The Illinois Supreme Court ruled today that former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel meets the residency requirements to run for Chicago mayor, overturning a lower court ruling and re-installing him as the race’s frontrunner.
“This is a situation in which, not only did the candidate testify that his intent was not to abandon his Chicago residence, his acts fully support and confirm that intent,” the court wrote in the ruling, which you can read in full here.
This is the best way to sum up the case regarding Rahm Emanuel and his desire to become the next mayor of Chicago. This summary below will be heard before the Illinois Supreme Court. It might be interesting to know that just last week there were polling numbers showing Emanuel might prove so successful in the primary that no run-off election would be required.
CP thinks, and has always thought, the residency argument against Emanuel to be flawed. I think the Supreme Court will also view the argument flawed, and allow Emanuel to be on the ballot. Clearly with a house, property taxes that were paid, and a driver’s license from the Land Of Lincoln the issue of residency is pure politics.
In its 2-1 decision Monday, the Illinois Appellate Court noted that both sides in the case have always agreed on the basic facts — including that Emanuel owns a home on the North Side, that he has paid property taxes and kept a driver’s license, that he left to go to Washington to work for President Barack Obama, and that his house was not available to him when he returned because he had rented it out.
Noting they had no clear case law to rely on and even turning to a dictionary for help, two appellate judges said their decision turned on the statutory requirement that candidates be a resident of the city for at least a year before an election. What matters is the interpretation of what it means to “reside in” a community in order to be eligible to run for office, the judges said.
In a 25-page majority opinion written by Appellate Judge Thomas E. Hoffman and concurred with by Judge Shelvin Louise Marie Hall, the judges said their decision came down to their interpretation that Emanuel needed to physically live in Chicago for the year preceding the election.
Appellate Judge Bertina E. Lampkin wrote a sharply worded dissenting opinion that accused her two colleagues of making things up as they went along.
“The majority’s application of a new standard … shows a careless disregard for the law shortly before an election for the office of mayor in a major city,” Lampkin wrote.
Using page three of the decision from the Appellate Court comes these sentences.
At all relevant times, including the time he was in
Washington, D.C., the candidate continued to pay property taxes for
the Hermitage house, continued to hold an Illinois driver’s license
listing the Hermitage house as his address, continued to list the
Hermitage house address on his personal checks, and continued to
vote with the Hermitage house as his registered voting address. He did, however, pay income tax in 2009 and 2010 to both Washington,
D.C., and Illinois.
No, the best political story is not the State Of The Union speech in Washington tonight. President Obama is mighty important and the various aspects of the speech and the players in Washington create a close second, but make no mistake about it…….the best political story is taking place in Chicago.
If anyone wonders why I have followed Chicago politics over the decades, or listen to radio stations from the Windy City only needs to clue in to the latest headlines.
The state Supreme Court today said it will decide whether Rahm Emanuel can run for mayor of Chicago and ordered election officials not to print any ballots without his name.
The high court’s action, which came in two separate orders today, stays Monday’s appellate court decision that knocked Emanuel off the ballot on the grounds he was not a resident of Chicago.
The high court issued an order this afternoon saying it would take up the dispute over whether Emanuel meets the state requirement that a candidate for office live in a municipality for a year prior to an election, according to court spokesman Joseph Tybor.
The order states the court will take up the case on an expedited basis, using briefs the parties filed with the appellate court. There will be no additional briefs and no oral argument before the high court, Tybor said.
The order simply states that Emanuel’s petition to appeal is allowed and gives no timetable for a decision.
This is nothing short of insane.
Rahm Emanuel should not appear on the Feb. 22 mayoral ballot, according to a ruling issued by a state appellate court today.
Emanuel told a news conference he would appeal the decision to the Illinois Supreme Court and would ask for an injunction so his name will appear on the mayoral ballot.
“I have no doubt at the end we’ll prevail in this effort,” Emanuel said. “We’ll now go to the next level to get clarity.”
In a 2-1 ruling, the appellate panel said Emanuel does not meet the residency requirement of having lived in Chicago for a year prior to the election. The judges reversed a decision by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, which had unanimously agreed that Emanuel was eligible to run for mayor. (Read the ruling here.)
“We conclude that the candidate neither meets the Municipal Code’s requirement that he have ‘resided in’ Chicago for the year preceding the election in which he seeks to participate nor falls within any exception to the requirement,” the majority judges wrote.
“Accordingly, we disagree with the Board’s conclusion that he is eligible to run for the office of Mayor of the City of Chicago. We reverse the circuit court’s judgment confirming the Board’s decision, set aside the Board’s decision and … order that the candidate’s name be excluded (or, if necessary, removed) from the ballot.”
Appellate Justice Bertina E. Lampkin wrote a dissenting opinion.
“I disagree with the majority’s contrary conclusion that the candidate is not eligible to be on the ballot because that conclusion is based on an analysis of two issues — establishing residency and a statutory exemption to the residency requirement — that are not relevant to the resolution of this case.”
Emanuel said he meets requirements despite moving to Washington, D.C. to serve as President Barack Obama’s White House chief of staff.
“Fundamentally, when a president asks you to serve the country as his chief of staff, you do it,” Emanuel said.
Time is of the essence in Emanuel’s appeal. Early voting starts a week from today on Jan. 31.
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