I have found the legal wrangling around the Chicago Mayoral race to be very interesting. If you haven’t been watching the issue is whether Rob Emmanuel, President Obama’s former Chief of Staff still has residency in Chicago so he can run for mayor. The question has come before the local election commission (in favor), a lower court (in favor), a higher court (not in favor) and now finally rests with the Illinois Supreme Court.
You can get caught up to speed at the following link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/us/politics/26rahm.html?_r=1&hp
Now to me the real issue underlying all of this is whether or not working for the President of the United States is just another job, or national service? The other questions are easy, if you moved to Virginia to work for IBM for two years than you are not a resident of Illinois anymore. However I doubt anyone would deny residency to a soldier from Chicago who has been in Iraq or Afghanistan for the last two years. Assuming in all of these cases the basics are the same, address listed as Chicago, home ownership in the city, etc…
The distinction between the two easy cases is simple, if you left the state purely to pursue your own financial and/or career interests you should lose the benefit of residency. However, if, as the soldier did, you left the state in service of your country, you should not be penalized. So the real question is, do the courts of Illinois, on behalf of the people of Illinois, see that working for the President of the United States, be it Obama, Clinton, Reagan or a Bush as service to the United States or just another job? What do you think, I’d love to hear.
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