While President Obama's eligibility to be president as a "natural born" citizen under Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution is increasingly being questioned by millions of Americans, former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is not eligible to run for mayor of Chicago, contends a top elections law lawyer in the Windy City.

"Elections law clearly specifies that a candidate for mayor in Chicago must have been a resident of Illinois for at least a year before running for election," attorney Burt Odelson told WND. "Emanuel is a resident of Washington, D.C., where he lives with his wife and family, not Chicago."

Odelson, a Chicago-based attorney who has been practicing municipal and elections law for 38 years, cited Illinois law regarding the qualifications for elective office, 65 ILCS 5/3.1-10-5(a), which states, "A person is not eligible for an elective municipal office unless that person is a qualified elector of the municipality and has resided in the municipality at least one year next preceding the election or appointment."

Odelson argued Obama is more qualified to run for mayor in Chicago than Emanuel.

"President Obama has a residence in Chicago," he pointed out. "Obama has not rented out his Chicago residence and he visits it regularly."

"This is a fact-sensitive determination," he stressed, "and as far as I know, Emanuel has rented his residence in Illinois since September 2009. He may be a property owner, but he is not a resident within the applicable definition of the Illinois code."

Odelson stressed that a person may own one or more homes, but for legal purposes, a person can only have one official domicile under the law.

"Rahm Emanuel lives in the District of Columbia, not Chicago," he said. "The legal question of his eligibility to run for mayor of Chicago is as simple as that. Rahm Emanuel is noteligible."

He argued the case would be an easy one for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners to decide, largely because Emanuel has not attempted the usual dodges to the one-year residency requirement.

"He hasn't rented a place in Chicago that he can claim is his residence," Odelson noted. "He isn't attempting to say he's living in his mother's basement or with friends in Chicago. This is not a hard case."

Odelson speculated Emanuel might try to qualify under a provision in the Illinois code that was passed in 1943 to permit Illinois residents who were in military service during World War II from losing their status as Illinois residents while they were stationed overseas.

"Emanuel was not in Washington as a member of the military," Odelson objected.

Even if Emanuel used an absentee ballot to vote in an Illinois election such as the primary, the legitimacy of his vote could be called into question. That vote alone, even if somehow he was permitted to cast it, would not establish his residency to run for mayor, Odelson said.

Emanuel must register with the Chicago elections commission to run for mayor between Nov. 15 and Nov. 22.

Any Illinois registered voter can file an objection to Emanuel's eligibility with the Chicago elections commission between Nov. 15 and Nov. 30.

"If Emanuel files to run for mayor and there is a voter objection, Emanuel will lose," Odelson insisted confidently. "Most likely the three-member Chicago Board of Elections would decide the objection to disqualify Emanuel, but if not, the case would be decided against him at the appellate level or at the level of the Illinois Supreme Court."

Although he represents both Democrats and Republicans in Illinois politics, Odelson was selected by then-Gov. George W. Bush's presidential election campaign to represent the Republican side in the Florida voter recount during the 2000 presidential election.

Odelson was qualified for the assignment by the role he played in 1990 case Pullen v. Mulligan, 561 N.E.2d 585, which first defined the term "chad" as the paper residue that can result from an incompletely punched voter form.

www.wnd.com/

Oct. 5, 2010