Pine Lawn mayor: Not in Argentina, but maybe not in Pine Lawn
Caldwell
While the national media tries to figure out why the governor of South Carolina — a prominent Republican whispered as a 2012 contender — took a mystery holiday to South America, Post-Dispatch reporter Paul Hampel has the story of a local pol whose whereabouts are also in question.
Specifically, the question is just where Pine Lawn Mayor Sylvester Caldwell lays his head at night. Hampel talked to neighbors of the mayor’s nominal home in Pine Lawn who say they don’t see him much, if at all.
Hampel did find some Caldwell kin at a second home he owns a dozen miles away on Avacado Lane in north St. Louis County.
Pine Lawn’s city attorney, Donnell Smith, offered this explanation:
Where you sleep does not determine your residency. Personally, I don’t know where (Caldwell) sleeps. I suspect he sleeps in Pine Lawn. .. But if he sleeps someplace else, that does not make him a resident of that address. You see, he has no control of where his family takes residence at, only where he takes residency.
Huh.
Smith — who himself briefly was a candidate for mayor of St. Louis several years ago — is correct in that residency laws are complicated.
State law defines residence as a “person’s true, fixed, principal, and permanent home, to which a person intends to return and remain, even though currently residing elsewhere.”
That’s why Kit Bond was able to start his political career in his native Missouri after returning from a clerkship in Atlanta and practicing law in Washington.
However, that does not give license to politicians to live where they chose without giving up office. Just ask former Missouri State Rep. Connie Johnson — she was tossed off the State Senate ballot last year after moving in her with mother across district boundaries.
Caldwell has already survived one legal challenge to his residency. Voters don’t seem to mind either — Caldwell was re-elected with 56 percent of the vote in April.
Bond also registered as a voter in Georgia in 1964, and ran for state office in Missouri within 10 years of that date (which was ruled a non-violation of the constitution)
But perhaps merging Pinelawn with some of the cities/villages makes it easier for the mayor of that city to live there.
Well, obviously after this was published we found out about the affair and so on and so forth.
Here’s a question, though - why is no one talking about Robin Carnahan’s really dirty marriage issues?
She’s married to a South American immigrant, who came to this country and married somebody else first, just as a way to throw down anchor and stay in this country. He then began “seeing” Carnahan, and divorced his wife on Valentines Day. On freeking Valentines Day.
Gee, thanks Robin - nice of you to destroy somebody elses marriage by hooking up with a guy who was just using a woman to get into the country. Real noble of you.
If Carnahan was a Republican, we’d have Fired Up! and the like falling all over themselves about that shady series of events. But noooooo, its only fun to attack certain people - certain anointed princesses should not be bothered.
If Caldwell doesn’t live in Pine Lawn this joker should do the right thing and step down. If there’s been no water use for and extended period of time at this residence there is no one living there. We don’t need any other proof.