Marathon Pundit: Appeals court kicks Rahm off ballot

Wow...I didn't see this one coming. An Illinois appeals court has ordered Rahm Emanuel's name off of the Chicago mayoral ballot, ruling that he does not meet the residency requirement as a candidate.

The ruling will of course be appealed.

The first round of voting occurs in four weeks. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, the top vote-getting candidates meet again in an April runoff.

But as I've said before, for those Chicago readers who don't want Rahm Emanuel to be your next mayor, the guaranteed way to do prevent it to make sure someone else gets more votes. You don't need to go to law school to figure that out. In the most recent poll on this race, the Chicago Tribune finds that 44 percent support Emanuel. Carol Moseley Braun is a distant second with 21 percent.

Emanuel has dominated the fundraising for this race.

Gery Chico, one of Emanuel's opponents in the race, issued the following statement:

From day one, Gery Chico's campaign has been about putting Chicagoans back to work, making our neighborhoods safer and giving our children the education they deserve.

Today's news is a surprise but it will not impact how we run our campaign. Gery will continue to work for every vote and lay out his plans to take Chicago in a whole new direction.