ST. LOUIS — When state Rep. Connie Johnson decided to run for state Senate, she picked a cafe outside district boundaries for her kickoff party.

The question now is: Has she also been living outside the district?

Documents suggest that Johnson, a Democrat from St. Louis, has at least until recently been staying at a home in another Senate district in the city's West End. The home also is outside her current 61st House District.

The St. Louis Election Board has begun an inquiry into Johnson's status and will forward the results to state election officials.

Johnson says that she doesn't "owe anybody an explanation."

"This is about petty personal politics," Johnson, 38, said this week. "This is not about the issues facing the 5th Senatorial District."

On election documents — including papers she filed to run for Senate — Johnson lists an address in the 5900 block of Tara Lane, in the city's North Point neighborhood. That address is within the borders of her House district and her Senate contest.

However, for several months beginning last fall, Johnson rented out the Tara Lane home and stayed at another house about five miles south on the 5800 block of Maple Avenue. That home sits outside Johnson's House district as well as the Senate district.

Johnson says she was caring for her mother at the Maple Avenue home while maintaining residency in her district.

Yet public records present a muddled view of who lived in the Maple Avenue home. The deed is in Johnson's name. So is the water bill.

When Johnson's tenants at Tara Lane stopped paying rent, she sued them for payment — and, in a sworn affidavit submitted Feb. 7, listed her address as the home on Maple Avenue.

Johnson says she was using the Maple Avenue address for a corporation she formed, Sampson Holdings, which was the formal plaintiff on the rent suit. Yet incorporation papers filed with the state put the company at Tara Lane.

Johnson purchased the Maple Avenue home in October, shortly after she began renting out her Tara Lane home. Johnson says she bought the house for her mother, who has lupus, because it is more accessible and closer to better medical care.

"When the woman who pushed me into this world needs help, I'm going to do it," she said.

Johnson provided copies of letters she says she sent to the tenants explaining that she would be at the house "at the most, one day a week, mainly on the weekends, sometimes, not even then." The letters also advised that her upstairs bedroom was off limits.

One of the tenants, a city firefighter, says Johnson was never there.

"Not one night," said the tenant, William Keys, who shared the house with his fiancée.

Keys said Johnson continued to get her mail at the home.

"I just figured for some reason, her mail needed to come to the house," Johnson said. "We would collect her mail and deliver it to her address on Maple."

According to a letter from Laclede Gas, the gas account at the home was in Keys' name from Sept. 26 to March 5.

Keys said he stopped paying rent because Johnson did not make requested repairs. Last month, a judge ruled that Keys owed Johnson $3,000.

The state constitution requires legislators to live in the district they represent, or risk being removed from office. Candidates for state legislature must live in the district they are running in for at least one year prior to the election. If Johnson were to survive the August primary, she would face a Libertarian candidate in November.

Courts documents indicate that she had tenants in her district home as late as February.

St. Louis Board of Elections Director Scott Leiendecker said he met with Johnson on Tuesday to discuss the residency issues, and is preparing a report that will be sent to Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, the state's top election official.

A Carnahan spokesman said that if a candidate "does not provide sufficient proof of residency" after a formal complaint is made, their name may not be certified for the ballot.

Still, the law does provide some flexibility when it comes to residency requirements. State courts have held that a person's residence means their "true, fixed and permanent home," one they can leave temporarily — for college, for instance — if they have the intention of returning.

Rufus Tate, a lawyer enlisted by Johnson, says she has "never changed her domicile" from the Tara Lane address. "She never moved out of the district," said Tate, who once worked for the city Elections Board.

First elected in 2000, Johnson was a political protégé of the late state Sen. Paula Carter. Barred by term limits from seeking another two years in the House, Johnson is running for the Senate seat held by Carter, who died in 2001.

The campaign of state Rep. Rodney Hubbard, another Democrat vying for the Senate seat, declined to address Johnson's residency questions. A third candidate, state Rep. Robin Wright-Jones, could not be reached for comment.

State law allows candidates for office to file a petition challenging their opponent's qualifications, including residency.

"If they want to challenge it, go ahead and challenge it," Johnson said. "I have nothing to hide."

jwagman@post-dispatch.com | 314-622-3580