Plenty of governors, some senators, and a smattering of U.S. representatives… but I can’t think of any mayors.
Pretty sure Grover Cleveland served as mayor. Will check.
Andrew Johnson–Greeneville, TN
Grover Cleveland–Buffalo, NY
Yup–mayor of Buffalo.
At the very least there was Andrew Johnson, Calvin Calvin Coolidge and Grover Cleveland.
Didn’t Theodore Roosevelt serve as some sort of city official of New York City?
:: checks Wikipedia ::
Ah yes: he was the city Police Commissioner. And then later he was Governor of New York State. That must be what I was remembering.
I had the Grovster appearing in post #2. You were tentative, yes, but you came through. 
OK, thanks!
The mayor so nice, they named him twice!
Technically, he was a police commissioner – a member of the commission that ran the department in the 1890s. He may have been the head of the commission (not sure), but he was not alone.
He was a state assemblyman, too, IIRC.
Oh, and he ran for NYC mayor, but lost.
You know what Grover Cleveland’s favorite song was?
Rio, by Duran Duran
This Wikipedia page may be of interest: List of Presidents of the United States by other offices held All the mayors listed there have been mentioned already in this thread. I’m not sure what Van Buren did as a county surrogate. If I had to guess I’d say it’s an old term for surrogate judge (probate judge).
I’m not convinced that Wikipedia list is comprehensive though. The corresponding List of Vice Presidents of the United States by other offices held fails to note the service of Hubert Humphrey as the Mayor of Minneapolis (1945-48).
You might note that while large city Mayors are sometimes considered viable Presidential candidates, nobody has ever directly jumped from Mayor to President. The closest is Cleveland, who established his reputation as a crusader against graft and corruption while Mayor of Buffalo, using that reputation to become Governor of New York. He only held that office a short time before running for President. The others served as Mayors of smaller places early in their careers, and became Presidential material while holding later offices.
Sorry, don’t get it.
A friend thinks that Rahm Emanuel may make a run for the presidency in 2016. I personally think it more likely he’ll go for governor first, then (assuming he has a good run as gov and doesn’t end up in prison*) try for the presidency. Or maybe it will be Mayor of Chicago –> US Senator from Illinois –> presidential candidate.
- It has been said (and with how much truth I do not know) that the chance of going to jail is higher for Illinois governors than it is for murderers.
Like “Grover Cleveland” as an answer to this question, there was a GQ fairly early in the SDMB history to which the answer, provided by about a half dozen people back to back, was that song. It turned, for a while, into a SD catch phrase. I was simply riffing off it because of how many people simultaneously came up with Pres. Cleveland for this one; sorry!
Thank you for expanding my SDMB vocabulary. Ignorance fought!
(Honestly, I was wracking my brain for some reference to wife husbandry in “Rio.” Rather glad this was not the case.)
Is this worth adding to the Beginner’s Guide to Glossary of Terms on Straight Dope Message Boards?
Now that’s just not fair. Of 41 governors, only 6 have been charged with crimes, and 2 were acquitted. Only 2 (the two who served immediately before the current governor) are currently in prison.
I’m hoping for Mayor of Newark –> Governor of New Jersey –>President of the U.S.
The last attempt that I can think of is John Lindsay, who ran for pres while mayor of New York in 1972.