CHICAGO — Illinois’ highest court agreed Tuesday to take Rahm Emanuel’s appeal of a decision that threw him off the ballot for Chicago mayor and ordered election officials not to print any mayoral ballots without his name.
State Supreme Court justices agreed to expedite the case, but they gave no specific time frame. They planned to review legal briefs only and would not hold oral arguments.
Emanuel has asked the court to overturn a lower court’s ruling that pulled his name off the ballot because he had not lived in the city for a full year. His attorneys called Monday’s decision “squarely inconsistent” with previous rulings on the issue.
Absentee ballots
The moves by the high court bought valuable time for Emanuel. The Chicago Board of Elections had said it would begin printing ballots without his name as early as Tuesday, with the election less than a month away.
Absentee ballots were to be sent out within days.
“I’m confident in the argument we’re making about the fact that I never lost my residency,” Emanuel said Tuesday at a campaign stop.
In their appeal, Emanuel’s attorneys called Monday’s ruling “one of the most far-reaching election-law rulings” ever issued in Illinois, not only because of its effect on the mayoral race but for “the unprecedented restriction” it puts on future candidates.
His lawyers raise several points, including that the appeals court applied a stricter definition of “residency” than the one used for voters.
They say Illinois courts have never required candidates to be physically present in the state to seek office there.
Resembled actual race
Emanuel, a former congressman who represented Chicago, was gone while he served as President Barack Obama’s chief of staff for nearly two years.
Just hours after Monday’s ruling, the campaign to replace retiring Mayor Richard Daley began to look like an actual race.
For months, three of the main candidates struggled for attention while Emanuel outpolled and outraised them, blanketed the airwaves with television ads and gained the endorsement of former President Bill Clinton, who came to town to campaign for Emanuel.
Former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, City Clerk Miguel del Valle and former Chicago schools chief Gery Chico suddenly found themselves in the spotlight and trying to win over Emanuel supporters.
