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Rahm Emanuel booted off ballot in 2-1 Appellate Court decision
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH
Political Reporter
Last Modified: Jan 24, 2011 12:09PM
Rahm Emanuel was thrown off the ballot for mayor of Chicago today by an appellate court panel, a stunning blow to the fund-raising leader in the race.
An appellate panel ruled 2-1 that Emanuel did not meet the residency standard to run for mayor.
Appellate judges Thomas Hoffman and Shelvin Louise Marie Hall ruled against Emanuel. Justice Bertina Lampkin voted in favor of keeping President Obama’s former chief of staff on the Feb. 22 ballot.
“It’s a surprise,” said Kevin Forde, the attorney who argued on Emanuel’s behalf.
Emanuel’s attorneys are expected to use Lampkin’s dissenting opinion to appeal the case to the Illinois Supreme Court.
In today’s ruling, Hoffman wrote: “We ... order that the candidate’s name be excluded (or if, necessary, be removed) from the ballot from Chicago’s Feb. 22, 2011.”
Emanuel had won two previous rulings — by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners and a Cook County judge. The case was appealed to the appellate court, which handed down the ruling before noon Monday.
Opponents have argued Emanuel is not a resident of Chicago because he rented out his North Side home while serving as chief of staff to Obama. The renter —Rob Halpin — refused to allow Emanuel to move back in after Mayor Daley’s announcement last year that he would not seek re-election. Halpin briefly ran for mayor himself.
http://www.suntimes.com/3469419-417/emanuel-appellate-mayor-ballot-chicago.html
Oldtimer said:Tam I still say- wanta bet? From CBS:. From the AP:"If you are a registered voter and continueto vote from your residence, you establish what we consider the intentto be aresident of the city of Chicago," Chicago Election Board Chairman Langdon Neal saidAnd from the self-same Sun-Times article:Dawn Clark Netsch, a law professor and constitutional scholar who helped write the Illinois Constitution, said called residency "a matter of intent." "If you registerto vote and vote that's a pretty good sign of intent and therefore residency," Netsch said.Rahm never sold his Chicago home and continuedto vote from here, establishing his intent in a way that seemsto satisfy electoral scholars and Board of Elections members. So why has the residencyquestion gained so much attention? It could just be the machinations of a lawyer aligned with his opponents. Or it could be the frenzy of a media obsessed withRahm's every move. But apart from all that, the issue may have stuck around because ittouches on the real problem withRahm's candidacy. The biggest hurdle he'll haveto overcome in his bid for Chicago mayor won't be provingto a judge that he's technically aresident. It'll be provingto the people that he actually is -- showing Chicagoans that his years in D.C. haven't put him out oftouch with the very particular and very serious concerns of this city."It's the sense of the election board that if you keep ownership of the property, keep your registration there, you've voted absentee, as far as we know he hasn't registered anywhere else, it's just like members of the military who serve overseas in Iraq -- we don't deny them the rightto vote; people who take corporate assignments overseas, and lease out their home as a fact of life, it doesn't mean they've left permanently," Chicago Board of Elections spokesman Jim Allen said.