Progress Illinois

The Tribune is reporting that Rep. Rahm Emanuel will resign from his seat this Friday, January 2.  Under state law, the governor must schedule a special election for the seat to be held within 115 days of that date.

Read Emanuel's letter to Rod Blagojevich below (hit the button in the upper right corner to expand to full screen):

When rumors surfaced in mid-November that Rahm Emanuel was hoping to find a placeholder to sit on his House seat until he finished up a stint as White House chief of staff, it left a lot of folks -- including myself -- scratching their head.  The idea that Emanuel would attempt to pull off such a maneuver amid all the intense media scrutiny on Illinois seemed a bit far-fetched.  But according to an article by the Sun-Times Fran Spielman today, he appears to have been doing just that:

Ald. Pat O'Connor (40th), Mayor Daley's unofficial City Council floor leader, had hoped to emerge from the crowded field of candidates in the 5th Congressional District by winning Daley's support and by persuading Emanuel to use his formidable powers of persuasion to clear the field. [...]

He was believed to be leaning toward O'Connor, in part, because the alderman might be amenable to giving up the seat at some point. [...]

At least until the Blagojevich story broke:

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The list of Democrats rumored to be considering bids to fill Rahm Emanuel's 5th District seat has now grown well past a dozen.  Today, Crain's Greg Hinz dropped this monkey wrench into the process:

Meanwhile, there’s an intriguing wrinkle in the race for Mr. Emanuel’s seat: talk that he really only wants to serve as chief of staff for two years, and wants a mere seat-warmer who would give the job back when Rahm so requests. 

Mr. Emanuel’s spokeswoman terms that talk “false and ridiculous.” But at least one source, who claims to have discussed the possibility with Rahmbo personally, says he really was reluctant to give up the seat and really would like to keep his options open to reclaim it down the road. 

If that talk is true, look for municipal finance banker John Borovicka, Mr. Emanuel’s chief of staff, to run for the House and for Mr. Emanuel to cut lots of Chicago-style deals to get it for him.  

Since he accepted the job as incoming White House chief of staff, Rahm's potential role in the special election process has been a big question mark.  I'd been wondering whether he'd ultimately endorse someone or work behind the scenes to make sure his favored candidate got the seat.  But Hinz's scooplet creates a whole new level of intrigue.

Thanks to a poorly researched "suggestion" by the conservative Illinois Review blog that congressman and soon-to-be White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel doesn't pay property taxes on his home, this rumor is now circling the internet and apparently even came up on an XM radio show this morning.  So, in the hopes of attracting some of the Google searches resulting from this little monster, here are the facts.

Actually, there's really just one fact: Emanuel does pay his property taxes.  Courtesy of Capitol Fax -- which quickly debunked the Illinois Review post yesterday -- here's a copy of Emanuel's tax bill from last year (click for larger version):

And that's that.  For more on how Illinois Review has handled this matter, check out my post from yesterday, as well as Archpundit and Illinois Reason's thoughts on the topic.

UPDATE: By the way, IR deleted the Emanuel-related posts this morning, decrying the "the thuggery of the Left and their political masters here in Illinois ... whose propaganda machines never allow facts to get in the way of their lies."

After some back-and-forth yesterday, MSNBC is now reporting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed that Rep. Rahm Emanuel notified her that he's accepted the position as Barack Obama's chief of staff.

We can except a special election to fill his 5th District seat within the next 90 days or so.  Let the scrambling begin.

MSNBC is reporting that Rahm Emanuel has accepted the job of chief of staff to President Barack Obama.  I guess Howard Fineman was right that we could "take that to the bank" last night.  

Looks like we've got another vacancy to fill in the wake of this election.  Unlike the Senate seat, Emanuel's successor won't be picked by Blagojevich (who once represented the 5th District himself), but rather through a special election.  Will be fascinating to see who steps up to vie for the seat.

UPDATE: MSNBC seems to be walking this back now. From First Read: "In an email to NBC News, Emanuel spokeswoman Sarah Feinberg denies the reporting that Emanuel has accepted the chief of staff job."

On MSNBC just now, Newsweek's Howard Fineman reported that -- according to Josh Marshall's sources on Capitol Hill -- Rahm Emanuel has been offered the job of chief of staff to President Obama and he intends to accept it.  Fineman said you can "take that to the bank." 

Now there are several degrees of separation here and  Marshall himself hasn't yet written this up on Talking Points Memo, so I'm not sure I'd go that far.  But we'll see what tomorrow's reports bring.

Of course, if Emanuel does accept the position, we'll have another vacant seat to fill -- via special election, not gubernatorial appointment.  And that should be interesting.

In a press conference today recorded by Chicago Public Radio, Rep. Rahm Emanuel took a few questions regarding the presidential race and came up with a kinda clever way of describing John McCain's co-opting of Barack Obama's "change message."  Listen here:

Internal mp3

EMANUEL:  John McCain is not the change agent.  So I believe we're in a tight race.  And the real race that's going to come out is who is going to represent change from George Bush on economic policies and foreign policies.  And I think that Barack Obama represents that change and John McCain is trying to lip-sync it. [...]

But I do believe that this is: who is the authentic agent of change? And Barack Obama represents that authentic change.  He will fundamentally alter the economic polices that have benefited the few while the rest of us have paid.  And he will not lip-sync that change.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel himself discarded last month's rumor that he could potentially be tapped to fill Obama's U.S. Senate seat. Now comes fresh speculation that seems a bit more realistic. Politico's John Bresnahan says the speaker's gavel might soon be in the cards for the fourth ranking House Democrat:

But the private consensus among Democratic members, even among those who count themselves as critics, is that Emanuel is on the path to the speaker’s chair. Emanuel will have to do some fence-mending to get there, especially with some black and Hispanic Democrats he has offended over the years. But that obstacle is not seen as insurmountable for someone who, as chairman of the DCCC, gets the lion’s share of the credit for ending the GOP’s control of the House after 12 years.

What's the rationale? Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Whip James Clyburn, and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer are all over 68 years old. If Pelosi serves another four to six years as speaker -- the typical length of tenure for that position -- Hoyer and Clyburn may be too old to take over.

In steps 48-year-old Emanuel.

Pelosi, who has taken a beating from conservative critics but has been pretty effective in the post, would be a tough act to follow. We know Emanuel can fundraise. But does he have the policy chops or the executive acumen to blossom in such a position? In a few years, we might find out.

We know that Jan Schakowsky is interested (not to mention the strongest progressive on the short list). And to everyone's surprise -- even his own -- Rahm Emanuel's name recently surfaced in a Robert Novak column on the subject. Now the Sun-Times' Michael Sneed is telling us that Tammy Duckworth could be tapped to replace Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate if he is elected president:

Sneed hears rumbles that U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who is this/close to Sen. Barack Obama, and U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel are talking up Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth as Obama's replacement -- if Obama is elected president.

Duckworth, a moderate Democrat, came a hair's breadth from defeating GOP Rep. Peter Roskam in 2006. Her name has already been proposed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who would ultimately make the decision about Obama's replacement. If Sneed is right, Duckworth might have some support from the Democratic nominee as well (Durbin and Obama most likely stay in communication about such things).

Regardless, November is a long way off and we'll probably see more names ground through the rumor mill before the whole thing is done.