Chicago Mayor: Emanuel Kicked Off Ballot

We don’t usually front-page mayoral race news, but this is going to wind up being the day’s biggest story, I’m sure (sorry, George Allen, your hopes of winning the day just got buried). Rahm Emanuel, way in the lead in terms of fundraising and polling, is out of the race, at least at this point:

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.

This decision comes from the Illinois Appellate Court, which is the state’s intermediate-level court (and it’s a surprise, since Emanuel had no trouble winning his case in front of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners or at the trial level). It will, no doubt, promptly be appealed to the state Supreme Court, where it’s entirely possible it may be reversed and everything will be back to normal. So, while things are very scrambled for now (probably leaving Carol Mosely Braun the frontrunner, in a Rahm-free environment), we’ll have to wait and see.

65 thoughts on “Chicago Mayor: Emanuel Kicked Off Ballot”

  2. I go to school with Del Valle’s daughter, and she was saying this wasn’t a far-fetched possibility.

    I guess we’ll have to look at the composition of the Ill. S. Ct. to figure out the judicial possibilities.

    This probably helps Moseley Braun most, but almost certainly would guarantee a run-off.  

  5. The guy has a 2-1 lead in the polls and the election is a month away, and they are really going to throw him off the ballot. Who in their right mind could say that Rahm is not from Chicago?

    I’d imagine he wins as a write-in candidate if his name is actually removed.

    If he is actually taken off the ballot this would be yet another dark, dark chapter in the history of Illinois politics.

  6. How the HELL is Carol Moseley Braun (perhaps) going to wind-up the overwhelming front-runner in this? If true, the black vote will flock to her and she’ll probably cross the run-off mark.  

  7. Is there a pending deadline to have this resolved? At some point they’ll either need to postpone the election or stick with an ruling, so how much time does Rahm have to have the IL Supremes fix this?

  8. Based on the foregoing analysis, we conclude that, under subsection 3.1-10-5(a) of the Municipal Code, 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. Because the candidate does not satisfy that tandard, he may be eligible for inclusion on the ballot only if he is somehow exempt from the Municipal Code’s “reside in” requirement.

    …

    In our view, the exception embodied by section 3-2 of the Election Code applies only to voter residency requirements, not to candidate residency requirements.

    http://www.state.il.us/court/O… (I’m quoting from 20-22).

  12. If only I could’ve heard the string of expletives Rahm would’ve unleashed upon hearing this news ….  It would’ve been a thing of exquisite dirty beauty, methinks…

  14. http://www.suntimes.com/news/p…

    Is being CoS “business of the United States”, or was that just for troops?

    Forde pointed to the state’s Election Code, which states, “No elector … shall be deemed to have lost his or her residence … by reason of his or her absence on business of the United States.”

    from the plantiff’s lawyer

    Odelson mentioned some cases from the 1930s and ’40s. Odelson argued that President Obama would have no problem running for mayor because he did not rent out his house and so could occasionally spend a night there.

  18. …. I think the big winner would be Gery Chico. I hate to drag race into this but I believe Braun is very unpopular with white voters. If Rahm is off for the ballot for good I think a combination of White and Hispanic Voters would put Chico over the top.

  19. is just ridiculous. Ridiculous. Why didn’t they rule this earlier? They easily could have. He will now not have time to appeal. It must have been an anti Rahm board. They did this on purpose. Ridiculous. I’m behind Chico at this point and I think he could win. If CMB doesn’t win an outright majority I think she’s in trouble. Most everyone else will coalesce behind Chico. What’s next for Rambo? Senate? Governor? Mayor in four years? Another Obama job? I bet Obama gets him another job, commerce seems likely.  

  20. if a house member won, rahm could run for the seat and continue on his quest to be speaker of the house after a detour to the WH.

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