Dem
47
GOP
53
Politics ain't beanbag. It is more like beanball. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and billionaire Tom Steyer are running neck and neck in the race for governor of California. So what is Steyer doing? Buying another $50 million in TV ads? Nah. He is trying to win the old fashioned way: dirty tricks. In particular, instead of trying to buy votes, which is the typical billionaire's go-to trick, he is trying to get Swalwell kicked off the ballot altogether. The man thinks big.
California has a requirement that candidates live in the state for 5 years prior to the election. The secretary of state regards that provision as unconstitutional and unenforceable. A key question here is what does "live" mean? Swalwell has been in Congress for 13 years, but House members don't have to live in the districts they represent. Conservative filmmaker Joel Gilbert previously sued Swalwell over this point, since the address Swalwell listed on his candidacy form is the business address of his lawyers. Candidates often do this for security reasons. Swalwell claims that he rents in the East Bay. He is registered to vote at an address belonging to the in-laws of a political associate. He has a house in D.C. that he has claimed as his primary residence. This is not unusual. Many members of Congress have a house in D.C., Virginia, or Maryland where they live most of the year and a secondary house or apartment back home.
In short, what Swalwell is doing is actually fairly common among members of Congress, but now Steyer is trying to use this arrangement to get rid of him, instead of the proper way—flooding the airwaves with disgusting and largely false negative ads. The whole situation is murky. Election attorney Fredric Woocher said that it is not clear the secretary of state has the authority to enforce the residency requirement, even if it is constitutional. In 1979, the then-attorney general decided that his office could not enforce a 1-year residency requirement for the state legislature. Woocher said: "I don't think there's a chance in hell that the secretary of state would make a determination on Swalwell's residency."
A spokesperson for Swalwell said: "Steyer's sinking campaign has already spent $64 million on ads that have flopped, so his team has resorted to a petty letter to the CA Secretary of State to try to slow down Eric Swalwell's momentum. Run up those legal bills, Tom. But if you want to know why people don't like billionaires, it's because of stupid shit like this." (V)