Emanuel hits snag trying to return to Chicago home

CHICAGO - If Rahm Emanuel wants to run for mayor, the White House chief of staff will have to persuade voters to do what the couple leasing his Chicago house apparently would not: Welcome him home.

Emanuel, widely expected to announce a decision about his candidacy within days, recently called the tenants renting his home on the North Side and asked them to move out so he could move back in, spokesman and close friend Rick Jasculca said yesterday.

But the couple said no. They extended their lease until next year just days before Mayor Richard Daley announced he wouldn't seek re-election, Jasculca said, and told Emanuel they don't want to leave.

The unsuccessful pitch is a concrete signal that Emanuel is leaning toward leaving the Obama administration for a mayoral run, and points to a key hurdle he'll face if he does. The one-time congressman needs to convince Chicago voters he's not just a Washington big shot with a reputation for ruthless politics, but still one of them.

"There is nothing in his history to show he wanted to be mayor or that this was his dream job. If there were . . . he would have been involved in local activities, organizations, spoken out about violence," said political consultant Delmarie Cobb, who was press secretary for the Democratic National Convention in 1996 and the Rev. Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential bid.

While Emanuel has been at the center of major national issues, that's not what brings voters out for local races, said Chicago-based national pollster Michael McKeon. "Rahm negotiated with Israel, but if the other guy is the one who got your alley paved, what do you think is more important?" McKeon said.

Emanuel could announce whether he's running as soon as Friday, a person familiar with his thinking said this week. But prospective opponents already are hinting at plans to exploit his reputation as an outsider, an abrasive take-no-holds political operative who once sent a dead fish to a pollster and peppers his sentences with profanities.

The stories of Emanuel's hard-charging tactics, particularly after he led the national Democrats' campaign to win back a majority in the U.S. House in 2006, have distorted his image, Jasculca said.

"Sometimes a folklore emerges about people that sort of takes on a life of its own," he said. "I've known Rahm for pretty close to a quarter-century, and this is a solid Chicago family guy who is as Chicago as the Chicago Bears are."