Daley Says Emanuel Should Stay On Ballot
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mayor Richard M. Daley said Saturday that he doesn't think Rahm Emanuel should be kept off the ballot for the next mayor of Chicago just because he left the city to serve the Obama administration.
Emanuel stepped down as Obama's chief of staff last month to return to Chicago and make a bid to be Daley's successor after Daley's surprise announcement that he would not seek a seventh term in office.
But a prominent election law attorney, Burt Odelson, has said that he plans to challenge Emanuel's qualification to run. He has argued that Emanuel should not be allowed to run because he has not lived in Chicago for at least a year before the February election.
But Daley said that people who go to Washington, D.C., to work for the federal government do not lose their right to vote in their hometown and shouldn't lose the right to run for office there either.
"People have left cities all over America to work in federal government for two years or four years, by the president, and they're asked to do that. And many of them make sacrifices," Daley said at an unrelated event on Saturday. "It is something that's been going on legally forever. So, there's no question. When people go to Washington, D.C., for two years or four years on behalf of the president, that's an accepted fact (that they do not lose their residency in their hometown)."
If that was not the case, the mayor said that "all those people who worked before, then, have violated federal law by voting, I guess. I mean, you talk about thousands and thousands of people under this administration, the Bush administration, the Clinton administration, the Bush administration, the Reagan administration, the Carter administration, going back at the beginning of time."
"Many people who work, even for congressmen, on their staff, leave Chicago and go down there, but they still always keep their residency," Daley added. "President Obama and Michele live in Washington, D.C., as you know, but really they're residents of Chicago."
The decision about whether or not Emanuel can stay on the ballot will likely come down to the question of whether or not he intended to keep his residency.
He had rented out the home he owns on Chicago's North Side and called the tenants to ask them to move out early so he could move back in, but they refused. He since has rented a new place on Milwaukee Avenue.
Daley said he does not think the issue will distract voters from issues about the city's future.
"I think the people realize the future of the city. I think the media underestimates what people understand about this city and underestimate the voters all the time, continually," Daley said.
The mayor also declined to say if the candidates should hold debates during the campaign. Daley repeatedly declined to debate lesser-known challengers during his bids for re-election and repeatedly won by wide margins.
"I am very confident in the people of the city of Chicago. They will make a decision who they firmly believe will lead this city in the best way possible," Daley said.
--Todd Feurer, CBS Chicago Web Producer
