Derar Everyone;
From todays Chronicle - Matier and Ross - More on Midgen's where
does she really live?
Ron Getty
SF Libertarian
Speaking of residence: It's Jew's turn on the hot seat over whether
he really lives in his district, but other pols have had their
backsides warmed by that issue as well.
Take John Burton. For years there were questions about whether he
actually resided in his childhood home on Sloat Boulevard when he
represented the area in the Legislature, or whether he was spending
most of his time in his digs on Potrero Hill -- which were in someone
else's district.
All we know for sure is that whenever we dialed that house, he
managed to pick up the call -- no matter where he was.
More recently, it's been common knowledge that state Sen. Carole
Migden -- whose district includes San Francisco, Marin and Sonoma
counties, and who has a condo at Third and Harrison streets in the
city -- spends a good part of her time at the Berkeley home of
longtime partner Cris Arguedas.
But that's nothing new. During the great Oakland hills fire of 1991,
Migden -- then a San Francisco supervisor -- rushed into the City
Hall press room exclaiming, "Oh, my shoes!"
--- In lpsf-discuss@yahoogroups.com, "Christopher R. Maden"
<crism@...> wrote:
> You know, some small irony on this - when I ran against Migden, I
was
> considering a move slightly out of District 3 but delayed it out
of fear
> she would try to disqualify her opponents. (the savvy bureaucrat
that she
> is). But as I remember at the time, candidates only have to be
resident of
> the district at the time of filing..or at least up until the
election. But
> not after.
I consulted with Richard Winger on this when faced with a similar
situation, running for Assembly district 13 in 2002. I would have
moved
back into the district if I had suddenly found myself with a k$99
job,
though!
But yes, the affidavit for state office only affirms that you are
eligible
to vote for the position for which you are running at the time you
file.
However, Richard said that the judges tend to leave any issues
after that
to the elected bodies themselves; that is, if I had been elected and
remained outside of the district, the Assembly could have held a
hearing
and removed me. So unless someone can show evidence that Migden
didn't
live in district 3 when she filed for candidacy, then it would be a
matter
for the Senate to deal with.
The first step, though is to sic the _Chronicle_'s reporters on it.
(-:
While I'm writing on this, I'm sad to note that Ed Jew's
supporters, some
of them anyway, are playing the race card. This is just fatuous;
Fiona Ma
and Leland Yee, for example, never had any problems as Chinese-
American
politicians. If Jew was targeted at all, it was because of his
voting
record. However, it's also possible that he just got a case of the
stupid. San Francisco does drive families out, and Ed has a
family; but
he also had his political base established here, and it made more
sense,
strategically, to build on that rather than to try to start afresh
in
Burlingame. Living apart from your family is a high price to pay
for
that, but getting convicted of a crime is even higher. I hope that
he's
able to demonstrate his residency, but it doesn't look good.
A bigger fear for me is that Barbara Meskunas, who has worked for
taxpayers in this city for a long time, will be tied to this
scandal by
acting as Jew's spokesperson through all of this, and will lose
some of