CHICAGO (AP) — An annual Mexican Independence Day Parade on Sunday in Chicago drew major candidates for the city’s 2015 mayoral election and the November contest for Illinois governor.
Alderman Bob Fioretti announced his bid to unseat Mayor Rahm Emanuel a day earlier. Also at the parade was Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, who is circulating petitions and raising money for a bid, but hasn’t yet announced whether she’ll run. She said Fioretti’s Saturday announcement hadn’t impacted her.
“It has no bearing on what I’m going to do. I am going to do it based on my bench marks and what I think is important or not,” Lewis told Chicago’s WBBM radio. “I love Bob, he is a friend.”
Emanuel delivered remarks at a breakfast ahead of the parade, noting his first overseas visit as mayor was to Mexico City. The former White House chief of staff won his first term in 2011.
Gov. Pat Quinn and his Republican challenger, Bruce Rauner (ROW’-nur), also marched in the parade which snakes more than two miles through the city’s Little Village neighborhood. It’s one of the largest Mexican enclaves in the country.
Estimates for how many attended in Sunday’s event were unavailable. Chicago police didn’t provide an estimate and an organizer didn’t immediately return a message.
In the past, organizers have said hundreds of thousands of people attended.
