2011 candidates find the right addresses

Louisa County Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Garrett lives in the county he serves, but if he hadn't moved back to the Bumpass home owned by his ex-wife, the Republican state Senate candidate wouldn't have been eligible to run in the newly created 22nd District.

While the decision to reconcile with his ex-wife opened the door for him and preceded his decision to run, he says, it also worked out for Garrett's deputy prosecutor, Rusty McGuire. A longtime Hanover County resident, McGuire this year decided to run for the office being vacated by his boss.

To do so, McGuire was required to establish residency in Louisa County. He did — by renting the lake house in Mineral where Garrett had lived before patching things up with his wife.

To many prospective Virginia political candidates and incumbent lawmakers angling for re-election, home, apparently, is where the election is.

Because Virginia elections law requires candidates for state and local offices to reside within the locality or election district they seek to serve, a number of candidates have been investing in packing tape and looking for new abodes.

The real estate shuffle is largely a byproduct of decennial redistricting, finished this year by the General Assembly, which redrew the boundaries for the state's 100 House of Delegates districts and 40 Virginia Senate districts.

Republicans, who control the House, produced district maps that, most notably, carved Democratic House Minority leader Ward L. Armstrong, D-Henry, from his 10th District seat.

Democrats, who control the Senate, redrew their districts in a way that would have forced several Republican incumbents in Southside and Southwest Virginia to run against each other in primaries.

So they all moved.

Armstrong left his home in Collinsville and moved into his mother-in-law's home in nearby Bassett, so he could challenge incumbent Del. Charles D. Poindexter, R-Franklin County, in the redrawn 9th District, which now has a substantial chunk of Armstrong's old 10th District.

In the Senate, freshman Republican Sen. William M. Stanley Jr., R-Franklin County, moved 10 minutes away from his Smith Mountain Lake home in the 19th District so he could take on Democratic Sen. W. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Henry, in the 20th District.

Stanley's move accommodated longer-serving Republican Sen. Ralph K. Smith, R-Botetourt, who moved into Stanley's old 19th District rather than face four-term incumbent Sen. Stephen D. Newman, R-Lynchburg, in the 23rd District primary.

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With Democrats hoping to save their slim 22-18 majority in the Virginia Senate — the party's last redoubt of power in state government — winning the seat in the Republican-leaning 22nd District is key to their success. They're hoping that making an issue of Garrett's residency will help them succeed.

Garrett has been fending off residency-related attacks for months, first in a contentious primary, now in the intense battle with Democrat Bert Dodson, who has spent most of his life in and around Lynchburg.

While Garrett's candidacy paperwork shows him now living at the home of his ex-wife Dana Garrett in Bumpass, a separate home just beyond the district's boundaries in Mineral is listed under his name.

Opponents have leapt, suggesting that Garrett is using his ex-wife's address only to claim residency, pointing to voting-registration records that show him changing address just before filing for candidacy in mid-May.

Dana Garrett explains that they reconciled months ago and have been living together in the Bumpass home with their two daughters since April, weeks before the new Senate district was drawn.

"It had nothing to do with politics," she said. "It was before the district was even created. This [election] was not even on the horizon when our personal decision was made."

The couple bought the home together in 2004, according to records. When they divorced in late 2008, he moved out and purchased the home on Lake Anna that he currently owns in May of last year.

"Even through the divorce, it was pretty much like we weren't divorced," Dana Garrett said. "He had purchased a house at the lake, which was fine, and we pretty much lived at both houses, honestly."

In paperwork filed Aug. 5 with the Louisa registrar, McGuire, the only candidate for commonwealth's attorney, listed his residential address as the lake house purchased under Garrett's name.

McGuire, who has worked with Garrett for years beginning in the state attorney general's office, said he is renting the property from Garrett. A former Hanover resident, McGuire said he moved into the lake house on May 1 and has been living there full time since.

"I'm honored to have the opportunity to run for commonwealth's attorney for Louisa County, and I immediately moved to Louisa to make this dream a reality," McGuire said.

Garrett confirmed that he is renting the property to McGuire, though he said that he still visits the house with his family most weekends. McGuire said he travels most weekends and added that he owns property nearby and plans to build a home there.

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But playing musical houses to stay elected or facilitate a run for office doesn't always go as planned.

Democratic Del. Robin A. Abbott's home was redrawn into the 94th District, which would have placed her in a tough battle against four-term incumbent Republican Del. G. Glen Oder, R-Newport News. So Abbott moved to establish residency in her old 93rd District, where there was no incumbent competition.

Then, late this summer, Oder decided to resign his seat after being offered a job as executive director of the Fort Monroe Authority, leaving the district without an incumbent.

In some cases, living in the district you hope to represent isn't a requirement. Federal law does not require congressional candidates to reside within the district they hope to serve.

Take the example of Rep. H. Morgan Griffith, R-9th, who was elected to Congress last year while residing in Salem, just beyond the district's boundaries, which extend to his neighbor's yard.

Griffith dismissed the issue as a technicality during last year's election, saying that constituents care "more about where you stand than where you sleep," and joked that the groundhog that routinely invades his yard is from the 9th District.