From Chicago Sun-Times:

Rahm Emanuel was thrown off the ballot for mayor of Chicago today by an appellate court panel, a stunning blow to the fund-raising leader in the race.

An appellate panel ruled 2-1 that Emanuel did not meet the residency standard to run for mayor.

Appellate judges Thomas Hoffman and Shelvin Louise Marie Hall ruled against Emanuel. Justice Bertina Lampkin voted in favor of keeping President Obama’s former chief of staff on the Feb. 22 ballot.

“It’s a surprise,” said Kevin Forde, the attorney who argued on Emanuel’s behalf.

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It’s Halloween, and in the Land of (Honest Abe) Lincoln a liberal judge is wearing a Republican mask and lying to voters.

Staring disaster in the face on Tuesday, Democrats are running scared. And some are even running as Republicans.

Thomas Kilbride is running to be “retained” as a State Supreme Court Justice in Illinois. He needs 60% of voters in the 3rd District, which comprises a band across the middle of Illinois from the Mississippi River to Indiana, to re-elect him.

Kilbride is a Democrat, according to Wikipedia’s State Supreme Court page for Illinois, and received $600,000 from the Democratic party in 2000 when he first ran. But Republicans and conservatives in his District will be forgiven for being confused about that, because they’ve recently been bombarded with campaign flyers indicating Kilbride is a Republican.

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As we watch Obama govern, we don’t need to look far to find where he learned Chicago-style politics. One of his professors was Alderman Edward M. Burke, boss of the Chicago City Council.

After Alderman Fred Roti was convicted on 2 RICO, 5 bribery and 4 extortion charges, the Outfit lost much of its leverage over city business. Over time, Burke stepped into the void and centralized legislative power in his own office.

As chair of the Finance Committee, Burke gained control over the purse strings, and the City of Chicago carries a big purse. The Chicago Sun-Times reported:

When city workers get hurt on the job, they usually turn to a handful of lawyers tied to City Hall. And the city often fights back by hiring lawyers with ties to Ald. Edward M. Burke, chairman of the City Council Finance Committee, which has sole authority to settle workers compensation claims against the city. Injured city workers most often turn to Frederic Krol Sr., who went to prison for five months in the 1960s for bribing a federal prosecutor and temporarily surrendered his law license. The city has paid more than $65 million to settle 3,750 workers comp cases Krol has filed since 1980, records show.

Burke had familial influence over the restructuring of Chicago’s judicial system in the wake of Operation Gambat. Here’s how.

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Everyone knows that things in Springfield, Illinois are broken. Everyone knows that the government of the State of Illinois is inefficient and corrupt. That’s all true, however, to truly understand the problems in Springfield, we must look at the structure of the legislature.

By its design, the legislature in Springfield consolidates all power in the hands of four people: Tom Cross, Christine Radogno, Mike Madigan and John Cullerton. Those are the Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate. Power is consolidated through the process by which bills see the light of day. In the Illinois legislature, there’s only one way for a bill to be heard and debated: the rules committee. Not surprisingly, each of those four folks are head of the rules committee for their side in the House and Senate. As such, the head of the two rules committees have carte blanche over what bills will and won’t see the light of day. So, if any legislator wants their bill to get a hearing in the House, Michael Madigan must approve. You can see how such a process could corrupt, and does.

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