Illinois Supreme Court rejects challenge to his residency
January 28, 2011 By Jeff Coen, Bob Secter and David Kidwell, Tribune reporters
The ballot roller coaster for Rahm Emanuel finally stopped Thursday with the former White House chief of staff very much in the race for mayor and the Illinois Supreme Court emphatically rejecting a contentious challenge to his Chicago residency.
Within minutes of the high court ruling, Emanuel was back shaking hands with voters, taking a congratulatory call from his old boss, President Barack Obama, and working to recapture an aura of invincibility he had worked hard to project until an Appellate Court ruling threatened to boot him from the Feb. 22 contest.
The debate over whether Emanuel was qualified to run began the moment he resigned his Washington post and returned to Chicago in September, only to find the tenant in his Lakeview house was unwilling to let him move back in. It ended in a flurry of legal activity this week that rendered the episode all but meaningless.