District 3 City Council race: Candidates’ scuffle over residency gets ‘creepy’

Contenders object to each other's prying as questions rise over where Lujan lives

Julie Ann Grimm | The New Mexican

12/19/2007 - 12/19/07

When City Councilor Miguel Chavez learned he had an opponent in the March 2008 municipal election, he also learned he was getting a new neighbor. Now he's not so sure.

Challenger Martin Lujan announced his candidacy for the office in late September, the same month he changed his voter registration from a Santa Fe County address and began renting a residence on Hickox Street.

But Chavez, 53, who lives a few blocks away on Camino Porvenir, said he's driven by Lujan's residence several times a day for the past few weeks and has seen neither hide nor hair of him.

"I don't want to be perceived as negative or petty," he said, "but the first thing that comes to mind is that you are required to live in the district that you are seeking office to, ... and if you are producing documents that have an address that you claim to be living at and you are not, I think that is very misleading."

Lujan, 42, an assistant division director at the city's Genoveva Chavez Community Center, is serving his second four-year term as a board member of Santa Fe Public Schools.

He said he didn't sleep at the home on Hickox Street on Tuesday night and does not sleep there every night but does so "many nights." The home is within both City Council District 3 and school board District 3, which he represents, he said.

"I live there. I wake up there. I make my coffee there," he said, noting he was surprised Chavez was keeping tabs on his home. "I am very concerned that someone would be watching me. I think that's a little creepy. ... I see Miguel ride his bike right past the house. He never spoke with me."

Lujan said his wife, Susan, and the couple's 4-year-old son continue to live at a home on Paseo de Estrellas west of the city that has been on the market for about a year.

"She has not moved in yet. We are transitioning the home to that (Hickox Street) address. ... We are renting it. Our hope is to find something that we really can move into that has what we are looking for. But our hopes are that it will happen soon," he said.

Chavez, a woodworker who is serving his second term on the City Council and works from his home shop, has lived on Camino Porvenir for 17 years. He said earlier this week that he had noticed Lujan's address on a public records request he had filed seeking copies of nominating petitions that Chavez collected to get his name on the ballot. "I mean, I think that's kind of creepy," Chavez said.

"Curiosity, I have to admit, got the best of me," he said. "I just drive by there on a daily basis, sometimes during the day, sometimes at night. The snow during this last snowstorm was not swept. ... To the observer, you would think that no one was living there. I think in fairness to the voters, they should know that."

Most of the blinds on the house's windows were drawn Wednesday morning when a reporter visited. No personal items or decorations were visible from the street, but several pieces of furniture could be seen through the window, including a couch in the kitchen. A garbage cart in front of the home was the only one visible on the street.

The city's water company has billed Lujan at that address since Sept. 13, charging him that month for 500 gallons, 300 gallons in October, 200 gallons billed in November and no use between Nov. 1 and Dec. 4. City data show water demand in Santa Fe averages 111 gallons per capita daily.

City Attorney Frank Katz said he is not aware of any city obligation to verify a candidate's physical presence at a location identified as his or her residence. If Chavez wants a formal inquiry or decision on Lujan's residence and the validity of his candidacy, the councilor would have to file a District Court action, Katz said.

Courts across the state have heard similar cases. One famously cited Supreme Court challenge involved Raymond Chavez, who was elected Santa Fe County commissioner in 1990 and also had a home in Rio Arriba County. (Raymond Chavez is not related to Miguel Chavez, the councilor said.)

The state's high court drew on an earlier ruling, writing that for determining the residence of a person desiring to be a candidate, the residence is considered to be the address shown on the voter registration affidavit.

Further, it ruled that "a man can have only one place of residence for voting purposes ... but there is no reason ... he may not have more than one place to reside in."

However, the court did point out that in a 1984 case, a District Court judge found that a candidate had committed "a fraud" by deceiving voters about his place of residence.

The city’s municipal election is March 4. The city clerk has verified that both Lujan and Chavez gathered enough signatures to be on the ballot, but the official day to confirm a candidacy is Jan. 21.

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.