(01-25-2011 02:29 PM)niuhuskie84 Wrote: Out of curiosity, who of the remaining 3 do you prefer?
I honestly don't know why Dart left the race. If Emanuel forced him out behind the scenes it wouldnt surprise me. On the other hand, its entirely possible Dart, like many other potential candidates, asked themselves why they would even want the job in the first place. A $600 million budget shortfall isn't exactly something people covet to manage. Not a whole lot of glory in that.
Of course it should have been dealt with sooner. But all of this was assumed to have been taken care of back in December when he was cleared by CBOE and the county.
From what I have read, it woudnt even have mattered if his wife/kids had stayed in the house and they had not rented it. The majority opinion was HE had to be physically present for the entire year leading up to the race. Does that mean if someone goes overseas for business for a month or two (or hell, takes a long vacation), that it invalidates their permanent residency? That makes absolutely no sense to me.
To put it in a perhaps offensive way, picking the preferred candidate is much like picking the tallest midget...
Anybody but Braun and Rahm. Devalle (sp) seems to have some decent ideas. Chico at least has experience running an organization.
Rahm is the candidate of the machine. Rahm is forever tainted in my eyes because of the fraud in his first campaign for house. Tomczak went to jail for having city workers on city time campaign for Rahm. Rahm sat on the board of Freddie Mac (or was it Fannie). I see Rahm as dirty, and a continuation of the corruptness that is unfortunately rooted in the city.
I would guess Dart left, and others didn't get in when they heard Rahm, funded by Ari, was coming. They didn't think they could fight against that money. I do think it is distasteful that Rahm's first fundraiser was with the hollywood elites. If Rahm gets bounced, it is his fault that there are no other decent candidates.
He also keeps talking about respecting the will of the voter and the people should decide. By extension, then, I imagine he's against requiring signatures to get on the ballot, etc. His whole argument is disingenous at best, I think. There have to be some rules governing the process.
I understand what you are saying about taking a vacation, leaving for business, etc. Maybe in those cases, one could have an argument about where the line falls. But state law says he had to reside here, and it is obvious that he didn't for two years. In fact, he filed his taxes as a "part-time resident." He amended those around the time he announced for mayor. This is a lot different than someone went on vacation, in my mind.
It will be interesting to see, if he gets on the ballot and elected, what he does with the residency requirement for cops, firemen, teachers, etc.
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Rahm Emanuel Booted From Chicago Mayoral Ballot
