Daley Drops Out of Illinois Governor’s Race

CHICAGO â€" William M. Daley, the former White House chief of staff and a member of one of Chicago’s best-known political families, is dropping his bid to become governor of Illinois, an aide said Monday evening.

Mr. Daley’s decision, first reported by The Chicago Tribune, was a surprise in political circles here and threw the Democratic primary race â€" which had been shaping up into a battle between Mr. Daley and the incumbent, Pat Quinn â€" into chaos.

A large field of Republican candidates have also lined up to compete for the post, but Mr. Daley’s decision appeared to leave Mr. Quinn, who has been seen as vulnerable in part because of the state’s serious fiscal problems, with a far simpler electoral path, at least for now.

An aide said that Mr. Daley’s campaign experiences in the last few months had left him with questions and doubts.

“The commitment of a tough campaign and governing to fix everything was just more than what Mr. Daley wanted to do in this stage in his life,” Tom Bowen, his recently named campaign manager, said in an interview. “He had a strong appreciation of what voters expected of him and what he wanted to accomplish for them, and to get all that done just wasn’t consistent with where he views his next 5, 10 years of his life.”

Mr. Bowen dismissed suggestions that the reasons might be otherwise. “There’s no scandal, no family issue, no health problem,” he said.

Mr. Daley, the brother of former Mayor Richard M. Daley and the son of former Mayor Richard J. Daley, was expected to answer questions at a news conference set for Tuesday morning.

In a videotaped interview with The Chicago Tribune, Mr. Daley said that his time in politics, including in President Obama’s White House, was an entirely different experience from running for office.

“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,” he said.