David Hoffman (Hoffman for Senate)

Could Chicago’s next mayor be David Hoffman? That’s the notion that at least some voters believe should be considered in Hoffman’s political calculations.

The former Assistant U.S. Attorney last week lost ^[1] the Democratic primary to fill President Obama’s old Senate seat, finishing a strong second in a five-candidate field. Hoffman, who worked under Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, routinely heard from voters during the campaign that he was running for the “wrong office” — the “right” one being mayor of Chicago, The Chicago Sun-Times ^[2] reports. The Chicago mayoral election is next year.

Hoffman, who was a federal prosecutor in the Northern District of Illinois from 1998 to 2005, has yet to comment on his political future, including whether he might mount a challenge to current Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley (D), according to the newspaper. Daley, who tapped Hoffman to be the city’s inspector general in 2005, has been the city’s mayor for more than two decades. “I’m just focused on taking a break and spending time with my family. I’m not really thinking much beyond the next few weeks,” Hoffman told The Chicago Sun-Times.

Richard M. Daley (gov)

Daley, who has yet to decide if he will seek a seventh term, when questioned about Hoffman’s first campaign “sounded a bit defensive,” according to the newspaper. He told The Chicago Sun-Times, “Everybody worked hard. … Everybody did a good job. … I don’t know why you pick one person. Why is that? I know. You’re friends with him.” When asked if he was concerned about Hoffman running for mayor, Daley, who has a 35 percent approval rating, told the newspaper, “I don’t know. I don’t know why you’re asking about him. Boy, you’re really good friends with him.”

The Chicago Sun-Times reports, “The mayor’s comments unmasked a sore point in the Daley camp: that Hoffman used the power Daley gave him to embarrass the mayor, ‘create a platform to run for office out of City Hall’ and become a media darling.”

Patrick Collins ^[3], a partner with Perkins Coie, who worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney with Hoffman, said he thinks it is unlikely that his former colleague would run for mayor. “He just spent a million bucks of his own money and put his family through a real difficult journey,” Collins told the newspaper.