The Hill News

Congressman Danny Davis (D-Ill.) said that he recently sat down with departed chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to discuss their mutual interest in the Chicago mayoral job.

Davis, who has formed an exploratory committee and is gathering signatures toward a possible run, told a Chicago radio station Sunday that a couple weeks ago he met Emanuel at Washington restaurant The Caucus Room where they talked for about half an hour over two glasses of water.

"We talked about our hopes for the city," Davis told Soul 106.3 FM's Jeffery Leving, an attorney who hosts a show on fathers' rights. Davis said he and Emanuel discussed the "strong possibility that both of us might run for mayor of the city of Chicago."

He said they talked about campaigning in such a way that at the end of the day the city would be "harmonized."

Last week, Davis was quoted as saying, "The people of the city of Chicago will determine their leadership and determine who's going to be mayor. I don't think there will be any coronation of anyone. I don't think there will be a coronation of Prince Rahm Emanuel."

Davis, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, was asked Sunday about who the next mayor should be.

"I think the next mayor is going to be the individual who will cross racial, ethnic and geographic lines as well as gender," Davis said, adding that it's "not so much the man as it is the plan."