Hearing Set For Emanuel Residency Challenges
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A hearing officer will meet with both sides in the Rahm Emanuel residency battle Monday.
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Opponents say Emanuel is not qualified to run for mayor, because he spent two years in Washington as President Barack Obama's chief of staff. State law requires anyone running for mayor to be a resident of the municipality in which he is running for a year before the election, although there are exceptions listed for national service.
The evidentiary hearing on the issue is set to commence at 9 a.m. Tuesday. A status hearing will be held at 9 a.m. Monday.
Dozens of challenges have been issued against Emanuel's candidacy. Attorney Burton Odelson, who is leading the challenges, claims military service would qualify someone to claim residency while away, but Emanuel's White House post does not.
On Friday, Chicago Board of Elections Hearing Officer Joseph Morris ruled that Emanuel's wife, Amy Rule, may be called to testify on Emanuel's whereabouts, but the subpoena might be quashed if it turns out there are no facts on which only she can provide information.
Rob Halpin, Emanuel's tenant in his Ravenswood neighborhood home, and his wife will also be called to testify on Emanuel's residency.
Meanwhile, it was revealed over the weekend that when Emanuel originally filed his 2009 Illinois tax return, he indicated he was only a "part-year resident'' of the state that year, since he had moved to Washington D.C. to serve as President Obama's chief of staff.
But after he decided to return to Chicago to run for mayor this fall -- and after several people challenged whether he was eligible to run based on the fact that he hadn't lived in the city for a full-year prior to the Feb. 2 election -- he filed an amended return, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
"The original return's statements regarding part-year residency were not accurate," Emanuel and his wife wrote in a return filed Nov. 24. "The amended returns make clear that we were full-year residents of Illinois in 2009. ... We are also full-year residents of Illinois in 2010."
But Odelson said Saturday night that the fact that Emanuel filed the "non-resident and part-year resident'' tax return shows even he acknowledged — at least initially — he wasn't a resident in the last half of 2009 or for most of 2010 before he moved back to the state recently.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
