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Mayor Emanuel Meets With Former Challenger Willie Wilson

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mayor Emanuel was right back out on the campaign trail Wednesday. CBS 2 Chief Correspondent reports in addition to meeting with potential voters Wednesday, he also reached out to a former candidate.

Businessman and former mayoral candidate Willie Wilson told Levine Mayor Emanuel called him Tuesday night, then spent an hour at his lakefront penthouse Wednesday afternoon. The two will meet again, Wilson said, before he decides who to endorse in the run-off.

The mayor arrived at the far South Side senior citizens' center right after his meeting with Willie Wilson and set right to winning over voters one by one.

"I do think there is a difference between multi candidate field which I refer to as a multiple choice versus two candidates where there's a clear choice," Emanuel said. "I do think Chuy loves the city. "He's a good man can disagrees without being disagreeable. I disagree with the idea of being vague, not specific, denying we have challenges. I've been clear that we have to look our challenges straight in the eye, meet them head on.

Twice he said he won 35 of 50 wards, suggesting he won more than he lost and that he's faced adversity before. But he also confronted head-on, with some urging, the suggestion that yesterday's vote was about style, rather than substance.

"I don't think you should be not who you are," Emanuel said. "The worst thing in politics is that people think you're not honest with yourself. They are smart. The public is smart. What I will continue to do is not only fight for what I believe is right, tell people why I think it is right."

In other words, don't expect a kinder, gentler mayor. But one who will try to pin Garcia down on pensions, public safety and city finances, while working to repair his ties to Black voters, where head to head, he defeated Garcia by a 2 to 1 margin Tuesday and feels Wilson's voters could be his as well.

Meanwhile, Rahm's runoff opponent Chuy Garcia is feeling good about his chances in April. Garcia sat down with CBS 2's Dana Kozlov to offer specifics on what he plans to do.
A day after forcing a runoff with Mayor Emanuel, Garcia and his campaign staff are thankful for voter support and focused on the race ahead.

Garcia told Kozlov his top three priorities were improving public education by reducing class size, making an elected school board a reality and expanding early education.

Asked how he plans to pay for it, Garcia said, "We continue to do our research to crunch numbers to look at potential revenue sources."

He also promises to do what Emanuel hasn't: hire a thousand new police officers.

"We spend presently 100 million dollars a year in overtime. Some of that overtime money can be put toward hiring additional police officers," Garcia said.

Garcia also wants to eliminate most red light cameras. When it comes to pensions, he wants to have conversations about future employees and what benefits they receive. He supports an elected school board 100 percent but believes the chairman should have some education background.

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