CHICAGO (AP) -- Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is forging ahead with his campaign for Chicago mayor as if he's guaranteed a spot on the ballot, but the effort to kick him off continued to move through the courts Wednesday.
A residency challenge to Emanuel's bid to replace the retiring Mayor Richard Daley was heard before a three-judge panel of the Illinois Appellate Court, which did not immediately rule.
An attorney for two voters objecting to Emanuel's candidacy argued again that the Democrat doesn't meet the one-year residency requirement because he rented out his Chicago home and moved his family to Washington to work for President Barack Obama for nearly two years.
"If the house had not been abandoned by the whole family ... we wouldn't be here today," attorney Burt Odelson told the panel of judges, all three Democrats.
Odelson so far has had little luck trying to keep Emanuel off the Feb. 22 ballot. The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners and a Cook County judge have both ruled in favor of Emanuel, a former congressman, saying he didn't abandon his Chicago residency when he went to work at the White House.
MORE...
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CHICAGO_MAYOR_EMANUEL?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-01-19-17-23-49