Posted on 06/25/2002 6:29:00 PM PDT by kattracks
BOSTON, Jun 25, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- The Massachusetts Ballot Law Commission on Tuesday refused to kick Republican gubernatorial nominee Mitt Romney off the ballot, as demanded by the state Democratic Party.
The panel rejected a Democratic argument that Romney gave up his residency eligibility to run for governor in Massachusetts when he went to Utah for three years to head up the Winter Olympics.
The commission held a three-day hearing last week on the Democratic attempt to disqualify Romney, who leads all Democratic contenders in recent polls.
In a state dominated by Democrats, Republicans have held the governor's chair for the past dozen years.
While Romney lived in Utah from February 1999 through March 2002, he testified at the hearing that during that period he maintained his home in Belmont, Mass., where he has lived since 1971.
The Democrats claim Romney failed to meet the state Constitutional requirement that he be an inhabitant of Massachusetts for seven consecutive years in order to run for governor.
In his closing arguments last Wednesday, Romney's attorney John T. Montgomery said his client's three years in Utah was just a temporary absence from Massachusetts, not a legal change of address.
"The center of his life is here" in Belmont, Montgomery said, adding that the Democratic Party presented "no evidence" otherwise.
Joseph D. Steinfield, representing the Democrats, argued that the Constitution says that "unless you have been an inhabitant of Massachusetts for seven consecutive years, domiciled here, you may not run for governor."
In campaign ads, Romney accuses allies of Democratic gubernatorial candidates Shannon O'Brien and Thomas Birmingham of trying to "end this election, not with ballots, but with lawyers."
Some prominent Democrats have agreed with Romney that it was unjust to try to keep him off the ballot, including Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., House Speaker Thomas Finneran and gubernatorial candidates Steve Grossman and Robert Reich.
"I don't think that a major political party ought to be trying to exclude people from the ballot," said Frank, calling his party's strategy "a mistake."
By DAVE HASKELL
Copyright 2002 by United Press International.
By the dems reasoning, Barney Frank would not be a Mass resident--lives in DC. Also, I don't know the answer, but has it been seven years since Reich left the Clinton adm. and returned to MA?
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