Rahm Emanuel Back on Ballot for Chicago Mayor's Race; Ill. Supreme Court Stays Appellate Ruling
Developing: After a brief setback yesterday, when an Illinois appellate court ruled that he could not run for Chicago mayor this year because he doesn’t meet residency requirements, Rahm Emanuel is back on the ballot.
The Illinois Supreme Court today stayed the appellate court’s order yesterday that Emanuel cannot be included on the ballot and ordered city election officials not to print any ballots that exclude Emanuel, reports the New York Times.
While the state’s top court hasn’t yet ruled on the merits of an appeal (PDF) that lawyers for Emanuel filed today, which is provided by the Times, it appears that his candidacy as the apparent front-runner in the mayor’s race is back on track.
A former top aide to President Barack Obama, Emanuel has been working in Washington, D.C., in recent years, which led to the challenge of his residency. He says he always intended to remain a Chicago resident, even as he worked in the nation’s capital.
Scribd provides a copy of an order today in which the state supreme court agrees to accept Emanuel’s emergency appeal on an expedited basis and says it will rely on the appellate court briefs to decide the case.
City officials said they had begun printing ballots that didn’t include Emanuel’s name after yesterday’s appellate court ruling, but stopped the presses today after the supreme court countermanded it, reports the Chicago Tribune.
As of 2 p.m., the presses were to roll again on new ballots including Emanuel’s name.
“Things are changing very quickly here in an unprecedented fashion,” chairman Langdon Neal of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners tells the newspaper.
Additional coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Divided Appeals Court Nixes Ex-Obama Aide’s Bid to Run for Chicago Mayor; He’s Not a City Resident”
First Read (NBC News): “Ill. court issues stay; Rahm back on the ballot”
