Appellate Court Bounces Rahm

[The Straight Story]

Appellate Court Bounces Rahm

Rahm Emanuel's residency fight just took a turn for the worse.

The Illinois Appellate Court ruled 2-1 to overturn a Chicago Board of Elections decision to allow Rahm Emanuel on the mayoral ballot. Judges Thomas Hoffman and Shelvin Louise Marie Hall ruled against Emanuel and Justice Bertina Lampkin voted in favor of his inclusion.

Hoffman wrote in today's ruling: “We ... order that the candidate’s name be excluded (or if, necessary, be removed) from the ballot from Chicago’s Feb. 22, 2011.”

Emanuel's Attorney Kevin Forde says "its a surprise."

Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Appellate-Court-Bounces-Rahm-114493394.html#ixzz1Byus3rk3

[warrior1]

1. see this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x261757

[sharesunited]

2. I resented very much the "inevitability" of his becoming Mayor.

And I don't appreciate his latest campaign commercial in which he chokes up with emotion over his love for the city's children.

Tres Boehner, Rahm.

[Ken Burch]

3. "Inevitability" ain't all it's cracked up to be:

[frazzled]

4. I can't imagine this won't be reversed in a higher court

It's pretty preposterous that someone who rented out their house in Chicago so they could serve the President of the United States is seen as being ineligible.

If you lived in Massachusetts back in the aughts, you will remember that Mitt Romney not only had not lived in Belmont, MA for a number of years before he ran for governor (he left to chair the Olympics in Salt Lake City) but took the homeowners exemption on his Utah, not Massachusetts house. The attempt to scuttle him from the ballot on the same kind of residency requirement lost, and he ran and won.

This isn't about whether you like or would vote for Rahm Emanuel. It's a matter of the proper legal procedure. And I think it's wrong. My mind wasn't made up who to vote for, but for the first time in my life I may not vote at all in this election if the decision stays. I'm pretty shocked.

[sharesunited]

5. The earlier thread put it into proper Chicago perspective.

If a firefighter or police officer tried to pull something like this (e.g., buy a condo, rent it out, reside in Indiana and commute), it would be deemed a transparent device to evade the city's residency requirement.

[frazzled]

6. Bull

He didn't get a house somewhere else because he wanted to live somewhere else: he was called upon by the President to serve, which took him away from his residence. His personal stuff was still in the house, he voted from the house's address, his driver's license remained at the house's address, he paid property taxes on the house.

Are you going to say servicemen and women serving away or overseas are not residents of their home states/cities, too?

I bet you anything if this were someone you "liked," say, Howard Dean, you'd be screaming bloody murder that this court reversed two previous decisions on the case ... hours before the ballots were to be printed.

Also: the remaining candidates are no prizes, believe me.

[laylah]

7. I agree with you, being from

"downstate", the forgotten area (Quad Cities Il side); however, I think he sucks, what he counselled Obama to do, sucked, what he wants to lay onto the people of Chicago...also sucks.

Just MVHO!

Jenn

[sharesunited]

8. If the President's Chief of Staff were covered by the Servicemembers' Civil Relief Act,

then I might agree with you that being called to serve the President freezes everything in favor of the person so serving.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servicemembers_Civil_Relief_Act

(Even Bill Clinton himself couldn't pull that one off).

In any event, I do agree that the slate of candidates for mayor is disappointing, and this is mainly as a result of the general perception that it was already in the bag for Rahm.

The sad effect of his candidacy will have been that it discouraged good candidates from running.

Ironic outcome for him to bear the blame for doing such grievous harm to the city he claims to love.