Where in Memphis is Larry Miller?

David Vinciarelli, an independent candidate for Tennessee House District 88 (which includes North Memphis, Frayser, and parts of Bartlett), has filed a lawsuit against his Democratic opponent and incumbent Larry Miller. He claims that Miller no longer lives in the district he represents and should be disqualified from the race.

The 16-year state representative gives his residence as 784 Ayers on his voter registration card, yet his driver's license, motor vehicle registration, and campaign finance report shows his home to be 1778 Overton Park, which is in District 89. The Ayers residence, a brick duplex with windows boarded up and valued at $38,000, isn't even owned by Miller; the Overton Park home, a two-story residence bought four years ago and valued at $280,000, is owned by him. His "neighbors" on Ayers weren't even aware that their state representative lived there. "No I never heard of that til you said something," one neighbor told a Memphis station WREG TV reporter. He did make a trip through the neighborhood telling constituents that he planned to put a campaign office at the duplex, but only after the lawsuit came about.

Rep. Miller won't talk about the lawsuit to the Memphis media but tells the Memphis Commercial Appeal "there's complexity there" in the residency question. He claims the lawsuit is politically motivated. Vinciarelli believes it's simply a matter of telling the truth. "The law says you have to live in your district that you're representing," he told the Commercial Appeal. "He's basically fooling his constituents."

Residency can be a sticky issue, most recently brought up in 2005 when another Memphis Democrat, scandalous former state senator John Ford, claimed two residences, neither one being in his district! The senate responded by passing legislation that prohibited representatives from claiming a business location as a residence. An attorney with the Tennessee Attorney General's office believes the point is moot until Election Day, when a candidate must officially live in the district.

If there is no specific criteria given that a candidate for public office must live a certain amount of time at their listed residence, there certainly should be. It would seem like common sense, but then again when has politics made sense?