“People voted for both sides of that coin,” he said.

But Mr. Emanuel also said he had learned that there were times during his first term when “I should have been doing the listening, not the talking.”

“I had to learn, and I’ve been honest, and I own my mistakes,” he said.

The stories of Mr. Emanuel’s fiery temperament are legion. During a highly publicized teachers’ strike in 2012, Mr. Emanuel feuded with union members and their leader, Karen Lewis — once using an unprintable but concise insult during negotiations, effectively telling her to get lost. (Asked by reporters about the phrase, Mr. Emanuel pointed out that the meeting ended with a hug.)

While campaigning this month, Mr. Emanuel was confronted by a group of advocates about the closings of several mental health clinics during his first term. The advocates later said the conversation had ended with Mr. Emanuel pointing his finger, raising his voice and saying, “You’re gonna respect me!” A spokesman for Mr. Emanuel said in an email that the meeting had “ended cordially” and that “after respectfully listening to the residents, he asked that they respectfully listen to his point of view.”

“He got really arrogant after he was elected,” said Tiffany Armstrong, a fourth-grade South Side public school teacher who voted for Mr. Emanuel in 2011. Ms. Armstrong said she would not vote for him again because of what she considered the abrasive way he closed 50 schools, a decision she and others say unfairly affected low-income neighborhoods.

“I get the impression from him that we’re the children and he’s the parent,” Ms. Armstrong said. “If he had shown a little more empathy, he might not be so close to losing the election.”

William M. Daley, the brother and son of former Chicago mayors, said some of Mr. Emanuel’s campaign troubles could be attributed to his centrist politics being out of step with an ascendant left, represented by Mr. Emanuel’s opponent, Jesus G. Garcia.