NC Senate candidate challenges opponent's residency
A Republican candidate for the North Carolina Senate challenged his potential Democratic opponent's campaign for the office Wednesday, questioning whether she's eligible to run.
Sen. Lisa Grafstein, D-Wake, was double-bunked in the General Assembly's latest round of redistricting, meaning the Senate's Republican majority drew Grafstein into the same district as fellow Democratic Sen. Jay Chaudhri. That meant if both ran for reelection they'd have to run against each other.
Grafstein said she would move instead and run next year in the newly drawn 13th Senate District, which is open under the new map.
But that would mean Grafstein no longer lives in the district she represents now. Scott Lassiter, a former Apex town councilman who sued Speaker of the House Tim Moore this year for having an affair with Lassiter's wife, is also running in the 13th District. He said Wednesday that he challenged Grafstein's residency with the Wake County Board of Elections.
"Either Senator Grafstein resides at her North Raleigh home, which she owns, and is thus eligible to continue serving in the state senate, or she resides at the location indicated on her voter registration near Willow Springs, making her ineligible for Senate service but eligible to run for office," Lassiter said in a news release. "She can't have it both ways.”
The North Carolina Republican Party previously called on Grafstein to resign her current seat, which she has declined to do. The Senate's Republican majority could vote to eject her, but Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger said recently that he didn't expect that to happen.
Lassiter, who is also on the Wake County Soil and Water Conservation District Board, said he wanted to file this challenge now and get the issue "squared away" early in the campaign.
"We want to ensure that she is indeed qualified," he said.
Grafstein called the challenge "baseless and political."
"I'm confident that the challenge will be rejected by the Board of Elections," she said.
Grafstein is the only Democrat running in the district. Lassiter has an opponent in the Republican primary: Vicki Harry of Fuquay Varina.
There's a Libertarian in the race as well: Susan Hogarth of Raleigh.
