HARRISBURG – Fighting to hold on to the seat she won in last month’s election, Democratic Sen.-elect Lindsey Williams of Allegheny County on Monday turned over 97 pages of records to fend off Republican accusations that she has not lived in the state long enough to legally serve in the Legislature.
In the documents, filed with Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, Ms. Williams contends that she met the state constitutional requirement that anyone running for the Legislature must have lived in the state for four years prior to the election.
Ms. Williams disclosed for the first time that she moved to Pennsylvania from Maryland on Nov. 6, 2014 -- four years to the day of this year’s election. She said she temporarily moved in with friends in Pittsburgh who agreed to let her stay with them until she could find a permanent residence. The friends provided sworn affidavits that Ms. Williams stayed with them.
“Our position is that there is no indication in any fact that she failed to establish her domicile in Pennsylvania,” Charles A. Pascal Jr., Williams’ lawyer, said in an interview Monday night.
During the run-up to last month’s election, Republicans challenged whether Ms. Williams, who is to represent the 38th state Senate District north of Pittsburgh, met the residency requirement.
They contended that public documents from 2014 – including papers switching her voter registration to Pennsylvania – showed that she did not meet the cutoff to legally run for office.
A Commonwealth Court judge dismissed the GOP challenge on a technicality without ruling on the facts in the case.
After Ms. Williams was elected, Mr. Scarnati demanded that she provide documentation backing up her assertion that she had established residency in Pennsylvania four years before the Nov. 6 election. Republicans, who hold the majority in the chamber, could vote to block Ms. Williams from being seated in the Legislature when lawmakers are sworn in Jan. 1.
On Monday evening, GOP leaders did not appear convinced.
In a statement, Drew Crompton, the Senate’s top Republican lawyer, said: “The materials supplied by Ms. Williams answer some questions, but certainly raise new issues.”
Mr. Crompton said Mr. Scarnati has hired legal counsel to review Ms. Williams’ findings.
“Ms. Williams seems to have intended to locate to Pennsylvania in early November but the question remains whether she actually did so to meet the Constitutional requirement,” he said.
In previous weeks, the GOP has cited Ms. Williams’ decision to vote in Maryland in the November 2014 election. It has also pointed to a Pennsylvania speeding ticket she paid in early November of that year, in which she lists a Maryland address; and paperwork showing that she registered to vote in Allegheny County in December 2014.
Ms. Williams has said she received a job offer in Allegheny County in October 2014, accepted it Nov. 2, 2014, and drove to Pennsylvania in late October 2014 to begin the moving process.
Last month, she defeated Jeremy Shaffer, a Ross commissioner, by about 800 votes. The district includes many of the North Hills and Alle-Kiski Valley suburbs, as well as Pittsburgh neighborhoods in the eastern 11th and 12th wards.
First Published: December 11, 2018, 2:47 a.m.
