The web blog ColoraodoPols reported yesterday:
The race to replace Rep. Don Marostica took an illegal turn today. Kevin Mcnaught who announced he is seeking the HD 51 seat has run into a constitutional problem.
Unfortunately for Mr. McNaught, he “resides” in Berthoud, Colorado outside “the territory included in the limits of the district.” He owns a rental property within the district which at one time he lived in and apparently has kept his voter registration address at the address for the rental property but he does not reside there.
According to information reported on that blog, McNaught moved from the 51st district 12 months ago and is voting from the address of a house he owns but rented out to tenants who now live in that house.
The Larimer County Assessor’s website shows 3402 Florida Ave. (McNaught’s former residence) was recorded as being sold May 11, 2009 to Troy and Laura Jarosik. Contrary to what is being reported, there is no evidence McNaught still owns that property or that the current residents are leasing.
McNaught presented a letter from the law firm Hale-Friesen written by attorney Ryan Call to both the Republican Party Chairman, Larry Carillo and the Chairman of the House District 51 Central Committee, Carl Smith.
The letter provides a qualified formal legal opinion which states in part, “…It is the opinion of the undersigned legal counsel that you are eligible to be a candidate and be selected by the vacancy committee of the 51st Republican District Central Committee.”
The attorney’s letter is addressed to a residential address in Loveland that McNaught does not own but has put under contract for a month to month tenancy. McNaught is said to now be registered to vote in Loveland at the new address but we cannot verify this independently or provide you a link because voter information on the county website is private.
Therefore, it appears the legal issue is not necessarily the bigger problem for McNaught as the county party has accepted his candidacy. The 80 members of 51st Republican House District Central Committee, however, are charged with making the appointment and will need to review the facts regarding this and any other issue that arises between now and August 13 before making their final decision.
Something you failed to report – the McNaughts NEVER rented out their house in Loveland. So what if it took Kevan a month to update his voter registration. What’s the big deal? Is ColoradoPols just making-up the facts and you guys ignoring them?
By 2010 when the new district lines are drawn every member of the legislature who finds himself or herself outside district lines will need to establish new residency inside their new district. Nobody has ever been disqualified over this issue to my knowledge. If I were to use Ralph’s interpretation all these people would have to leave office every ten yrs. when the district lines are redrawn.
Don Marostica has a place in Denver where he really lives but no one has ever questioned it especially “Ralph.” No one ever asked why Don wasn’t with Carol but living in Denver well outside his district. Ever wonder how he got a job with the Governor in Denver and DIDN’T need to move?
Where is the best candidate? The Dems are probably laughing-up a storm. One guy has problems with his voter registration while another is a little kooky and the pizza guy nobody ever heard of before but maybe you tipped at the door onetime.
You gotta be kidding me! This is hilarious and explains why Don Marostica didn’t have any credible challengers yet either. Is there anyone in the 51st with money who has been in town for awhile and can look at least a little like a professional person? Oh yeah and won’t become a turncoat like Don as soon as he or she gets to Denver? I am glad I don’t have to vote in this thing because I don’t envy you guys who do because I don’t think you got many good choices at this point in my opinion.
What evidence do you have that the mayor of loveland wants to run? Was it Glenn Rousey who told you? I ask because sometimes he talks about things he doesn’t know. You should check your facts before reporting them here.
Contrary to the sleight of hand appointment by Jack come lately, keeping track of where Don Marostica sleeps is none of my concern. I’ve been consistent for over three years that I do not support his political forays, and now he’s into the tax-payer’s pockets for over $150K a year in salary.
Throwing stones at anybody for holding a paying job in Denver and keeping a home in Northern Colorado is ludicrous and hypocritical. I thought that was why so many people insist on widening I-25 all the way to Fort Collins. So the day commuters to Denver can all drive at 90 mph, playing “Fast & Furious” weaving around the 18-wheelers..
Really, even if Don is at a place in Denver, it’s still Carol’s. Bankruptcy x5 Don keeps everything that is his protected behind the wall of “…it’s Carol’s,’ or it belongs to Loveland Commercial.
Maybe Jack should start a ballot initiative to ban members of the legislature from renting in Denver during the session. That’s the kind of frivolous gripe that has resulting in so many clauses in Colorado’s bloated, confusing, and contradictory State Constitution.
It seems to exist only in Jack’s universe that redistricting in Colorado ever throws EVERYONE out of office, and causes them to move in order to run in the next election. That was a tall-tale left over from Tom DeLay’s midnight gerrymander in Texas that John Anderson and friends tried, unsuccessfully, to mimic in Colorado. What may or may not happen after 2010 is all smoke and sparkle to the legal issue, right now, of whether or naught Kevan is Constitutionally eligible to run for HD-51.
The facts are pretty clear that Kevan McNaught neglected to update his voter registration when he decided to upscale to the “McMansion” by the lake. But, state law is clear that voting address is your home (residence, domicile, etc.). Naught, whichever of a myriad of properties you own to pick and choose to register for personal political advantage. That throws up another time-dishonored political term; carpetbagger.
This vacancy committee vote is naught an ethical and legal opportunity for Mr. McNaught, despite whatever his personal attorney says. Personal lawyers don’t decide election law, and I’m confident that the County Clerk and Secretary of State can settle this.
If Kevan wants to become the HD-51 State Representative he’d better unload the closet and dresser in Berthoud and get back to Loveland in time for the 2010 primary. Or, he can make his case to replace B.J. Nikkel in HD-49. Since it’s now established that’s where he really lives.
Now I am confused because Brian DelGrosso doesn’t own property anywhere in the county let alone the 51st District. Last I knew he was on Heritage Circle in Ft. Collins but when he married his girlfriend a couple years ago he moved into her Centerra condo unit which I believe is technically Loveland.
I think he sounds like a good guy but is he the Marostica candidate since Gene was already outed early in the process?
Tom Buchanan is not suspicious and lives in the district and has carried our party banner faithfully into many election contests no matter the odds. I never heard or saw this DelGrosso character even donate $1 to any Republican candidate or volunteer eve 20 minutes to his party or the community.
If people of the 51st were duped by Don Marostica maybe they can be duped again. All the information is online so why doesn’t the Reporter-Herald and this weblog do your homework and really investigate who is running?
McNaught may have just left our district when DeGrosso was just getting here. Did this guy DelGrosso have kids in the Loveland school system or are these kids from a previous marriage in New York or something? Not that that is a problem just don’t send me pictures and mailers pretending they are just another family in Loveland when they’re not.
I think McNaught needs to come clean along with DelGrosso.
I am supporting Tom Buchanan because I know where he comes from and that he is still committed to stay here.
We don’t need another republican fighting TABOR in Denver and DelGrosso has already tried to mislead me about his family so I can’t be sure he isn’t misleading me the way Don did about his politics also.
Let me second that vote. I think Loveland Reps should be once bitten twice shy with overnight conversion to conservative principles when it helps a candidate. Brian DelGrosso has done absolutely nothing to help elect conservatives in the past so all this talk is suspiciously convenient. Keep up the good work you guys rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Whether the McNaught naught eligible story was broken by a disagreable blog, or naught, seems irrelevent now that the Loveland Reporter-Herald has joined in on the issue. Eight days out from the vacancy committee meeting, and this is on the front page.
It appears that reporters, and the Larimer GOP Chair, are looking deeper into the validity of Kevan’s attorney’s endorsement of his candidacy. The Vacacny Commmittee meeting on August 13th is looking to be quite the drama. Popcorn, peanuts, pop and digital video cameras will be present.
Maybe somebody besides Don Marostica should step forward and resolve these questions:
- just where is Kevan McNaught’s residence?
- where aught he to correctly registered to vote?, and
- when will he accumulate 12 consecutive months in one district or another to qualify to be on any ballot?
///////////// Credit the Loveland Reporter-Herald\\\\\\\\\\\\
Publish Date: 8/5/2009
Candidate’s residency is questioned
McNaught’s District 51 run threatened
By Pamela Dickman
Loveland Reporter-Herald
Financial planner Kevan McNaught has said he may seek to fill the Colorado House District 51 seat vacated by Loveland Republican Don Marostica.
However, there are questions whether McNaught actually lives in the district — a requirement to serve.
Ralph – thanks for your posting but one administrative note – we did not allow the full content of the Loveland Reporter-Herald article you pasted into your post to be published here. Only a portion of the article is shown.
Copyright law protects that article from being published elsewhere without permission. You can certainly post excerpts while giving credit to the source but we cannot allow a complete republishing of the article here.
Anyone interested in reading the entire article can access it by using the link on the LovelandPolitics.com homepage that will take you to the Loveland Reporter-Herald website.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Hey everybody calm down. If you believe everything printed in the Reporter-Herald than you are one of the sheeple of Loveland.
They cleverly distorted the McNaught Naught in residence story and looks like old Ralphy bought it hook line and sinker.
Read very carefully the article. The Secretary of State’s office only said SPECIAL ELECTIONS require the 12 month continuance of residency. When you ask if that applies to APPOINTMENTS to fill a vacancy the answer different.
Kevan has established legal residency in Loveland. There is no legal issue here just a lot of meddling by Don Marostica who couldn’t keep his own campaign promises and cannot be trusted. If you believe the Herald’s definition of residency than McNaught can’t run this week because he is camping in the woods and not in Loveland. How about all you people with second homes in Drake and Estes? Are you no longer residents of the 51st because of the utility bills you pay on second homes?
By the way two friends who are precinct members in the 51st got calls from a certain Kitty Wild. She trashed McNaught and promoted guess who for this vacancy.
State Representatives are elected, period. State law and the State Constitution require 12-months of residency to hold elected office. The Reporter-Herald is not the authority in this issue.
Only administrative bureaucrats are appointed. Like Marostica getting his cushy $150,000 tax-payer funded salary.
Kevan McNaught must meet the Constitutional requirements to be a candiate for HD-51. But, in this election only the members of the Larimer Republican Party vacancy committee hold ballots.
That the rest of us may have a get-away in Drake or Estes Park is irrelevant to this discussion. No one should defy the letter and spirit of the law to manipulate owning multiple properties to cross district boundaries to seek election to a political office.
Those folks on the Vacancy Committee will have to make the tough choice and rule on whether or not a guy who moved to a lakefront McMansion in Berthoud last year is the best candidate to represent Loveland in the Legislature. That’s why it’s an election, not merely the Governor annointing someone with a fancy title and huge taxpayer salary.
They should be very careful. Otherwise, we’ll face an unending future of political carpetbaggers claiming residency and candidacy through rental/investment property shellgames.
In the future, it would be wise for ford man to correctly recognize who he is attempting to address in this forum. The Boulder party college mascot is not present. The Ford pick-up, sitting in my drive-way, is embarassed by his clumsiness.
Ralph, good points all but I am afraid you are still misinterpreting the law.
Residency is determined by a person’s intention and not their physical presence. I know that sounds weird but it is how the law is applied. The overly strict definition you are trying to impose on the McNaughts would never hold-up in court and has never been used in this country. If it were ever single member of congress living in DC would be ineligible to hold the elected offices they are in.
Imagine telling Colorado’s National Guard that every member has lost their right to vote or run in local elections if they happen to spend more than 60 days deployed outside the country. Especially if their personal home was foreclosed or their lease terminated during their absence and their spouse and children left the community to reside with parents.
As long as that soldier intends on returning to Loveland to live he has not lost any claim to continuous legal residency in that city. It looks like you want him to lose that right unless he can show he was sleeping every night in Loveland instead of Iraq.
McNaught’s attorney is certainly telling him the law and precedent from previous cases. That says any challenger to his residency has the burden of proof to show he never intended to remain in Loveland after buying property in Berthoud. Nobody can possibly prove such a thing without Kevan testifying against himself.
I don’t know all the details but if this website is correct they only sold their home a couple months ago and now lease a residence here in town that they use to live in as well.
The Berthoud house was a dilapidated property Kevan bought at auction to fix and sell. Maybe money was tight so they decided to stay in that house while fixing it and always intended to return to Loveland.
In fact, you will look foolish arguing it any further because I hear all their kids are still attending Loveland schools, I know they attend our church here in Loveland and I see them around town all the time. Saying they have no intention to remain in the community given those facts is really disingenuous on your part.
So what is the big deal? As I said before there is no legal issue here just a perception problem for Kevan manufactured by people who don’t like his politics.
By the way, Democrat Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez used an apartment in Santa Ana, California to run for congress where she never bothered to even turn on the electricity or water. Her family and she actually lived in a posh Palos Verdes house they owned (attending church school and shopping there) miles from the congressional district but she was elected to Congress anyway.
Are you willing to call for her resignation and all other Democrats (including one Denver councilmember) who really have violated or skirted the residency requirement to run for office?
Yeah, I didn’t think so………one standard for Republicans and another for Democrats.
I know this is off-topic but did anyone hear about Loveland Council laying-off police and firefighters?
When I showed your video on the home page to some friends they questioned your chart that showed increasing city expenses while revenue was same or declining.
Hmmm..they need to look at it again now in light of these cuts. It is exactly what you guys projected.
Jack,
Sounds like you’re talking through Kevan’s attorney’s mouth and you’re taking his candidacy to court rather than to voters. While it’s all shaky and built has used to be and liked to be, the heart-strings pull using the National Guard is ludicrous.
Having only 26-years of experience in that area myself, what you describe is pure fantasy and certifiably illegal at both the State and Federal levels. That’s why every order includes Home of Record (HOR). Makin’ stuff up doesn’t seem a viable strategy to establish the credentials of your candidate.
Perhaps it will be good for Kevan that would be Larimer County Republican candidates are not held to the same standards as our Fort Collins National Guardsmen who are currently overseas. I’ll need to remind myself to paste your comments into a NIPR and send it to them.
One case and issue at a time…and it seems this one will be decided in five days. Maybe the rest of those irrelevant and frivilous distractions will fare better on the floor of the Pulliam Building.
So comments that take the great Andrew Boucher and The Reporter-Herald’s Ken Amundson to task are censored herein.
Well, duh.
Yes, your comments regarding both men will continue to be deleted.
Ad hominem attacks, criminal accusations and just plain old name calling isn’t welcome and contributes nothing to this blog. You have well expressed your opinion that Ken Amundson (Loveland Reporter-Herald Managing Editor)is the kind of person who pushes children into wells, drowns puppies and lights convalescent homes on fire – yes we understand your view. Of course, he has done none of those things and making one baseless accusation after another gets very old after awhile.
Substantive comments about an issue on this website or related local news you are welcome to post. We reserve the right to prevent you from lowering the content on this blog into comments one might see on a stall in a public restroom.
Just like people who must clean public restrooms, we are tired of having to clean your dirty little comments off this blog.
“Mavis”, or whatever his name is, sounds like the kook who use to write the “Outlander” blog. He is a cyber-stalker to Boucher, and now to Lovelandpolitics.
Ford Man,
Sorry, your “dilapidated property” argument won’t work. The house was built in 2003. Take a drive down Malibu, I have. The homes are all in the $500,000 range, quite nice, a rather exclusive neighborhood. Good for Kevan for affording a McNaughtMansion. Let him challenge BJ when her term is up.
Take a look at the county website. He paid in the high $200,000’s.
Wife got a call from Kitty Wild. She said Marostica and other ‘moderates’ are supporting this Delgrosso guy for the seat. They said he has the best chance in 2010 to keep in R’ camp also your city council candidate Bob Snyder and wife are supporting DelGrosso so is CC Stevey Johnson and every other tax loving baby killing R cause that is what they were told to do by Kitty and company……new names just same ole’ tricks
Looks like a toss-up tonight. Thanks for the heads-up about DelGroso being tight with Marostica’s clapping seal Kitty Wild. What ever happened to shame? I know Kitty and she will not support ANY Republican who is pro-life or supports family values. As for the Synders (Bob and Gayle not Greg) they will do almost anything to get into the right crowd and sell more insurance. I hate to say this but I still haven’t decided and will not decide until tonight. We need someone who can get reelected next year and right now I don’t know who that is…………..hmm
I happen to know Brian DelGrosso personally and have known him for over 7 years. Brian strongly dislikes taxes. He recognizes that they are needed for certain social programs we expect the government to provide (like police officers and fire departments) but strongly opposes ANY new taxes being imposed on middle class people or businesses. He supports lower government spending so we can have lower taxes.
He also is strongly pro-life, and has been since I met him. He was raised in a Christian home and has held the belief that abortion is wrong since he was a child.
I don’t know where you’re getting your information from, but obviously not a source that actually knows anything about Brian. Maybe, just maybe someone is supporting a candidate because they support what that candidate is trying to do for the most part? (Instead of deciding based on who that person associates with or the fact that they may disagree with one part of what the candidate believes?)
To further clarify when the McNaught’s moved to Berthoud, they did indeed move in to the Malibu Drive residence soon after closing on it last November. I know people that helped them move. That alone throws them out of District 51. Couple that with the sale of their former residence in Loveland on Florida Drive in May and they still are out of District 51 prior to this election. As for the illusive rental property now in question, its at 1885 Dove Creek in Loveland. But after taking a drive by, it is vacant and has a “For Rent” sign in front. So it looks like another phony attempt by McNaught to try and fool the Republican Party into believing he lives in District 51.
A troubling issue remains…why wasn’t McNaught’s petition pulled by the Committee? Why was he allowed to give a nomination speech and receive the 8 votes – pathetic as that is. Does anyone know?
Also, will the Secretary of State and the County Clerk be investigating this any further?
DT, it’s over. McNaught lost. Get on with your life. Do you have nothing better to do with your time than drive around looking for where McNaught rented a property? And of course it is for rent now, why would he continue to pay for rent when he no longer needs the property?
Let me begin by saying I have longtime reader, first time commenter. I figured I might as well say thanks for posting this piece (and all your others), and I’ll be back!