Posted on 11/23/2004 10:29:18 AM PST by rhinohunter
A Jefferson County judge has disqualified the unofficial winner of a state senate seat in this month's general election. Republican Dana "Seum" Stephenson was found to be ineligible to run for the 37 District office because she had not lived in Kentucky long enough prior to her candidacy. The decision means Democrat Virginia Woodward effectively wins by default. Stephenson's campaign is promising an appeal.
(Excerpt) Read more at whas.com ...
But I don't think this will surprise any readers of this forum.
If she was not elgible to run then she was not elgible to win. Didn't someone advise her of the law before the race?
Exactly.
If she wasn't allowed to run, that means she wasn't allowed to run for the nomination, so therefore wouldn't have been Republican nominee..
They should hold a special election.
This should be decided by the legislator and whether they allow her to sit.
Dana Seum Stephenson should probably not have the seat. She did not meet the eligibility requirements.
However, this isn't the Miss America pageant. If you come in second place you don't automatically get the office "if the winner can not perform her duties"!
After the winner was ruled ineligble, the seat should be declared vacant and a special election take place.
The bad new? Virginia Woodward (think a state version of Nancy Pelosi) will probably win in a special election. This is a very Democrat district and Dana Seum Stephenson was one of the very few Republicans that could win in it.
Not fully sure on how to ping to all the Kentuckians, but thought you might be able to help me! : )
Half of this decision will probably actually stand. The Republican was not eligible to run. So, even despite the fact she got the most votes, she isn't eligible to serve (in my humble opinion). However, that doesn't mean the Democrat automatically gets the seat.
Just curious, what were the requirements and how badly did she not qualify?
I guess KY isn't progressive like NY where it's a one day requirement, ala Hillary.< humor on >
This judge is toast. The legislature should not swear anyone in.
Apparently, she was not advised by anyone (not even the rats), at least not publicly. The rats waited until the day of the election to challenge her residency.
Now if she is indeed ineligible to hold the office, then a special election should be held -- which would be the case if she had died on election day.
I still have hope though. The Kentucky Senate ran circles around the House rats and then-rat gov during the redistricting battles. I don't think they will roll over for a low-level Jefferson County circuit court judge.
Wait a second...Shouldn't these things be determined BEFORE the election by whosever job it is to do such things. We had a similar situation in San Diego for Mayor. A candidate illegally announced her candidacy two weeks before the election as a write-in candidate. Unfortunately, this election was between two primary candidates who did not get 50%. So the winner of the Mayoral race in San Diego won with 38% of the vote, but he couldn't win whenhe had 47% of the primary vote. Think that's stupid? When her candidacy after the election was questioned the judge basically said, TOUGH LUCK. This should have been sorted out before the election happened.
I'm so sick of people not doing their jobs. It's not her job to qualify herself. It's other people's. God knows there's enough time during the campaign process to find out she wasn't elegible. And believe me, the Dems knew this and were just waiting it out in case she won. That's BULLS**T. IMHO.
What requirements did Daschle not meet?
They didn't think she would win, most probable.
This is for a State Senate seat. The Kentucky Constitution requires State Senators to live within the district for the one year prior to the election and within the state for the six years prior to the election to be eligible. Dana Seum Stephenson lived in Kentucky most of her life, but moved across the Ohio River to Indiana (literally less than 10 miles away, I think) in 1997 (I believe) and moved back to Louisville in 2001. So, she only had 3 of the 6 years prior to the election necessary to be eligible.
I agree that the Dems were just holding that piece of information in their pocket and were going to pull it out if it looked like Virginia Woodward was going to lose (which is what happened)!
However, no, it is the candidate's responsibility to "qualify herself". She signed filing papers stating that she had read and met the eligibility requirements. Truth be known, she's probably guilty of perjury.
Stephenson's defense has been that she didn't know and relied on her father (Senate Republican Caucus Chair) to tell her she wasn't eligible if that was true. Note: Her father is the person who didn't pay taxes on a car because he said he shouldn't have to if he didn't drive it any more.
Is this the same RAT judge who declared Hunter Bates, Governor Fletcher's original runningmate, to be ineligible to run for Lt. Gov. because he supposedly wasn't a resident of KY while he was working in Senator McConnell's office in DC?
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