Election Board: Emanuel Can Run For Chicago Mayor

[Purveyor]

Source: AP

(12-23) 09:54 PST Chicago, IL (AP) --

Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel can run for Chicago mayor although he spent much of the last two years living in Washington while working for President Barack Obama, the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners ruled Thursday.

With the board's decision, Emanuel clears a major hurdle in his bid to replace retiring Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. Officials have tried to expedite mayoral ballot challenges before the Feb. 22 vote, and the board's decision is almost sure to be challenged in the courts.

An election board hearing officer, who had presided over days of testimony in residency challenges to Emanuel's candidacy, recommended early Thursday that Emanuel's name be allowed on the ballot, saying evidence suggests that he had no intention of terminating his residency in Chicago, left the city only to work for Obama and often told friends he intended to live in Washington for no more than two years.

"Illinois law expressly protects the residential status and electoral rights of Illinois residents who are called to serve the national government," hearing officer Joseph Morris , a Republican attorney in private practice in Chicago, wrote in his 35-page ruling.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/12/23/state/n095304S31.DTL

[notesdev]

1. In other news

some election board officer just came into a magical windfall and is now driving a Bentley

[struggle4progress]

3. gotta link or are you just making unfounded ugly accusations?

[notesdev]

9. Unfounded? Hardly

Rahm himself signed a document that under penalty of perjury established him as not a resident (his 2009 tax return).

And this is Chicago, whose corruption is legendary.

And this is Rahm Emmanuel, whose corruption is also legendary.

So... I'd say that it is your willingness to take this outcome at face value which is unfounded. Try coming to grips with the fact that this is standard M.O. in US politics, and if possible even more so in IL politics.

[struggle4progress]

13. he later amended that return: he's not a tax lawyer -- he started off doing public interest work

and he voted absentee in chicago during his white house service

this is Rahm Emmanuel, whose corruption is also legendary just seems to be a vacuous ugly slur from you

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[hughee99]

18. Come on, it's not like he only amended his tax returns a month ago,

after someone started challenging his residency. :sarcasm:

[closeupready]

21. OMG "he's not a tax lawyer"

:rofl: Thanks for the laugh. :hi:

[struggle4progress]

28. "He's from Chicago and filed an amended return, so he's corrupt" seems to be the content

of the thread

I'm inclined to think that anyone as incredibly busy and high-profile as the POTUS's CoS should probably have a professional do the taxes, since the probability of error-under-stress seems high

[Psephos]

36. You may have to lick the boot, but praising the flavor is taking it a step too far. ;) n/t

[somone]

19. Next ruling from Chicago: Rahm Emanuel's height is 6'4

[Freddie Stubbs]

20. What specific "legendary' corruption has Mr. Emanuel committed?

[notesdev]

22. Uh... where do we start?

How about his time on the board of Freddie Mac? Taxpayer took a $200B hit on this one.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6201900&page=1

"The actions by Freddie Mac are cited by some economists as the beginning of the country's economic meltdown."

And that doesn't even get us to 2002.

Just Google "+rahm +corrupt" and you'll find no lack of tales. It's not even just one instance, there are many different instances both big and small - it is obviously his way of life.

You know I might have even been willing to let sleeping dogs lie on this guy, if not for his two years of orchestrating sell-outs of the WH to corporate lobbyists.

[Freddie Stubbs]

23. You seem to be equating making bad decisions with corruption

[notesdev]

25. Funny though

how so many bad decisions gets you promoted upwards until you're the Chief of Staff for the President of the United States himself.

Just a wild coincidence, some would have me believe.

[Freddie Stubbs]

26. President Obama had enough confidence in Rahm's judgement to hire him as CoS

I guess that you must have access to some information which he doesn't.

[Lord Magus]

27. Really now.

"The actions by Freddie Mac are cited by some economists as the beginning of the country's economic meltdown."

That's more of a right-wing talking point, trying to shift the blame away from GOP deregulation and the Wall Street bankers.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

37. Yep. Nice rethug talking point.

Either that or my memory (I'm in the mortgage business) of 200 plus mortgage lenders/companies going out of business BEFORE Fannie/Freddie went belly up.

[notesdev]

39. Before 2001?

The reference is to when Rahm was sitting on the Board of Directors (you know, the guys with the ultimate oversight responsibility) and Freddie was caught in cooking the books in a major financial scandal... and of course the book-cooking went directly to the profit of, among others, the Board of Directors.

The scandal was accounting fraud. The fact that they got away with it set the tone of what came later. This was in essence another Enron. And Rahm was one of the guys in charge.

"The reason for the concern in Washington, if not so much in the financial markets, is the belief that were anything to happen to the two mortgage giants and other quasi-governmental companies that sell securities, the government would step in to bail them out."

Freddie Mac was the template for the bailout era of 2008-present. And Rahm was a pioneer in this technique for looting the Treasury along with private investments.

edit: here's the link for the quote in this post:

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/030623/23freddie.htm

[girl gone mad]

29. How much evidence do you need?

He enriched himself on the taxpayer's dime. He's crooked.

[hughee99]

5. My first thought exactly. n/t

[struggle4progress]

10. why is that your first thought?

[hughee99]

12. I love Chicago, and it is known for many things.

Unfortunately, political corruption is one of them. I wouldn't put it beyond Rahm to offer the bribe, nor would I put it beyond local politicians to take it.

To be honest, my exact first thought was "No surprise there, I wonder how much it cost Rahm", but I figured that was close enough.

[struggle4progress]

14. in other words, you're just making ugly accusations without foundation

[hughee99]

17. More of cynical joke than an accusation, but sure, whatever you like to call it is fine.

I do that sort of thing all the time (as do MANY DUers). I don't have proof of ALL the crimes *, Poppy, Cheney, Halliburton, Blackwater, Rush Limbaugh, Boehner, Delay, Frist, McConnell, Bob Dole, Faux News, Exxon/Mobil, BP, Raygun, Nixon, and James K Polk have committed either, but that doesn't prevent me from accusing them of things when I think something sounds fishy. It doesn't seem to stop most other DUers either.

[boppers]

31. "that doesn't prevent me from accusing them of things"

Maybe it should. It couldn't hurt your credibility to have facts, rather than unfounded accusations.

[hughee99]

32. You're right.

We all need to stop accusing * of things we can't PROVE he did. Eh, nevermind.

[boppers]

33. It's called "being honest".

Some people still believe in it.

[U4ikLefty]

35. No it's called "being gullible"

like your "safe" GMO Salmon default.

[Ikonoklast]

7. Proof or gtfo.

Did you even read the article?

Or is making unfounded accusations a hobby of yours?

[somone]

2. No other ruling was possible

in Chicago

[struggle4progress]

6. is it your theory that everyone who enters temporarily into federal service should

lose their state and municipal residencies?

obama should no longer be regarded as an illinois resident?
senators and representatives should become residents of DC after a year or two?
military personnel should no longer be residents of their original states and municipalities?

i really don't see what's peculiar to chicago here

[me b zola]

4. Sorry Chicago

...but at least he's out of the White House.

[mommalegga]

8. Shocked I tell you! Shocked! NT

[uberblonde]

11. Gee....

The suspense was killing me!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

16. I agree with the board but was hoping they'd find against Rahm.

There's never a corrupt commission around when you need one.

[frazzled]

24. Whatever you may think of Emanuel ...

This residency thing was never a serious charge. There is really little question that someone who paid his property taxes for two years here while he was serving at the call of the POTUS, didn't sell his house but rather rented it, voted as an Illinois resident, using his home address, by absentee ballot, and left his wife's wedding dress and childrens' coming-home-from-hospital clothes in the basement of the house ... was still a resident, as technically defined.

Having had to file part-year resident tax returns several times myself, trying to decide which of the two states in which we lived during the year was the proper designation, I don't think the tax thing means squat.

If you listened to the hearings, you would have seen what a hapless charade this was: it wasn't even serious. The inquisitors were largely nutters (and I don't say that lightly).

I lived through the challenges to Mitt Romney's residence qualifications to run for governor of Massachusetts, which were much more solid than this (he'd been living in Utah for quite a few years, using his homestead exemption on his Utah house, not his many others, in MA, NH, etc.). But that one didn't hold up either.

Finally, stop and think who the other candidates are: a vile homophobic Baptist preacher, an unfortunately ethically tainted former senator, a beloved but not swift current Congressman (who put the crown on the head of the Reverend Moon in a ceremony) ... and two decent sounding Latino candidates about whom I don't know much, but they at least seem smart and not crazy.

Chances are Rahm Emanuel will be the next Mayor. And after 50 years of Daleys, how much worse could that be?

[Karenina]

30. Kann schlimmer sein...

Heads up! Can you spell p-u-b-l-i-c o-p-t-i-o-n? How soon they forget. :-(

[Lord Magus]

38. I'm not sure what that has to do with the post you're replying to.

The fact is that the residency challenge was frivolous.

[unkachuck]

34. whoopee, oh joy, rapture!!

....rahmbone gets to run!!

"...hearing officer Joseph Morris , a Republican attorney in private practice in Chicago, wrote in his 35-page ruling."

....Republican?