Emanuel keeping his options open
5TH DISTRICT | Retains $1.7M war chest for possible return to House, speaker bid
WASHINGTON -- White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is retaining his $1.76 million political war chest, I've been told, with Emanuel keeping his options open for a return to an elected position.
"The account will obviously remain dormant during the time that former Congressman Emanuel is serving as President Obama's chief of staff," Emanuel spokesman Sarah Feinberg told me. "No decisions have been made about what will be done with the account or the funds in the account in the future."
(AP)
Emanuel gave up his House seat to join the Obama administration. The primary to fill the 5th Congressional District vacancy is March 3, and a back story to the contest is whether Emanuel may return in a few years to reclaim the seat.
Emanuel had been on track to be speaker of the House when Obama asked him to be his chief of staff. Although the U.S. Constitution does not require the speaker to be an elected House member, every speaker in the nation's history has been a member.
Emanuel, one of the nation's top political fund-raisers, for himself and others, had $1,766,410.08 on hand in his main political fund, according to a report "Friends of Rahm Emanuel" filed Jan. 31 with the Federal Election Commission. Emanuel lent his committee $463,562.94 and could at some point be repaid from the funds.
Emanuel also has $13,574 in his "Our Common Values" political action committee. Feinberg told me that PAC is in the process of shutting down and the April quarterly report is likely to be the last one filed.
On Feb. 1, I moderated a 5th Congressional District Democratic candidate forum at DePaul University in Lincoln Park and asked if any of the contenders had discussed with Emanuel being a placeholder for him.
State Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago) said he spoke with Emanuel a few months ago when he was deciding whether to run for Emanuel's seat.
"He had commented to me that he may be interested in running one day again for the seat," Fritchey said.
Meanwhile, Emanuel's brother, Ezekiel J. Emanuel, chairman of the department of bioethics at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health and a breast oncologist, is now advising the Obama White House on health care reform.
Dr. Emanuel, who lived in West Rogers Park until August, is a special adviser to the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget for Health Policy. He is considered "detailed" to the spot and is still officially an employee of the NIH.
Dr. Emanuel told me he is working on the "health care reform effort."