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Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff at the White House, was elected mayor of Chicago this week. Emanuel will replace Richard M. Daley as the leader of the country’s third-largest city, as he retires.During his acceptance speech, Emanuel expressed his gratitude for his “humbling victory.” “I am determined, with your help, to meet our challenges head on and to make a great city even greater,” he said.Emanuel’s election ends an era in Chicago history. The Daley’s have left behind quite a legacy; the current mayor has been in office for 22 years, and his father, Richard J. Daley, served as mayor for 21 years.“The next mayor will face enormously difficult decisions,” Laurence Msall of The Civic Federation stated. Dick Simpson added that Emanuel will also have a newer, less flexible city council than Daley had. “The new council will not be as rubber stamp as the old one,” he said. Simpson went on to say that Emanuel’s reputation might have had some say in his election. “They think he’s a strong person,” he said. “We do tend to like that in our mayors.”
