Latinos could be key in Chicago's mayoral race

[September 15, 2010]  CHICAGO (AP) -- Two days after Mayor Richard M. Daley announced he wouldn't seek a seventh term, a group of Latino activists pondered an idea that seemed implausible the last time Chicago chose a new leader: An outcome decided by Latinos.

Daley's decision last week set off a scramble among potential successors and interest groups. And for the first time, Chicago's burgeoning Latino population finds itself in position to be a deciding factor in the race to choose who will run the nation's third-largest city.

Chicago's demographics have shifted greatly since 1989, when Daley first took office at a time of racially contentious politics. Since then, the number of Latinos has soared to approximately 28 percent of the population, from 20 percent, while the number of blacks and whites declined.

[Associated Press]

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