Rahm Emanuel off the Ballot in Chicago Election

CHICAGO — Chicagoans are having no trouble summing up their thoughts about the drama now before the Illinois Supreme Court over Rahm Emanuel's name appearing on next month's mayoral ballot. Some call it ridiculous and confusing. Others, just plain baloney.

But whether or not they had planned to support Emanuel, voters expressed two prevailing sentiments Wednesday: Let the former White House chief of staff run so the voters can decide and, no matter how embarrassing or maddening the latest election spectacle has become, it's vintage Chicago politics. Source

Thus, from April 1867 through January 24 of this year, the
principles governing the question before us were settled. Things
changed, however, when the appellate court below issued its decision
and announced that it was no longer bound by any of the law cited
above, including this court’s decision in Smith, but was instead free to
craft its own original standard for determining a candidate’s residency.
See No. 1–11–0033, slip op. at 6-8 (dismissing the foregoing
authority in its entirety). Thus, our review of the appellate court’s
decision in this case begins not where it should, with an assessment of
whether the court accurately applied established Illinois law to the
particular facts, but with an assessment of whether the appellate court
was justified in tossing out 150 years of settled residency law in favor
of its own preferred standard. We emphatically hold that it was not.

The appellate
court’s other basis for rejecting Smith was its determination that,
“although the supreme court’s discussion in Smith was based
nominally on principles of residence, it appears from its analysis that
it actually applied concepts of domicile.” No. 1–11–0033, slip op. at
7. In other words, the appellate court concluded that Smith is not
binding because this court did not know what it was talking about
when it wrote it.

Assuming without deciding that
the appellate court was correct that the government service exception
does not apply to candidates, consider the example of Representatives
in Congress who often spend 4-5 days a week in Washington. If a
Representative from a Chicago congressional district owns a
condominium in Washington, where is that representative “actually
living” or “actually residing” when Congress is in session? Under the
majority’s test, would the candidate have been ineligible to run for
mayor even during the time he was serving in Congress? The same
confusion would arise with respect to State Representatives or State
Senators who must spend considerable amounts of time in Springfield.

CHICAGO — Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was elected mayor of Chicago on Tuesday, easily overwhelming five rivals to take the helm of the nation's third-largest city as it prepares to chart a new course without the retiring Richard M. Daley.

With 86 percent of the precincts reporting, Emanuel was trouncing five opponents Tuesday with 55 percent of the vote to avoid an April runoff. Emanuel needed more than 50 percent of the vote to win.

The other major candidates — former Chicago schools president Gery Chico, former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and City Clerk Miguel del Valle — had hoped to force a runoff but were no match for Emanuel.

Chico had 24 percent of the vote compared to 9 percent for both del Valle and Braun. Two other lesser-known candidates each got about 1 percent of the vote.

Emanuel, who takes office in May, thanked Chicago voters for welcoming him back from Washington. "You sure know how to make a guy feel at home," he said in his victory speech. More