Posted on 02/01/2012 5:47:46 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Lugar is running for re-election in a state he has not lived in for over 30 years.
Lugar sold his home at 3200 Highwoods Court in Indianapolis shortly after first assuming office in 1977. But due to a loophole in Indiana law, both he and his wife Charlene Lugar are still registered to vote at that address.
Greg Wright, an Indiana tea party member and certified fraud examiner, told The Daily Caller that he has been investigating Lugars residency situation for a few weeks and has not been paid for his efforts. He just heard one day from some tea party friends that Lugar didnt actually live in the state, and took it upon himself to find out if it was true.
Since then Wright has filed a series of inquiries with Indiana officials and dug up more than a dozen documents pertaining to Lugars residency, such as voting records and property tax information. But, despite filling out all the necessary paperwork, most of his questions went unanswered, and local papers appeared unwilling to look into the matter.
Nobody really wants to touch this for one reason or another, Wright told TheDC.
Richard and Charlene Lugars drivers licenses, Wright found, say they live at 3200 Highwoods Court even though they have lived in the affluent Washington, D.C. suburb of McLean, Va., for decades. And when Sen. Lugar registered to run for president in 1996, he listed Highwoods Court as his address.
A spokesman for Lugar confirmed to TheDC that he has not owned any property in Indiana since 1977, but said it was still perfectly legal for him to live elsewhere while representing the state.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
Time for Dick to go.
There are several “dicks” in congress who have a similar moa.
lugar should be arrested for claiming to represent indiana when in fact representing dc.
The standard response by government lackeys and their sycophantic media whores when looking into a powerful politician's eligibility for his/her office.
Back in the 1970s, US Senator Dick Clark of Iowa never owned much more than an apartment lease during his 6 year term.
Only a few can travel back and forth from their home districts on weekends ~ mostly New Yorkers ~ mostly Democrats, and even some of the locals in nearby Virginia and Maryland actually have access to crash-pads downtown so that they can attend evening events and night time committee meetings.
I used to commute to work with a Democrat Hispanic Representative who'd deliver his "speeches" to a carful of folks who were Republicans. We'd comment on the speeches and he'd fix serious problems. I think this guy was from New York. Great entertainment, and combined with true civic responsibility ~ even Democrats should be entitled to deliver meaningful and true speeches on the floor of the House ~ a rare event for most of them I am sure.
As far as a need to own property in their home district somewhere, most of them end up with time-share condo arrangements, or, they have a long term "rental' of a room in a hotel. Married Representatives and Senators with young children will ordinarily rent or buy a house in the DC suburbs making normal family life somewhat possible.
Still, the laws provide that they retain their legal domicile "back home" ~ they're just visitors here.
What, exactly, is the eligibility question here?
Well, it’s more of “the laws that apply to you don’t apply to me” syndrome. It’s the same reason that members of Congress can engage in insider trading and pad their personal accounts to become multimillionaires while earning in the low 6 figures in salaries.
Try voting from the address where you lived 35 years ago and see how far you get (unless you truly didn’t move). Try driving on a license issued to you 35 years ago. These congresscritters should have to abide by the same laws that the rest of us do. Maybe they wouldn’t pass so many laws, if that were the case.
There are plenty of Congressmen and women who do maintain 2 homes and who do return home on weekends and who truly do represent the folks back home. That’s why Congress runs on a 3 day schedule. Indiana is not that far from DC.
Where he lives.
Tell us how that is to be accomplished.
So, I go to National Airport ~ at roughly 6:30 AM. That's a 45 minute trip from my home to the parking lot. Then, go through security at peak period ~ that's another hour. Then wait for the plane boarding ~ probably a half hour at the shortest. That's 2.5 hours just to get to the plane.
Then, the flight is another 2 hours.
Ride the bus around to the rental car pick up after deplaning and getting baggage ~ another half-hour. Get in car and drive to Seymour ~ 1.5 hours!
That assumes 465 is in good shape with little construction interruption.
All told that takes 6.5 hours ~ then there's the return trip to get back here by Monday morning.
How do you spend your weekends?
He only goes to Nevada for a couple of campaign speeches.
I really don't think it's morally correct to compare Republicans from the Red states with Democrats from the nearby Blue states. Something simply not right about that.
Why don’t you drive? I can make it to DC in one day (900 miles) from Wisconsin easily and arrive refreshed. A couple of hours of travel time is spent going through Chicago. So, Indiana is that much closer because drivers don’t have to traverse Chi. Or, there is always the train. It’s not like Lugar is from some out of the way village. He was Mayor of Indianapolis, FGS.
In any case, nobody expects Congresscritters to come home every weekend. And they get 4 day weekends every week, plus lots of additional recesses. Actually it is almost a 5 day weekend because they adjourn at noon on Thurs. and don’t reconvene until the afternoon on Tues.
Scoop Jackson maintained his home in Everett, Washington throughout his long tenure in DC. Harry Truman (who was not wealthy, by any standard) maintained his Missouri home. What is the matter with today’s pols?
You really do not want to know. But, my husband and I own our own business, and we either work at the business, or we work on somebody's campaign. This past Saturday, I spent the morning entering names from the recall petitions against our Governor into a data base for the Tea Party while my husband helped distribute flyers for school board candidates. Then I helped him finish the flyering area because the neighbor (also a small business owner) had to go work on physical petitions for the GOP. Afterwards, we met friends for a quick lunch and to pick up more flyers. After lunch (heading to the Victory Center to check physical petitions for possible challenges) I slipped on the ice in the parking lot, fell, and pulled my husband down with me. I'm injured. He is not. But, despite my injuries, went on to the Victory Center and scrutinized petitions until 6 PM. Then home to take ibuprophin and apply heat to my painfully stretched ligaments. I continued to enter names into the data base on my computer, despite my fingers which were still bleeding from the earlier accident. I've found that the best pain killer is Bailey's in coffee.
On Sunday, I couldn't go to church because my joints were still screaming. Hubby did church for me and then stopped at our plant and phoned me. The 2 of us entered and printed invoices and tax bills via phone and GoToMyPC for the business since my accident prevented my from going into the office personally. Entered names into the Tea Party Data Base until 11:30 PM when they called a halt.
Monday, I managed to make it to an election training for my city, even though I can barely walk. My husband appeared before the Plan Commission of the Village where our manufacturing plant is located in a DNR/EPA land dispute while I was being trained in applying the new election rules for our many upcoming elections in Wisconsin.
Now, I don't expect my representatives in DC to work that hard, but I do expect that they have some understanding of the problems we face with day to day living in their district. And, that presumes that they actually live here.
From the little I'm hearing there is not much enthusiasm for Lugar - or Mourdock [State Treasurer who's running against Lugar in the primary].
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