State Rep. Connie Johnson is under investigation by the city Election Board for possibly living outside of her district.
KMOX Radio reported Tuesday that the Missouri Senate candidate met with the Board to discuss allegations Johnson lived outside of the 61st District last year.
In the report Johnson admitted to moving into a house outside of the district last fall to take care of her mother.
“(T)he fourth Commandment said honor thy mother and thy father (if I didn’t do that) everything I did in life would fail,” she told KMOX.
Johnson told KMOX she still owns property in the 61st district and considers it her legal residence. She said she has since moved back to the home.
Johnson is one of three candidates seeking to replace the term-limited Sen. Maida Coleman for the state senate seat. The other two are Rodney Hubbard* and Robin Wright-Jones.
*Hubbard is a client of PubDef.net publisher Antonio D. French.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
John Q. Public asks “What Contribution To The St. Louis Community has Ms. Johnson made ?
April 9th, 2008 at 12:31 am
Legally, residence is not a problem for Connie if she temporarily relocated with intent to return, and did in fact return. This principle has applied to such diverse candidates as Kit Bond (whose temporary job as an appellate law clerk in Georgia did not interfere with his 10-year MO residency required for his run for governor in 1972) and Jason Murphy (2002 Green Party candidate for License Collector who qualified for residency in spite of his school-year abroad in Germany in a case I handled pro bono, defeating Greg FX Daly’s hired guns).
Also, the E Board shouldn’t really be looking into her residency with respect to her current state rep office, because the legislature is the sole judge of the qualifications of its members. As to her senate candidacy, it would either be up to the Secretary of State to disqualify her or for one of her ballot opponents to challenge her candidacy in court.
April 9th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Connie was also a committeewoman from the 27th Ward even though she wasn’t living there either.
April 9th, 2008 at 9:08 am
Let me see if I’ve got this straight . . . I though I read on this blog that Rep. Johnson is supporting Chris Crter for her seat although he is supporting Rep. Jones for the 5th. I also saw Steve Roberts, Jr. in the video and he’s running against my State Rep. Rachel Storch. Does this mean that Rep. Johnson is going against her colleague?
I have seen on another blog that Rep. Johnson actually lives in the 4th District and she is trying to set up a run against Jeff Smith (who is supposed to be a friend of the Carters). I also heard that Chris’ uncle,Alderman Greg Carter put Connie in the race because he was upset with Rep. Jones for running against Rep. Rodney Huberd who is a friend of Jeff Smith.
What a cesspool.
April 9th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
I think that Connie’s role is to divert media attention from Robin Wright Jones. Connie is doing very well — her entrance into the race seems intentionally controversial (announcement outside of the district, residency issue, last minute filing). It’s like every gaffe by Johnson is designed to take the press on a goose chase so Jones’ campaign never gets much press. Hubbard can wash his hands of the game and look like a leader. Still, the diversion is unnecessary because Jones, however good her intentions, is not a very vocal or visible legislator or state senate candidate.
Meanwhile no one is covering the issues or the flow of money into Hubbard’s campaign.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
It’s time to stop watching so many Oliver Stone movies!
I don’t buy the notion that Johnson’s actions’ main purpose was to take media attention away from Wright-Jones. Johnson’s actions were not intentionally controversial: Candidates hold campaign events outside their districts all the time, especially when, as here, not very far outside the district. She filed at the last minute to make sure that Tom Villa didn’t file (in which case she would have refrained from filing to avoid further splitting the black vote), not to affect publicity of Wright-Jones. Publicity about the residency issue wasn’t her choice. And nothing done by the Johnson campaign will prevent coverage of the flow of money into Hubbard’s campaign if there are contributions there that merit coverage. The time for that coverage is next week, because the 1st Quarter reports are due then. Moreover, the campaign is still very young; there is plenty of time to cover the candidates’ respective records (or lack of same) and any issues arising from fund raising.
April 9th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
The law school term “I’ll take the 5th”, was not intended to inspire State Representative and lawyer-Connie Johnson-to run for Senate. Funny how people can get things confused in life. In fact, the terminology was meant to set a guideline of how to avoid self incrimination. However, after you have signed a legal affivadit that confirms your residency outside of the district and ward you represent, it is too late to “take the 5th” on KMOX. Especially when you tried in court to evict tenants from your fake residency, so that you could try to file a false candidacy to run with hopes of “taking the 5th”
Some people are sleeping in law school, when they should be awake. The law firm of Hubbard, Johnson, and Wahby need to fire one of their partners, like the firm Bryan Caveman did!
When you sign false affidavits as an attorney, then you run the risk of losing your law license and the 5th Senatorial District. Who needs enemies when you have these type of partners in your law practice?
Good luck wherever you really live. By the way, everybody knows you are a stalking horse, so don’t bother trying to take the 5th!
April 10th, 2008 at 9:42 am
I’ll ask the same question twice-
Would someone list Ms. Johnson’s contribution to the St. Louis Community as a result of her years in politics ?