Daley: I Don't Have Energy or Commitment to Be Governor

Bill Daley, who served as White House Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama, says he dropped out of the Illinois governor's race because he lacked the "commitment" and "energy" for the job, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

“This was not a fear of losing. Trust me, that was not a fear,” said Daley — who planned to challenge incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn for the next year's Democratic nomination.

“It’s a combination of things. I felt very strongly that as I began to look at this over the next five to nine years, which would be needed to straighten out the situation, that commitment, that need that energy for that stage was probably not going to be there.”

Daley, a lawyer who was also U.S. Secretary of Commerce from 1997 to 2000 under President Bill Clinton, said he will return to the private sector.

In an earlier interview with the Chicago Tribune, Daley, the son and brother of two former Chicago mayors, said, "Even though you’re around it for a long time, you really don’t get a sense of the enormity of it until you get into it … Is this really me? Is this really what I want to spend my next five to nine years doing? And is this the best thing for me to do at this stage of my life? I’ve come to the conclusion that this isn’t the best thing for me.”

With Daley's decision, Quinn is now not expected to have a serious challenger for the Democratic nomination. Four names have emerged as Republican challengers to Quinn: State Sen. Bill Brady; state Sen. Kirk Dillard; state Treasurer Dan Rutherford and businessman Bruce Rauner.