A note on the person making the residency decision for Rahm Emanuel in Chicago's Mayorial race

John Fund has this in the WSJ Political Diary. The most interesting point that I had missed was that the hearing officer is a conservative Republican. Fund might also have mentioned that Emanuel only amended his return after Daley announced that he wasn't running for re-election.

. . . Mr. [Rahm] Emanuel is being challenged by citizens who say his candidacy runs afoul of a law requiring the mayor to have been a resident of the city for a year prior to winning election. Mr. Emanuel, who has lived in Washington, D.C., for the past two years while working at the White House, claims the law doesn't apply because he always intended to resettle in Chicago and left some boxes stored in the Chicago home that he rented out when he moved away.

At a raucous hearing last week, Mr. Emanuel was confronted with his 2009 Illinois state income tax return, on which he listed his residency status as "part-time." He said that he had made a mistake and amended the return, even though he had read and signed the original document.

The initial decision on whether Mr. Emanuel is eligible for the ballot will be made by hearing officer Joe Morris, a distinguished Chicago attorney and staunch conservative. Mr. Morris has been praised by all sides for his fairness during the hearing. He said that both sides should trust him because "a Republican has no dog in the fight." . . .