State Rep. Connie Johnson does not meet the residency requirements to run for Senate in the 5th District and should be removed from the ballot, a judge has ruled.
Judge Douglas Long’s ruling chided Johnnson for attempting “at the eleventh hour, to cloud the strong documentary record that she has not been a resident of the 5th Senatorial District” for the mandatory year prior to the November election.
As reported in the Post-Dispatch, court documents and other records suggest that Johnson has been staying with her mother at a home in the city’s West End - which is both outside the House District she represents, and the State Senate she is seeking to represent.
One of Johnson’s two rivals from within the party - State Rep. Robin Wright-Jones - filed a lawsuit challenging her residency status.
In siding with Wright-Jones, Long cited a litany of evidence, presented at an all-day hearing Friday, that Johnson moved from a home on Tara Lane, in the city’s North Point neighborhood, to a house on Maple Avenue, across district boundaries.
The evidence included:
- A change of address form from the post office
- Employment records showing the Maple Avenue address
- Testimony from a tenant that rented Johnson’s Tara Lane home. The tenant, a city firefighter, contradicted Johnson’s claim that she remained in the house as a room mate.
- A campaign contribution from Johnson to Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed listing her address on Maple Avenue.
- Testimony from city election officials who visited the Tara Lane home and found a slow-moving electric meter outside
The decision is interesting for all sorts of reasons, including its impact on the dynamics of the Senate race — Wright-Jones will now take on Rodney Hubbard one-on-one for the seat.
We’ll post more info as it becomes available … And, of course, a full story in Thursday’s ink edition.
Johnson