Complaint about Huelskamp residency appears to have errors | The Wichita Eagle

A complaint seeking to remove 1st District Rep. Tim Huelskamp from the ballot appears to have been filed to the wrong state board and based on an errant understanding of election procedures.

Challenger Roger Marshall filed the complaint Thursday in an attempt to get Huelskamp kicked off the ballot for failure to establish Kansas residency.

The two will face off in the Republican primary in the sprawling district that represents western Kansas.

The basis of the complaint is that Huelskamp:

▪  Didn’t list a residential address on his declaration of intention, the form candidates file to establish their candidacy at the Kansas secretary of state’s office.

▪  Listed the address of a small home in Fowler on his federal statement of candidacy in 2015, although Meade County property records show the home is owned by someone else.

▪  Owns no property in Fowler, although he claims Fowler as his city of residence.

Bryan Caskey, election director at the secretary of state’s office, said the fact that there’s no residential address on Huelskamp’s declaration is not a problem.

The personal information on the form is primarily for use in contacting the candidate and is not used to establish a candidate’s residency, he said.

Caskey said actual residency is established by the candidate’s voter registration. According to the Meade County clerk’s office, Huelskamp’s registration address is at his family’s farm near Fowler.

Huelskamp has owned a home in Hutchinson since 2011.

Under the rules governing congressional elections, Huelskamp can run whether he lives in Fowler, Hutchinson or anywhere else in Kansas, Caskey said. Both Fowler and Hutchinson are in the 1st District.

Marshall’s campaign also appears to have complained to the wrong board.

Issues of residency for candidacy purposes are decided by the State Objections Board, a panel made up of Secretary of State Kris Kobach, Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer and Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

Marshall filed his complaint to the State Elections Board, which is made up of the same three officials, but authorized under a different law and performing different functions.

The Elections Board approves disbursement of funds for public agencies’ election expenses and rules in cases where voters are unable to provide proof of citizenship documents to register to vote.

Huelskamp also doesn’t appear to have any current problems with federal election officials, although he had a filing glitch last year.

In May 2015, the Federal Election Commission sent Huelskamp a warning letter that he was raising and spending money on his 2016 candidacy without having filed the required statement of candidacy form. He filed the form three days later.

That form listed his address as 601 Church St. in Fowler, the address where he was registered to vote going back to at least 2005. Property records show that home is not owned by Huelskamp and his wife, but by another couple.

Huelskamp changed his registration in February to the farm, after he filed the FEC form. An agency spokeswoman said Huelskamp has no obligation to update the form.

Marshall campaign manager Brent Robertson said whether or not the complaint is upheld, it shows that Huelskamp is being dishonest with voters by portraying himself as a farmer from a farm community when he actually lives in Hutchinson.

A recent Huelskamp television ad shows the congressman driving a tractor and loading sacks in a pickup with the tagline “four kids, a family and a farm.”

Robertson said the campaign filed the complaint to highlight that Huelskamp isn’t really living in Fowler and is trying to mislead voters in the mostly rural and agriculture-based district.

“You’ve got to vote where you live,” Robertson said. “He was dishonest on his candidate filing. ... He hasn’t farmed in 20 years and he’s registered at his mother’s house.”

“It’s a smokescreen and that’s our whole point,” he added.

Huelskamp’s campaign called on Marshall’s campaign to “admit the complaint he filed with the Secretary of State’s office is desperate and frivolous.”

“Desperate Roger Marshall knows that Tim returns home to Kansas at the end of every week and spends the vast majority of his days in Kansas,” campaign manager Jimmy Keady said in a statement. “His kids are enrolled in school and play sports in Kansas. The family attends church in Kansas. He is properly registered to vote in Kansas and is a properly filed candidate for office.”