August 03, 2009 11:19 PM UTC

Shennanigans in House district 51 - McNaught May Naught Be Eligible

•  
• by: Republican 36

(Note: We rewrote the headline so it would fit in one line – promoted by Colorado Pols)

The race to replace Rep. Don Marostica took an illegal turn today. Kevin Mcnaught who announced he is seeking the HD 51 seat has run into a constitutional problem.

Article 5, Section 4 of the Colorado Constitution provides the “qualifications of members” for the Colorado state house and senate. That section states:

“No person shall be a representative or senator who shall not have attained the age of twenty-five years, who shall not be a citizen of the United States, and who shall not for at least twelve months next preceding his election, have resided within the territory included in the limits of the district in which he shall be chosen.”

Unfortunately for Mr. McNaught, he “resides” in Berthoud, Colorado outside “the territory included in the limits of the district.” He owns a rental property within the district which at one time he lived in and apparently has kept his voter registration address at the address for the rental property but he does not reside there.

Therefore, he does not reside within the geographic limits of the district and he has not resided within the district for the previous twelve months.

Instead of asking the Secretary of State for a ruling, Mr. McNaught contacted the Clerk of the Colorado House of Representatives to obtain her opinion while specifically contending the above constitutional provision only applies to regular primary and general elections but not to vacancy elections. Under his interpretation, the vacancy committee in HD 51 can select someone from Cortez to represent Loveland in the General Assembly.

Needless to say, the Clerk of the House does not have any jurisdiction over the vacancy election. It is the Secretary of State who must certify all elections to the respective houses of the Colorado General Assembly.

Even more importantly, the Colorado Constitution does not carve out an exception for vacancy elections.  The mandatory qualificaitons provision applies to all elections, including vacancy elections.

Mr. McNaught isn’t qualified constitutionally to represent HD 51.