First residency challenges filed to Emanuel's bid for mayor

[harvey007]

Source: Chicago Tribune

Five Chicago residents, some with ties to frequent candidate William “Dock” Walls, filed challenges today aimed at keeping Rahm Emanuel off the ballot for Chicago mayor on the grounds he hasn’t lived in the city for the past year.

The objections are not expected to be the last or the most serious against Emanuel, the former North Side congressman and White House chief of staff. Veteran election attorney Burt Odelson has been spearheading an effort to challenge Emanuel based on residency and he is expected to file sometime before Tuesday's deadline for objections to candidates' ballot petitions. It’s likely all the objections will be lumped into one case to be ruled on by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.

Read more: http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2010/11/first-residency-challenges-filed-to-emanuels-bid-for-mayor-.html

[former9thward]

1. The Board of Election Commissioners are all pro-Emanuel

and will rule against the challenges. It will then be appealed to the courts where the objections may get a fairer hearing. Emanuel did not file for a homeowners property tax exemption in 2009 or 2010. The exemption form requires you to state under penalty of law that your home is your "primary residence".

His residence was in DC during this time period so he could not claim the exemption and this will be the primary argument against him. To run for mayor you have to actually have lived in the city for the year before the election. Where you vote is irrelevant. Under Chicago law, someone in the military, for example, could vote absentee but would not be eligible to run for mayor until after he had been back in the city for a year.

[emsimon33]

2. If Rahm is elected mayor of Chicago

he will be continuing the perceived tradition of corruption, only in his case it won't be perceived but actual, up-front and in everybody's face corruption.

[molly77]

3. Rahm could never have been reelected to the House.

He put down Latios and was not popular. If he wins the mayoral race, we will know it was fixed.