AS former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel prepares to run for mayor of Chicago, a problem tenant is giving him more than he bargained for.
Rob Halpin has not only refused to move out of the house he rents from Mr Emanuel on Chicago’s north side, he has now declared he will probably be a candidate for mayor as well.
Mr Halpin, a cigar-smoking Chicago construction entrepreneur, yesterday said local businessmen had approached him to contest the February mayoral election.
“I told them if they’re serious they would have to work hard and get the paperwork together,” Mr Halpin said. If required petitions were ready on time, he confirmed, “I will probably run.” It is not news Mr Emanuel would want to hear. He faces an open contest, with 35 per cent of voters undecided.
After campaigning unofficially since leaving the White House last month, he is expected to announce his candidacy for Chicago mayor over the weekend.
Mr Emanuel quit as a senior Democratic Party congressman from Chicago to become Barack Obama’s chief of staff after the 2008 presidential election. He suddenly had a serious choice to make in September when the city’s longest-serving mayor, Richard Daley, said he would not seek re-election.
Mr Daley’s decision was a surprise to many, including Mr Emanuel, who had made no secret of his desire for the job if it became available. The decision was so much of a surprise that Washington-based Mr Emanuel had agreed only a few days earlier to a new year-long lease, renting his Chicago house to Mr Halpin for $US5000 ($5030) a month.
Some election lawyers have already claimed Mr Emanuel is ineligible to run for Chicago mayor because he has not lived in his house for more than 12 months. Now, Mr Halpin has presented another difficulty. Like all candidates, Mr Halpin has until November 22 to collect 12,500 signatures to make him eligible to stand.
The Chicago Tribune reported yesterday that Mr Halpin’s backers were local Republican Party figures who disliked Mr Emanuel and could view their candidate as a symbolic alternative to the senior Democrat. Mr Halpin said he had never met Mr Emanuel and had “virtually no dealings” with him, despite renting his house.
He said his candidacy had nothing to do with Mr Emanuel and it was a coincidence that he was renting the house.
On the campaign trail yesterday, Mr Emanuel had a near-miss when a protester threw an egg at him. “OK, don’t worry about it,” he said, after watching the egg’s trajectory. It landed on a cameraman behind him.
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