There Is Some Good News
From CNN: Appellate Court Rules Against Emanuel
Emanuel was thrown off the ballot Monday by an Illinois appellate court panel, according to the Cook County Appellate Court’s office.
The panel ruled 2-1 that Emanuel did not meet the residency standard to run for the city’s top office.
“A candidate must meet not only the Election Code’s voter residency standard, but also must have actually resided within the municipality for one year prior to the election, a qualification that the candidate unquestionably does not satisfy,” the court stated in the decision.
Here’s the court’s opinion [PDF].
Emanuel will appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court and has already requested a stay. He apparently doesn’t like people using his tactics on him. He and Obama had a habit of winning elections by disqualifying their opponents, rather than letting the voters decide. What goes around, comes around.
6 comments
A stay was issued today and he is back on the ballot.
Actually, the ballots haven’t been printed yet, and the Illinois high court can change the date. The was expected because it is almost automatic. What we don’t know is if the court will even take the case. If they don’t take it, then Emanuel is off the ballot as the appellate court’s ruling stands.
If he gets to seek the office of Mayor, it will be interesting to see who Chicago chooses. It’s a Tough Town and they seem to favor a Tough Mayor. Rahm strikes me as being the equivalent of a corporate snake.
Rahm is being backed by the Daley machine, so he is pretty much guaranteed a win if he can stay on the ballot. It is old-fashioned corrupt politics with the machine controlling the jobs and contracts, so you go along. That’s how Obama won his Illinois elections.
Yes, yes and yes. It’s getting very entertaining here in Chicagoland.
It will be interesting if the Supreme Court chooses to hear this one. Justice Anne Burke is married to Chicago Alderman Edward Burke. He is supporting Gery Chico for mayor. Also, two of the Appellate Court judges who voted to remove Emanuel from the ballot were slated for election by a Democratic Party committee chaired by Alderman Burke.
I would think that Burke wouldn’t be at all interested in seeing Emanuel as mayor, and simply refusing to hear the case would be an easy out for the Supreme Court.
I’ve seen people saying that he would go to Federal court if he loses. I would like to see him justify a Federal interest in looking at the state laws governing the requirements for local offices.