Illinois SC allows Rahm Emanuel to run for Chicago’s Mayor post

WASHINGTON - The Illinois supreme court has finally allowed President Barack Obama’s former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to run for the Mayor’s post in Chicago, overturning a lower court’s decision.

Earlier, an appellate court in Illinois had disqualified Emanuel saying that the former White House Chief of staff was not a resident of the city.

However, Emanuel argued that he had lived for nearly two years in Washington working for Obama until he moved back to Chicago, adding that since he had always intended to return to the city following his service to the President, he had maintained residency, the BBC reports.

Emanuel was reportedly born in Chicago, bought a house in the city in 1998, and lived there till 2009 while representing the area in the US Congress. In January 2009 he moved to Washington DC to work for Barack Obama, leaving his family back in Chicago.

In June 2009, his wife and children joined him in Washington, and Emanuels then rented out the Chicago house.

“The board determined that, in this situation, the rental did not show abandonment of the residence. This conclusion was well supported by the evidence and was not clearly erroneous,” the court wrote.

The three other main candidates to replace Chicago Mayor Richard M Daley are former Senator Carol Moseley Braun, former schools President Gery Chico and City Clerk Miguel del Valle. Daley is retiring after more than two decades in office.

Since announcing his bid for mayor in November last year, the former Illinois congressman has been heavily favoured to win ahead of the February 22 vote.

Emanuel has been seriously campaigning for the election of late by deploying thousands of volunteers to approach voters across the city directly, and running television ads during the Bears-Packers NFC Championship game on Sunday.

However, critics had opposed his candidature by calling him an outsider’ who had rented out his house in the city while serving in the White House. (ANI)