District confusion puts Scott in limbo

By Charles Ashby
Friday, January 27, 2012

State Rep. Ray Scott may not be qualified to run in either of the two new House districts in the county.

That’s because there’s some question about when he moved out of the newly drawn House District 54, which he currently represents, into House District 55, where he currently lives.

Under the Colorado Constitution, legislative candidates must live in the House or Senate district they’re vying for at least 12 months before being elected to that office.

Scott, who was elected to the Colorado House in 2010, filed his candidate affidavit for the 2012 elections for HD54 on Nov. 8. Because this year’s election is on Nov. 6, that affidavit date is two days into the 12-month period.

The affidavit says Scott lives at 230 Meeka Court in Orchard Mesa, which is in the newly redrawn HD54.

But Scott moved to a home he’s owned for years on Kingston Road in the Redlands at about the same time, though he is hard-pressed to say exactly when. That home is in the newly drawn HD55, which Rep. Laura Bradford, R-Collbran, currently represents.

“This is just all a lot of paperwork that we haven’t gotten done yet,” Scott said. “I was already over at the Kingston Road home by about October, I think the 28th, 29th, something like that.”

Scott’s affidavit, however, clearly lists the Meeka address as his physical address. It was notarized by Notary Public Omar R. Vasconez on Oct. 31.

As things stand right now, Scott and Bradford are the only two candidates running for HD54, said Richard Coolidge, spokesman for Secretary of State Scott Gessler.

“Candidates must reside in their district 12 months before the election,” Coolidge confirmed Friday. “At this point, our records indicate he’s a candidate for HD54.”

Ray said it all occurred at a confusing time. He was moving and was in the process of selling his Meeka Court home, which he sold for $575,000 on Nov. 23, according to Mesa County Assessor records.

All of this happened before the Colorado Supreme Court ordered the Colorado Reapportionment Commission to come up with new legislative maps. Their original House map kept the two districts pretty close to how they look now.

But the new maps the commission submitted, which the high court approved Dec. 12, surprised everyone when it redrew HD55 to encompass the city of Grand Junction, including the Redlands area that also is in Scott’s current district.

That second House map pitted several incumbents against each other elsewhere in the state.

Scott said he is searching for whatever records he can find to show when he moved. He said he did vote in last year’s all-mail elections, but that ballot was sent to his old Meeka Court address, where Scott said he no longer lived.

“We’ll have to wait and see, but I’m not really concerned about it,” he said. “If somebody wants to challenge this, we’re fully prepared to offer documentation to make sure it’s not a problem.”

Scott’s voter registration could not be independently verified because he placed a block on his registration, something anyone can do by paying the state $5.

Meanwhile, Mesa County Democrats are planning to float their own candidate for HD55 regardless of whether it’s an open seat or if Scott is the incumbent. Mesa County Democratic Party Chairman Karl Castleton said the party is committed to having a HD55 candidate because Scott is a freshman, and voter registration numbers are more favorable to Democrats than they were previously.

The most recent registration figures show Republicans dominate the district with 45.5 percent of registered voters. There are about 30.3 percent unaffiliated voters and 23.4 percent Democrats. The remainder, less than 1 percent, are third-party voters.

“That district, we feel like that’s our No. 1 priority to go for, and we absolutely need to go for that spot,” Castleton said. “It would be a huge difference for us if you don’t have the ‘R’ with the ‘I’ next to it saying they’re the incumbent. We felt like this was the most competitive district we were going to get, so eliminating the incumbency factor definitely is an advantage for us.”

A similar incident occurred in La Plata County this week when the Colorado Democratic Party barred Silverton resident Patrick Swonger from being a party candidate for House District 59 because he didn’t register as a party member until Nov. 7, one day after the deadline. Prior to that date, Swonger was unaffiliated.