
Amid the hullabaloo about a protest at Second District Congressman Jason Lewis's home in Woodbury--considered Friday in our post, Not so instant karma: Lewis once thought targeting homes of people "in public arena" A-Ok--a reader and local Le Sueur County DFL activist quipped on Bluestem's Facebook page:
I would think he might appreciate them saving him the gas money needed to actually drive from his home into the district he (purportedly) represents!
This observation prompted Bluestem to wonder why Lewis's non-residence in his district isn't more of an issue. Though perfectly legal under , the behavior might be expected to be exploited as an analogy to an absentee landlord or distant corporate overlord, especially given Lewis's real life town hall abstinence.
But a moment in DFL history makes this particular item line of attack awkward for Minnesota Democrats.
The awkward moment was ably chronicled back in October 2015 by ace Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) blogger Bob Collins in the NewsCut post DFL chair slams Woodbury, home of DFL politicians:
DFL Chair Ken Martin provided a how-to in alienating voters of Woodbury with his reaction to Jason Lewis’ announcement that he’s entering the race for Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, even though he lives in the 4th Congressional District. In this case, Woodbury.
Here’s Martin’s press release:
It’s nice to see so much interest in the second congressional district this election cycle, however Jason Lewis and his extreme priorities are out of sync for this district. Even the Republicans in CD 2 would be embarrassed by Lewis’ far-right views, not to mention the fact that he doesn’t even live in the South Metro.
His radical views may play in Woodbury but they won’t resonate with families throughout the 2nd district.
Lewis is nationally known for his radical opinions and backwards rhetoric and the last thing Minnesota families need is to send another dysfunctional voice to Washington.
In a time when so little is getting done for the American people in Washington, we can’t afford to send another divisive ideologue to Congress who has no interest in doing what is best for the people of the 2nd Congressional District, only in doing what is best for the far right wing of his party.”
Why would “radical views” play in Woodbury?
DFL politicians have had success there on a regular basis. One of two state representatives is a member of Martin’s party.
The state senator is also a DFLer. Susan Kent knocked off GOP incumbent Ted Lillie in the last election.
A previous state representative — a Republican — was one of the five GOPers who broke with the party to vote to allow same-sex marriage in Minnesota.
In the 2012 constitutional amendments that would ban same-sex marriage, voters in both of the city’s legislative districts easily turned the attempt aside, by a wider margin than many of the larger communities in the 2nd District.
Not exactly radical Republicanism there.
Oh, the congresswoman representing Woodbury is a DFLer. . . .
Oops.
Lewis not a lonely absentee member of Congress
But there's more. When President Donald Trump tweeted back in June that Jon Ossoff, who was running for Congress in a special election in Georgia, the Washington Post dug into voter registration files to learn whether any sitting members of Congress didn't live in their districts (U.S. representatives need only live in the state which includes their district, not the district itself).
The result of the investigation was Philip Bump's analysis for the Post, At least 21 members of the House are registered to vote outside their districts:
. . . Ossoff is registered to vote at a home within the circle on that map — close to the 6th District, but outside of it. There’s no legal reason he should have to live in the district he hopes to represent; the Constitution mandates only that members of the House live in the state they are going to represent. That said, it’s generally considered politically advantageous to actually be a resident of the area you hope to represent.
In fact, The Post identified 20 members of Congress who are registered to vote outside of the districts they serve. In some cases, it’s clearly a function of redistricting. Four members of the House from southern Florida, for example, live outside of the districts they represent, but that’s likely because the Florida Supreme Court redrew the district boundaries at the end of 2015.
In total, we identified the records for 395 members of Congress, matching names and birthdates to voter files. In some cases, no voter record could be identified, perhaps because the name used to register to vote doesn’t match the name on the registration (if a nickname or abbreviation is used, for example) or because the birthdates don’t align (in some states, only months and years are included in the voter data). In addition to the four House members from Florida — Reps. Carlos Curbelo (R), Ted Deutch (D), Mario Diaz-Balart (R) and Alcee Hastings (D) — the following members of Congress are registered to vote outside of their districts.
Lewis is on that list that's a mixed bag of Democrats and Republicans.
Given the President's use of the residence issue in his tweets, there might have been some clever way to exploit the perfectly legal non-residence in the next election. As Bump writes (emphasis added): "it’s generally considered politically advantageous to actually be a resident of the area you hope to represent," a notion that underscores the president's tweets.
One thing the state DFL can't do, however, is make the link that the local party activist made between the protest and Lewis's non-residence in the district.
Slick as ever about these matters, DFL state chair Ken Martin threw party-ally Take Action under the bus and, supporting private property over people, condemned the action by scary old and sick people organized by the group described by City Pages reporter Susan Du:
A video of the protest accompanied Lewis' post as evidence, though instead of threatening mobsters, protesters are elderly ladies, a senior gentleman in a wheelchair, homecare workers, and a handful of young activists with TakeAction Minnesota. The group led a set of chants for a few minutes, before reading aloud from a letter, which was then propped against Lewis' door.
Heckova great moment in messaging by the DFL on that one, although Martin does go on to suggest that an in-person town hall might be nice:
“While we do not condone their behavior, we understand the frustrations of Minnesotans who have been continually denied an outlet to express their concerns directly to Congressman Lewis. Despite repeated calls from the Minnesotans he represents, he has refused to hold in-person public town halls. Congressman Lewis’ votes in Washington have threatened the lives of many of his constituents. They are concerned and they deserve answers.”
Photo: Those dangerous visitors to Jason Lewis's home in Minnesota's Fourth District, via City Pages. If they intimidate him, Bluestem can totally understand why he's afraid to have a real town hall meeting in the district he actually represents. Perhaps he'll heed Martin's suggestion and save gas money by holding a town hall in Woodbury. There's got to be a lot of meeting space in the East Metro suburb.
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