Rahm's Renters Moving Out Of Mayor's Home
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The renters of Rahm Emanuel's home are moving out, clearing the way for the mayor and his family to move back into their Northwest Side residence.
Movers were loading belongings of Rob Halpin and his family outside the home on Thursday morning. Halpin for a brief time was a candidate for mayor against Emanuel.
Halpin last year refused to end his lease early after Emanuel announced he was returning to Chicago to run for mayor.
Halpin stood outside the home--and talked at length about politics and the city but refused to go on the record.
The next-door-neighbor, Thomas Pauly, tells Newsradio 780 he will be glad to see the owners move back in.
"Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, will be living right next door. Looking forward to it," he said.
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Pauly was asked about having the Halpins as neighbors.
"They were nice people," he said. "I mean, I didn't enjoy him smoking his cigar every day. We'd be sitting out on the porch and you'd smell the smelly cigar. But what are you gonna do?"
Emanuel was renting out his home while serving at President Obama's White House Chief of Staff after Obama was elected in 2008.
After Emanuel announced his plans to run for mayor, opponents challenged his residency, saying he was ineligible to run for mayor after renting his home and moving his family to Washington to work for Obama. The Illinois Supreme Court cleared the way for Emanuel's candidacy and he easily won election in February.
