for him to be a good husband and father to five children.
“If I put politics ahead of my children ... that is something I couldn't live with,” Dart said.
His opponents in Tuesday's sheriff election say they believe Democratic Party politics were what led to his decision.
“They wanted to go with Rahm Emanuel, so he had to step down,” said Marshall Lewis, the Green Party candidate for sheriff, referring to the former White House chief of staff's expected candidacy.
Republican sheriff candidate Frederick Collins also questioned Dart's explanation, saying someone who wants to spend more time with his family shouldn't be trying to be re-elected to a demanding job like Cook County Sheriff.
“Isn't Cook County bigger than Chicago? Wouldn't you be more busy as sheriff than you would be as mayor? Don't you think you're going to be real busy as sheriff, trying to lower the crime rate?” Collins said.
Collins added that Dart damaged himself politically and “took the voters for granted” when he expressing simultaneous interest in both the sheriff and mayor jobs.
Sheriff Dart had said he'd collected 25,000 signatures for a mayoral bid and was considered a leading contender to replace Mayor Richard Daley, who announced last month that he would not run for a seventh term. Other potential candidates include Emanuel, former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and state Sen. James Meeks.
So far, the candidates who have announced plans to run are City Clerk Miguel Del Valle, state Sen. Rickey Hendon and Gery Chico, a former Chicago school board chairman.
Dart said Wednesday he had struggled with the decision over the past couple of weeks. But he said there was a period last week when he went for days without seeing his children awake. The youngest of his children are 1, 3 and 5 years old.
He said his family understood he was running and is now “ecstatic” that he is not.
Dart said another consideration was that his work as sheriff suddenly had been interpreted as politically motivated. Such was the case, he said, when he announced last week that he was halting evictions of renters of foreclosed properties.
Dart said he had not talked to Emanuel about the decision. He said the only time the two had spoken was after bumping into each other in a restaurant. Asked if his decision would pave the way for an Emanuel victory, he said no.
Daily Herald wire services contributed to this report.