Redistricting has some Va. legislators house hunting

RICHMOND

Although the real estate market remains shaky, there's one category of home hunters checking property listings this summer: candidates for legislative office.

Several General Assembly candidates have acknowledged they're planning to move to meet state residency requirements, and others have pondered it.

While it's not uncommon for prospective office holders to move into a favorable district, the trend seems more pronounced this year because of redistricting.

In that process, some legislators were taken out of districts they now represent, separated from some of the constituents who helped put them in office, or placed in the same district as another legislator.

Democratic House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong, Del. Robin Abbott of Newport News, and Republican Sens. Bill Stanley and Ralph Smith from southern and western Virginia are among that crowd.

Abbott, Armstrong and Smith found themselves in less familiar territories after the lines were set. Stanley moved into occupied territory because of a shift in the composition of his district and will challenge Sen. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Henry County, for re-election.

In South Hampton Roads, residency questions are an issue in the Republican nomination process for the new 6th Senate District, which includes portions of Norfolk and Virginia Beach and all of the Eastern Shore and Mathews County.

Two GOP candidates want to challenge Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk.

One, Ben Loyola, raised some eyebrows by relocating from his Virginia Beach home to a rental property near Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek that is within the district, while the other, Dr. Joanne Lapetina, has faced questions about where she rests her head.

The Ocean View native lives and works in Norfolk, according to a campaign official, but Lapetina's husband and children spend weekdays in the Richmond area for work and school.

Yet those explanations haven't fully quieted the residency rumors in the 6th District contest.

Sen. Dave Marsden, D-Fairfax County, can relate to such whispers, having drawn past scrutiny over his address.

His house-hopping began when he moved to run in a special election for the Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

Marsden said he stayed in the furnished basement of a Northern Virginia Democratic donor whose home was in the district and has since lived elsewhere.

When incumbents play residential musical chairs, geographic precision is key.

Legislators up for re-election must be careful to pick a new address that overlaps their existing and reapportioned district so they don't have to give up their seats in the interim.

Several lawmakers on the move said the expense and inconvenience of relocating is worth it to fight for their beliefs in the legislature.

Christopher Newport University political science professor Quentin Kidd isn't convinced that altruism is the true motivation.

"I think it's the intoxication of power, the intoxication of being an office holder," Kidd said.

Changing addresses to seek office defeats the purpose of a residency requirement and drawing districts with common interests, added Kidd, noting the goal "is to put a district together that makes sense for that community and... to ensure that the people are represented by someone who knows the area."

If nothing else, he joked, General Assembly candidates can claim their migrations are a form of economic stimulus for the beleaguered housing industry.

Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com