Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel softens his edges as election looms

In the closing ad of a re-election campaign in which he has raised $20m, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel - no shrinking violet - touts the achievements of his first term. "Chicago is a great city," he says. "But we can be even better".

Urging voters to the polls on Tuesday, the legendarily abrasive mayor concludes: "And yeah, I hear ya, so can I."

President Barack Obama once joked Mr Emanuel was rendered "practically mute" when he lost part of his middle finger in a meat-slicing accident. But a kinder, gentler Rahm has flooded the airwaves, tieless or in a v-neck sweater, in the six weeks since he was forced into a surprise runoff election by a union-backed challenger

As Mr Emanuel enters the final days of the campaign, he is seeking to soften his rough edges and shed a reputation that he favours the city's wealthy over the working class that has earned him the nickname, "Mayor 1%".

But his top donors are a who's who of Chicago's elite, including billionaire Citadel founder Ken Griffin - who has donated over $1m - and other traditional Republican supporters. His opponent, Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, has raised a fraction of the mayor's war chest - mostly from unions - and has struck upon "a tale of two cities" as his campaign theme.

Though he has offered few details, Mr Garcia has vowed to invest in the poverty-stricken neighbourhoods of the city's south and west sides, where violent crime is rampant and the glittering downtown business district and prosperous north side can seem like another city altogether.

Mr Emanuel has a commanding double-digit lead in the latest polls, but few observers are ready to call a race that is likely to come down to voter turnout and how the African-American vote breaks.

Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia says that the battle for city hall has become "a very public example of Democratic discord". It serves as a preview of debates to come as Democrats assemble the party platform ahead of the 2016 presidential race.

Mr Emanuel, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton and chief of staff to Mr Obama with close ties to Wall Street, has been cast as a centrist along the lines of presumptive 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton. Mr Garcia has taken up the union-backed progressive mantle carried by Senator Elizabeth Warren and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

But David Axelrod, a long-time Chicago political operative and top Obama adviser, says there is no "big policy divide here". He points to his friend Mr Emanuel's push for a $13 minimum wage, nearly double the federal level, but admits that his style can rankle.

"He's a bulldozer when he wants to get things done and sometimes that comes at the expense of consultation and outreach," he says. "I think that that message is coming through [to Mr Emanuel] loud and clear."

Mr Axelrod says the city needs strong leadership to deal with a financial crisis that includes a $20bn unfunded pension liability and a $300m operating budget deficit. He says Mr Emanuel's hard-charging style has helped bring business and development to Chicago, which is why business leaders support him.

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Mr Emanuel is fond of saying that there are 29 construction cranes currently operating in Chicago, up from just three when he took office in 2011.

But there is very little construction in Auburn Gresham, the south-side neighbourhood where Auntiona Kelly says she walks the eight blocks to school in a large group, so as not to invite the attention of the gangs that control most of the streets.

Her school is "full of gangs", the eighth grader says. "But if you go into another area, the schools are much better because they invest in those communities," she adds.

Chicago has gained international attention for high violent crime rates during the mayor's tenure. While total crime figures are down, shootings rose 40 per cent and homicides jumped 26 per cent during the first three months of 2015 compared with a year earlier.

Ms Kelly's grandmother, Minnie Bondy, started a community centre in her apartment building last year because the neighbourhood, like many others, lacks a city-funded place that might keep young people off of the streets.

She says she is concerned about the mayor's ties to Republican Illinois governor Bruce Rauner, a private equity executive whose state budget would make sweeping cuts to social programmes.

Mr Emanuel earned over $18m during a two-year stint in investment banking after leaving the Clinton White House, in part by helping close a $500m deal for Mr Rauner's firm. The pair have been close for years, though Mr Emanuel has criticised parts of the budget.

"We need a mayor who is going to stand up to a governor who is trying to do us in," she says. "Not a mayor who is friends with him."

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