A Daley jumping into Chicago mayoral race

Former U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Daley will announce Monday that he’s going to run for a job once heldby his brother andfather — mayor of Chicago.

Daleywould mark the first big-name candidate to officially jump in the race since Mayor Rahm Emanuel made the stunning announcement earlier this month that he would not seek a third term. Daley, whose nascent campaign confirmed Friday he would run, succeeded Emanuel as then-President Barack Obama’s White House chief of staff after Emanuel left the job to run for mayor in 2010. He alsoworked as commerce secretary for more than three years under former President Bill Clinton.

Daley’s bloodline in Chicago politics runs deep. His father, Richard J. Daley, was mayor for 21 years until his death in 1976, and his brother Richard M. Daley was the city’s longest-serving mayor until he decided not to seek his sixth full term before the 2011 election that Emanuel won.

Bill Daley has flirted with running for a high-profile office before, including 2002 and 2010 bids for governor, but never moved forward. In 2013, he briefly entered the Democratic primary contest for governor, but then dropped out saying a bid “wasn’t the best thing forme” and vowed never to seek public office again. Now 70, Daley will have to explain what has changed.

He is expected to start publicly discussing hisrunfor officeMonday, but no formal campaign event is planned.

Daley’s run for mayor will test whether his surname still carries the clout with the electorate that it used to as the party continues to move further left from his centrist business background. Daley also is likely to get tagged by progressives for his brother’s financial mismanagement of the city toward the end of his tenure — including the deeply unpopular leasing of the city’s parking meters — and his father’s role in Chicago becoming a starkly segregated city.

However, he also brings plenty of experience to the job, from his time in Washington and decades in the financial sector.

As commerce secretary, Daley ran a department with tens of thousands of federal employees. As Obama’s chief of staff, he was in charge of day-to-day operations in the White House, though his one-year stint in that job was shorter than most serve.

Daley left the Obama administration in January 2012 as part of ashake-upmeantto improve the White House’s operations and its dealings with legislative leaders. Daley offered his resignation after spending the holidays with family, and decided he was ready to return to Chicago, the Tribune reported at the time.

In between his stints in Washington, he held a series of positions at big firms.

Daley worked as a lawyer and later as president of Amalgamated Bank of Chicago before his first round workinginWashington. After his years in the Clinton administration, he ran Al Gore’s presidential campaign before being named president of SBC Communications (now AT&T), where he was in charge of strategic planning and lobbying. Daley became JPMorgan’s Midwest chairman in 2004 and later was namedthecompany’sheadof corporate responsibility, where he oversaw lobbying efforts.

Daley left JPMorgan to serve in the Obama White House. He also steppeddown from positions on corporate boards at the time, including Boeing Co. and Abbott Laboratories. In 2014 he was named head of U.S. operations for the Switzerlandbased hedge fund Argentiere Capital.

Hewouldenteraracewith a dozen or so candidates, many of whom have struggled to raise money so far. Thatwould not figure to be a problem for Daley, who has strongties toNewYork’sWall Street and Chicago’s LaSalle Street. He also has personal wealth he could tap, though not to the extent of Gov. Bruce Rauner or the selffundingDemocraticnominee for governor, J.B. Pritzker.

While those financial ties could serve as a campaign strength for Daley, they also are likely to open him up to attacks from progressives who have derisively referred to Emanuel as “Mayor 1 percent” for his close ties to, and campaign contributions from, the city’s business elite.

So far there are a dozen main candidates who have declared they are running for mayor in the Feb. 26 election, includingformerChicagopolice Superintendent Garry McCarthy, former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, former Police Board President Lori Lightfoot, Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, businessman Willie Wilson, Chicago principals association President Troy LaRaviere, activist Ja’Mal Green, tech entrepreneur Neal Sales-Griffin, Southwest Side attorney Jerry Joyce, policy consultant Amara Enyia, attorney John Kozlar and DePaul student Matthew Roney.

In addition to Daley, several other high-profile politicians have weighed a run for mayor after Emanuel’s sur- prise departure fromthe race to spend more time with his wife, Amy Rule, and write an unspecified “next chapter” of his life.

U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez kicked the tires on a mayoral campaign before dropping out earlier in the week to encourage Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia to run. Garcia is on the November ballot to succeed the retiring Gutierrez in the predominantly Hispanic 4th Congressional District.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle also has said she is seriously considering a mayoral campaign. She is unopposed in the November election for a third term as the county’s chief executive. State Comptroller Susana Mendoza also has been calling donors and labor leaders behind the scenes about a potential bid but has declined to discuss a bid publicly, saying she is focusedonher statewide race inNovember.

North Side U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley and 2011 mayoral candidateandCityHallveteran Gery Chico also are considering launching mayoral campaigns.