Snicker. At least Donald Trump knows he can’t make it without Democrats to help him out.
Real estate billionaire Donald Trump gave Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel (former White House Chief of Staff for President Obama)$50,000 in December 2010, just months before hinting to the media he is seriously contemplating a bid to be the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential nominee.
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.
After Christmas the elbows will start to be thrown around as contenders for Chicago mayor start to aim for the February primary.
But no matter how they try to dice and slice there is one very formidable candidate to deal with.
Chicago Retail Merchants Association (CRMA), a committee of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA), has released findings from its second poll conducted in the Chicago Mayoral race. The poll finds that Rahm Emanuel has widened his lead over his rivals, maintains his edge in every demographic and geographical category and remains the front-runner over all other candidates combined. Overall, Rahm Emanuel garnered 43% with Gery Chico at 11%, Carol Moseley Braun at 7%, Danny Davis and Miguel Del Valle at 6% and James Meeks at 3%, while 16% of likely voters are still undecided. The first poll conducted by the CRMA one month ago found Emanuel leading the pack of Mayoral hopefuls. The new poll numbers indicate Emanuel has increased his lead with the percentage of undecided voters decreasing.
This is a non-issue. Folks opposed to Rahm Emanuel should stick to the issues and fight him on what matters to the voters. This is not one of them!
The central question at this hearing: Is Mr. Emanuel, who was President Obama’s chief of staff until this fall, actually eligible to run in February in Chicago’s election for mayor, a job that requires candidates to be residents of the city for a full year?
Despite all the back and forth over tax returns, city stickers, car registrations, leases and driver’s licenses, the real debate here is over what constitutes legal residency.
Mr. Emanuel’s lawyers contend that Mr. Emanuel, 51, who was born in Chicago and represented a Congressional district on the North Side, never gave up his Chicago residency when he went to work in the White House when President Obama arrived in 2009. Mr. Emanuel’s critics say he gave up that residency when he rented out his Chicago house to a tenant, returned to Chicago only a few times before he left the White House in October, and initially filed Illinois income tax returns for part of 2009 (he has since filed amended forms).
Testimony here is expected to last for several days. After the proceeding, a hearing officer is expected to make a recommendation to Chicago’s Election Board, which will decide whether Mr. Emanuel’s name appears on the ballot. Even then, though, the issue is all but certain to linger. Any outcome is expected to be challenged in court.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 