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UM ping!

Cannot verify the slant of UM’s story, but Odelson is challenging Rahm’s residency.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=230529

“If I didn’t think I was going to win, I wouldn’t file the challenge,” Chicago-based attorney Burt Odelson told WND, explaining the challenge he is preparing to file next week with the Board of Election Commissioners for the City of Chicago.

http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=169748

One prominent election law expert, attorney Burt Odelson, who has ties with House Speaker Michael Madigan and two potential Emanuel rivals in the mayor’s race, state Sen. James Meeks and Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, said Wednesday that the law clearly prohibits Emanuel from running for mayor.

Odelson noted that a section of the statute in the Illinois election code allows individuals who are in service to the U.S. to keep their residency status, but only for voting purposes.

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BACKGROUND:

(no link)

Electoral eagle-eye Candidates, and their foes, look to election law expert
Herald News, The (Joliet, IL) - Sunday, August 29, 2004
Author: Stewart Warren
On a damp August morning a few weeks ago, Burt Odelson left for Ottawa.

He wanted to get there early. He had a case to argue at the 3rd District Appellate Court.

(snip)

Odelson was going to the appellate court to represent Brian Buchanan, the Joliet plumber who spent the summer of 2004 trying to derail Jim Glasgow’s Democratic candidacy for Will County state’s attorney.

It wasn’t going well. The Will County Electoral Board and Judge Herman Haase already had ruled in Glasgow’s favor. This was the last chance.

Buchanan had come out of nowhere. He didn’t seem to be involved in local politics at all. But somehow he hired Odelson , northern Illinois’ election law expert.

He’s done most of his work in Cook County, but Odelson recently rented office space on Chicago Street in Joliet from Steve Haney, Will County State’s Attorney Jeff Tomczak’s former law partner.

Running for office and want to make sure all your necessary paperwork and petitions are in good order? Call Odelson . He’ll take care of it for about $500. Odelson did Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s petitions.

(snip)

Flew to Florida

Want another shot at winning an election? Call Odelson . Maybe he can find a way to get a recount. That’s what Cook County Judge Paula Daleo did when she lost the March primary by a mere 36 votes.

That kind of work will cost you a little more, of course. To turn Daleo’s loss around, Odelson took the case to court. They began a recount of the vote, examining each ballot to see if it was legal or not. They went ballot by ballot by ballot, a time- consuming and expensive process. Eventually, Daleo’s opponent gave up.

“We wound up winning by four,” Odelson said, sounding cheerful.

In 2000, President George W. Bush’s campaign hired Odelson as a consultant. Florida tried to sort out its election. Odelson flew to Palm Beach on Thanksgiving Day. He soon was knee-deep in chads, the little pieces of paper that get punched out of a ballot when a vote is cast.

(snip)

He went there because of his work in Penny Pullen vs. Rosemary Mulligan. In 1990, he represented now-state Rep. Rosemary Mulligan, R-Des Plaines, when her election victory was challenged. Pullen had lost by 31 votes. The case went to the Illinois Supreme Court, and the justices ordered a recount. Ultimately, the ruling said “dimpled chads” shouldn’t always be counted.

That was the ammunition the Bush campaign needed at the time. Odelson explained the ruling to judges in Palm Beach County who were doing a recount. They began to follow the same guideline.

“I brought the transcripts from Pullen vs. Mulligan. The judge read the transcripts, and he was convinced he was counting the ballots the wrong way,” Odelson said.

This year, he’s on the other side: Odelson did some work for the Illinois delegates for Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic candidate for president.

Odelson & Sterk also represents a long list of municipal clients, including Cicero, Calumet City, Robbins, Palos Township, Calumet Park and various school districts, park boards and labor unions. The list of municipal clients is so long that Odelson can’t quickly name them all. He yells to Pam Smith, his secretary, asking her how many there are. Turns out the list takes up more than two pages.

Lawyer’s background

Like a lot of lawyers, Odelson is a storyteller. And he’s got a lot of good ones. He grew up in Chicago at 81st and Pulaski. His father was a tobacco salesman. He attended Bogan High School and the University of Illinois at Chicago. He didn’t earn an undergraduate degree, completing instead a six-year program that included law school.

He’ll tell you about being an ABC page at the 1968 Democratic Convention. He spent the stint escorting Gore Vidal and Paul Newman around Chicago.

Back then, he wanted to change the world.

“I was very liberal and very hippyish. And the best way, I thought, to do it was to be an attorney.”

He’ll tell you about how he started doing election law cases.

Tom Powell, his orthodontist and a neighbor, ran for mayor in Oak Lawn and won by four votes. Three and a half months later, he was removed in a recount. Odelson , his young campaign manager and a newly minted lawyer, handled the recount for Powell. He agreed to a partial recount, and it didn’t go well.

“I lost my first case,” he says. “I felt horrible, but I swore I wouldn’t lose anymore.”

To the point

It’s funny: Although he doesn’t exactly ooze lawyerly sophistication, Odelson is a very sophisticated lawyer. He isn’t a stiff, starched kind of guy. He wears his hair a little long, and he favors a part that’s just slightly off center. He’s well-dressed but has a sort of rumpled, off-beat air. He wears a Mickey Mouse watch.

“I wore it before the United States Supreme Court. It’s well-traveled,” he said.

(snip) ... And it’s hard to tell if he’s a Republican or a Democrat.

(snip)

(Thanks for the ping, tutstar and STARWISE)