At last, the question of whether Rahm Emanuel should stay on the ballot has been settled once and for all. The Illinois Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that the Appellate Court’s decision to throw Rahm off the ballot was a “novel standard” without “any foundation in Illinois Law.” Therefore, Rahm Emanuel is eligible to run for election in the Chicago Mayor’s race.
The question arose when attorney Burt Odelson charged that Rahm Emanuel did not satisfy the residency requirement for a candidate. Chicago election law requires that a candidate for office must have lived in Chicago for a year before appearing on an election ballot.
Odelson claimed that since Emanuel lived in Washington for the last two years he did not satisfy the one year residency requirement. Two courts disagreed with the charge but the third, the Appellate Court, agreed throwing the whole city into a tizzy for the last several days.
For his part, Emanuel said that since he never gave up his home, still had his driver’s license out of Illinois, and was still registered to vote here, he obviously considered himself a resident of Chicago. The Ill. Supreme Court has sided with Emanuel.
Attorney Odelson says that he is done with his suit and will not appeal the decision further — the only other venue being the U.S. Supreme Court.
So, Chicago election watchers, the game is on. Al matters are cleared up and all candidates are ready to rumble.
The winner on the February 22 election has to bring in 50% plus to avoid a runoff. The latest polls finds Emanuel leading the pack. A recent poll shows 44 percent of likely voters supported Emanuel. Moseley Braun came in at 21 percent, Gery Chico had 16 percent. Several other candidates had smaller support.
Oddly enough, all this mess gave the single most unsympathetic candidate the most sympathy in all this. Rahm Emanuel is not a “nice” guy candidate. He has a reputation as quite a jerk — and it’s well deserved. But all this mess over his residency has given him a lot of good will from voters.
As to the other candidates, Gery Chico has released a short statement. “Game on,” he told the media.
Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as Breitbart.com, among many, many others. He has also written for several history magazines, has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows.
