O’Malley Weighs ’95 Daley Challenge

State’s Attorney Jack O’Malley is weighing a possible 1995 candidacy for mayor of Chicago, according to well-placed sources.

O’Malley, 42, a former Chicago police officer and a University of Chicago law graduate, has the potential to seriously threaten Mayor Daley’s bid for a third term.

He is the first Republican since the 1970s to win back-to-back terms for countywide office in the Democratic stronghold of Cook County.

Gov. Edgar and other top Republicans are seeking to recruit O’Malley as the ’94 nominee for Illinois attorney general. But the state’s attorney is more interested in running for mayor. O’Malley has had several conversations with allies within the last month about a ’95 mayoral race. His election as the city’s first Republican mayor in 68 years would make O’Malley a national political figure.

Could O’Malley beat Daley?

He might.

More than any of Daley’s prospective challengers, O’Malley knows how to forge a bipartisan, multiethnic coalition. He is popular in the white-ethnic wards of Daley’s Southwest Side and is better liked than Daley on the Northwest Side, where the mayor’s popularity has plunged. O’Malley, who lives in Hyde Park, is likely to win a substantial vote among lakefront independents who have supported Daley in the past but are underwhelmed with the mayor’s job performance.

In his ’92 re-election, O’Malley put together a coalition that included white-ethnic voters, African Americans, lakefront independents and Hispanics. He was endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police, the Latin American Police Association, the Hispanic Illinois State Law Enforcement Association, Independent Voters of Illinois, the National Organization for Women and Impact, the Illinois gay and lesbian political action committee.

Such an alliance would be formidable in a mayoral race with Daley.

The state’s attorney thinks that Daley is well-intentioned but inept. As mayor of Chicago, O’Malley thinks that he could have real impact in restoring a sense of civic pride and in giving the city a new agenda as it moves into the 21st century. O’Malley’s camp thinks that Daley is tired and that the city is ready for fresh leadership.

O’Malley achieved his landslide re-election last fall by campaigning as an independent. West Side activist Rich Barnett, a leader in the movement that elected Harold Washington in 1983, was a key player in O’Malley’s political operation. So were former Chicago police officer Chris Orozco, former Chicago Lawyer editor Rob Warden and media consultant Brian Boyer, whose commercials are among the more effective ever produced here. O’Malley also would have the financial resources to compete with Daley, which is something that Daley isn’t used to.

If O’Malley runs for mayor, he would strengthen his chances by persuading City Treasurer Miriam Santos to seek re-election on his ticket. Santos, who has fallen out with Daley, is still highly popular, according to polls.

By teaming with Santos, O’Malley could seriously compete with Daley for Hispanic votes. O’Malley and Santos would be a formidable ticket.

Steve Neal is the Chicago Sun-Times political columnist.