Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Where Does Senator Mary Easley Live? She Lists District 'Office' Outside Her Own District

Where does State Senator Mary Easley live?

Is it Tulsa, in the District 18 area the Democrat represents, an approximately 210-220 mile roundtrip from the Capitol in Oklahoma City?

Is it Owasso, outside her district, where she was living in last year's reelection campaign, an approximately 230-mile roundtrip?

Or is it somewhere else farther north (like Grand Lake), shown in a Senate document as a 336-mile roundtrip?

Tuesday's Senate Journal lists mileage reimbursement for Easley and it shows "Tulsa 230 (miles)" and "$111.55" reimbursement. The "230" and "$111.55" are marked out, however, and replaced with "336" (miles) and "$162.96."
Easley's Senate profile contains a relatively new listing for a "district office." That listing is "106 S. Cherokee Lane, Grand Lake Towne, OK 74301." She also lists a Tulsa post office box number as an "office" address. The State of Oklahoma shows the Grand Lake Towne address to be outside the district she represents.
Grand Lake Towne is on the southwestern end of Grand Lake in Mayes County and is at the northeastern-most edge of the district she represents. The Legislature's own system for finding out what Senate district an address is located in shows the address in Grand Lake Towne to be in Senate District 29, represented by Republican Senator John Ford.
Last year, controversy erupted over Mary Easley's place of residence when it was revealed she had moved into Owasso. Senate Republican leader Glenn Coffee said, "Mary Easley now resides at an Owasso address in Senate District 34." He added, "She is clearly skirting state election laws by living at her new address while running for office and voting using an old address,"Coffee said. Easley's move prompted ads like the one at left. Coffee noted at the time that state law requires candidates to live in the district they seek to represent. "Mary Easley has left her district behind," Coffee said. "How can she represent the people of District 18 when she doesn't even want to live there?"
Here's what blogger Michael Bates of http://www.Batesline.com reported last November 2nd: "Mary Easley, who moved out of her State Senate district, SD 18, to Owasso in SD 34, has a new TV ad, now claiming that she lives in a house somewhere in northeastern Mayes County, at the opposite end of the district from her old house in east Tulsa. The ad never mentions the name of the town, but it refers to Cherokee Lane, shows a house that appears to have the house number 106 on it, and then shows a map with an arrow pointing somewhere east of Langley. The only Cherokee Lane I find in the area is in Grand Lake Towne, a tiny municipality just south of Ketchum, just south of the Craig / Mayes County line. There is someone registered to vote at 106 Cherokee Lane: Lucille K. Howard, a 68 year old Republican. But this is silly, I thought to myself. Surely, Sen. Easley listed her true address on her declaration of candidacy. But she listed a P.O. Box in Tulsa -- 690027 -- no way to tell if that's in the district. And where is she registered to vote? As of July 1, just a few weeks after filing for office, she was still registered at 9909 E 12th St, Tulsa, as was her husband Truman. That was their home in the handful of precincts where her old House District, HD 78, overlaps SD 18. (Truman's record lists the P.O. Box as his mailing address, although Mary's does not.) Between November '05 and July 1, 2006, Mary didn't vote, while Truman voted by absentee ballot in the Tulsa city primary, city general, and the 3rd Penny sales tax renewal. But when you do a phone search on AT&T's Anywho service, Mary and Truman Easley still show up in Owasso at 19009 E Knightsbridge Rd. There aren't any listed phone numbers for an Easley near Langley, Ketchum, Disney, or Grand Lake Towne, or indeed on a street named Cherokee anywhere in Oklahoma."

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