Former
White House chief of staff Bill Daley abruptly abandoned his campaign
for Illinois governor, saying in a newspaper interview that he concluded
"this isn't the best thing for me."
Daley, the son and brother of two iconic Chicago mayors, told the Chicago Tribune that
he was ending his race for the Democratic nomination just a few months
after declaring his candidacy. The story was posted Monday night.
"One
of the things I always thought in my career that I wanted to do, I
thought I would be able to have that opportunity, I hoped, would be to
run for office. And even though you're around it for a long time, you
really don't get a sense of the enormity of it until you get into it,"
Daley told the Tribune.
Daley's decision gives Illinois
Gov. Pat Quinn an easier path to the Democratic nomination. Attorney
General Lisa Madigan, another high-profile Democrat, announced in July
that she would not run.
In the Chicago newspaper interview,
Daley said he had been "struggling" for the last six weeks. "Is this
really me? Is this really what I want to spend my next five to nine
years doing? And is this the best thing for me to do at this stage of my
life?" Daley, 65, is quoted as saying. "I've come to the conclusion
that this isn't the best thing for me."
Daley was
President Obama's chief of staff from January 2011 to January 2012. He
previously served as Commerce secretary in Bill Clinton's administration
and was chairman of Al Gore's presidential race in 2000.
Several
Republicans have already declared their candidacy for governor,
including state Treasurer Dan Rutherford, state Sen. Bill Brady, state
Sen. Kirk Dillard and businessman Bruce Rauner.
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