Another Florida Representative With A Questionable Address (And Some Questionable Finances)

Last month, I reported that Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-FL-16) is under scrutiny for allegedly paying off a former staffer to avoid a sexual harassment lawsuit. In addition, the 52-year-old multimillionaire venture capitalist uses his Palm Beach Gardens home, which was redistricted out of District 16 in 2002, for his homestead property. The Florida Constitution defines "homestead property" as your principal place of residence.

The National Review reports that Mahoney is not alone in fudging an address. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL-19) has been listing "his mother-in-law’s house in Boca Raton, which is located in an over-55-only retirement community," as his Florida residence; he has not owned property in Florida for a decade. However, for four years Wexler, 47, has claimed his Maryland home as his primary residence in exchange for tax breaks.

This brings us to the question: what do we think being "an inhabitant" of the state a Congressman (Senator or Representative) represent means to Constitutionalists?

This reminds me of former Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, who retroactively changed his "primary" residence from Utah to New York (he refiled his taxes and paid back his Utah tax breaks) so that he could run for Governor. The very big difference is that Wexler keeps running for re-election from Florida.

Yes, Congress critters have homes in D.C. and its environs. But it seems like their primary residence should be in the state that they are representing in Congress, else we wander into Orwellianness when it comes to defining "inhabitant." (Note: we did something like that in 2000 when Dick Cheney changed his voter registration from Texas to Wyoming so he could be the Vice Presidential candidate. Presidents and Veeps have to be "inhabitants" of different states, per the 12th Amendment.)

Black's Law Dictionary (6th edition) on "inhabitant": "one who resides actually and permanently in a given place and has his domicile there."

There is no minimum number of days required to be an "inhabitant" of a state and be eligible to be a U.S. Senator or Representative. And the U.S. Constitution does not require Representatives to live in their districts. One would hope that residents would care, however.

About The Race In Florida-19
There are two other men vying for the seat: Ben Graber and Edward Lynch. Lynch's campaign has developed a webpage outlining Wexler's Campaign Finance Investment Web. (Scroll to the bottom for the graphic.)

The Palm Beach Post reported in October that although Wexler "hasn't owned a home in Florida for more than a decade, his campaign held a second mortgage until this year on a West Palm Beach house that's now in foreclosure."

Wexler's campaign in August reported having more than $1.5 million in cash on hand...Over the last 12 years, Johnson said, the Wexler campaign has made a $261,307 profit on its investments... An FEC spokesman said there is nothing in federal law that prohibits investing campaign money in real estate as long as the candidate isn't the owner of the property.

Reportedly, Wexler's campaign has written off the $150,000 mortgage, which was co-owned by his former investment broker, Roy Amico, who worked for and whose brother owned Newbridge Securities. Newbridge is now under charges from the SEC (pdf). And Wexler has filed FEC amendments removing all references to Newbridge.

Kinda makes your head hurt, doesn't it?

The NRO story sums up:

There’s no proof of wrongdoing. But in the space of a week in July, Wexler was exposed as fudging details on his residency status; his campaign amended F.E.C. filings to remove references to Newbridge; two days after beginning to amend the reports, the SEC announced it was investigating Newbridge; and shortly thereafter the campaign backed out of a relatively sizable investment overseen by the brother of Newbridge’s president.

Wexler is co-chair of Obama's presidential campaign effort in Florida. Republicans hold 16 of Florida's 25 U.S. House of Representatives seats and one of its two U.S. Senate seats.

Also see Key House Races, Key Senate Races and All Gubernatorial Races.