Rahm Emanuel’s mayoral aspirations are still alive after a Tuesday Illinois Supreme Court decision allowed the former White House Chief of Staff to stay on the election ballots and to hear his appeal case for an expedited ruling.
In a victory for Emanuel’s lawyers, the court ordered the Chicago Board of Elections to stop printing ballots without Emanuel’s name on them. The board began printing Tuesday and has already printed 300,000 ballots without the Northwestern alumnus listed as a candidate.
“The Board of Elections is directed that if any ballots are printed while this court is considering this case, the ballots should include the name of petitioner Rahm Emanuel as a candidate for the Mayor of the City of Chicago,” the court order stated.
The court announced a few hours later that it will hear Emanuel’s case. Out of expediency, the court will not hear any new oral arguments or take any new briefs. Instead, it will base its decision on briefs filed by an appellate court that ruled Monday that Emanuel is ineligible to run.
The appellate court thwarted Emanuel’s hope to replace retiring Chicago Mayor Richard Daley when it ruled that Emanuel does not meet the residency requirement for candidacy. Two of the three appellate court judges ruled Emanuel did not “reside in” Chicago for at least one year before the election and therefore is ineligible to run.
The appellate court ruling overturned decisions of the Chicago Board of Elections and a Cook County judge, each of which ruled that Emanuel retained his Chicago residency while he was in Washington, D.C., to serve as President Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff.
Emanuel’s lawyers filed for an appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court on Tuesday morning after the dissenting vote by an appellate court judge made it possible for Emanuel to contest the decision. His lawyers outlined six points in their appeal to contest the appellate court’s ruling.
“The position that we have taken is that working for President Obama does not mean that I gave up my residency,” Emanuel told reporters in a news conference Tuesday morning.
He said Monday he was optimistic he will stay in the running.
The high court did not indicate when it plans to make its decision on the matter, despite the fact that early voting begins Monday. Chairman Langdon Neal of the Chicago Board of Elections said early voting will still continue as planned.
“We’ll make (the election) happen, pretty much under any circumstances,” Neal said to reporters Tuesday.
But he said he encourages voters to postpone early voting until the debate is settled. Voters can vote early until Feb. 17.
“There are no do-overs,” he said. “Once you vote, that’s it.”
