Rahm Emanuel's tenant said Tuesday he'll consider filing a lawsuit if the former White House Chief of Staff beats an ongoing residency challenge and ultimately wins the election.
"Maybe I will file a lawsuit that I should be the mayor, because he’s running from this property as the resident, so I would say he was an imposter and I was the real resident," Rob Halpin said outside the Northwest Side home he's rented since September 2009.
Ultimately, he doesn't think a lawsuit would be necessary, remaining confident that the Supreme Court will go back to the "letter of the law" and affirm Monday's appellate court decision.
"If the Illinois Supreme Court fails to do that, then we have far-reaching issues in the state," he said.
The court said earlier in the day it would take up the case, sans oral arguments, and using the same briefs that were heard by the appellate court.
Halpin, who was also briefly in the race for mayor, said the first call he took from the Emanuel camp after word broke that Mayor Richard Daley wasn't going to seek a seventh term was a call asking asking if the homeowner could live in the basement.
"If I had accepted their offer to put a cot in the basement... we might have avoided this whole thing, but I just didn't see myself sharing a bathroom with Rahm Emanuel. I mean, I don't even know the man," said Halpin.
He said his lease on the home ends at the end of June, "unless [Emanuel] moves to evict us."
