Sen. Kirk: Chicago could end up like Detroit if Emanuel loses

CHICAGO — With polls showing a close race in next month's runoff mayoral election, Sen. Mark Kirk suggested on Monday that that the city could go the way of financially strapped Detroit if voters fail to re-elect Rahm Emanuel.

"The people who are running against Rahm don't have the gravitas with the bond market. I would worry about the value of the Chicago debt if Rahm was not re-elected," Kirk, R-Ill., told reporters at an event celebrating Casmir Pulaski, the Polish general who fought gallantly in the American Revolutionary War.

Mayor Emanuel and his challenger, Jesus "Chuy" (Chew-wee) Garcia, face voters in an April 7 runoff.

Kirk's comments come just days after the Moody's Investor Service dropped Chicago's bond rating status to two levels above junk, citing the city's $20 billion in unfunded pension obligations.

Illinois lawmakers — backed by Emanuel — approved legislation last year that seeks to cut $9.4 billion of that shortfall by trimming benefits and increasing contributions for both the city and employees.

"It's a concern if we had one of the less-responsible people running against him," Kirk said at the event in Chicago. "None of them could command the respect of the bond market. The collapse of Chicago debt — which already happened with Detroit — would soon follow if somebody who is very inexperienced replaced Rahm. ...You've got to have a strong, capable leader and the people I've seen running against the mayor are not that leader."

Detroit emerged from court protection in December, closing the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history. The Motor City is not out of the woods yet as taxpayers continue a mass exodus.

A pair of recent polls show Emanuel and Garcia are in a dead heat ahead of the runoff election.

Emanuel has 42.9% of voters' support and Garcia has 38.5%, according to a poll conducted Saturday by the Chicago firm Ogden & Fry and published late Sunday. The pollsters found Emanuel had a slightly narrower lead, 42.7% to 38.7%, when they surveyed voters Wednesday, one day after Chicago's primary.

Emanuel, who is seeking a second term, won 45% of the vote in a five-candidate primary last week but appears to be losing ground to Garcia, a Cook County commissioner who won 34% of the vote in the primary.

Saturday's poll had a margin of error +/- 3.2%, and Wednesday's poll had a +/- 3.07% margin of error. More than 18% of respondents in both polls, which were conducted for the website Illinois Observer, said they remain undecided.

Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle, arguably Chicago's most powerful African-American politician, said on Monday that she would remain neutral in the Emanuel-Garcia contest, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

"My position hasn't changed," Preckwinkle said. "In the first round, I had a colleague of four or five years in Bob Fioretti; a contributor in Willie Wilson — actually a significant contributor; my floor leader; and a mayor who I've tried to work with for the past four years. And I decided to take no position. And that's where I still am."

Preckwinkle had considered taking on Emanuel last year. Polls showed she would have provided the mayor, a former three-term congressman and President Obama's first chief of staff, with a tough race.

The commissioner was outspent 12-to-1 by Emanuel in the primary, and the mayor still maintains a considerable campaign war chest. Garcia supporters pointed to the poll as evidence that Emanuel can be beat despite his considerable financial advantage.

"Rahm Emanuel is betting that he can raise enough campaign cash to hide his record of taking from working families to give to the rich," said Dan Cantor, national director for the group Working Families Party, which has thrown its support behind Garcia. "Chuy Garcia is just the guy to show that the 1% doesn't always win."

Winning votes in Chicago's large African-American community will be key to deciding who wins the runoff.

Since last week's primary, both Emanuel and Garcia have courted Willie Wilson, an African-American businessman who finished third in last week's primary with about 11% of the vote.

The mayor has faced withering criticism for his decision to close 50 city schools with low enrollment. Most of the schools were in the city's predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods.

Emanuel also faced anger for rising levels of violence in the city after Chicago notched more than 500 homicides in 2012. While the murder rate fell to the lowest level in decades last year, shooting incidents were up.

Wilson has offered a head-scratching picture of where he stands on an endorsement. He told a Chicago television station over the weekend that he already has decided he'll vote for Garcia, but that he might endorse Emanuel.

"My personal vote is for anybody except for this mayor," Wilson said Sunday. "I'm looking for the community to tell me who to endorse, alright? I've been very clear. I'm going to vote for Garcia. That's me as a person, alright? But that community who have taken and voted for me deserves the opportunity to tell me what to do."