It seems as though recent State Assembly candidate Sunder Ramani is being investigated by the District Attorneys office as to whether or not he actually lives in the 43rd Assembly District.
The L.A. Times story goes on to mention that Sunder was being very open before the election about having a home in the La Cañada-Flintridge area. Ramani stated that he was moving into the District to run for the office.
Spin Master John Thomas says it is just "political opportunism".
Unlike the Richard Alarcon case, I actually have sympathy for Ramani. He is a businessman in Burbank and Glendale and wanted to run in the district. I think as a candidate, he should be given some flexibility.
He is not the elected official in that District, Mike Gatto is.
It is one thing to run for office declaring your intention to move should you be elected.
It is a totally different thing to represent your District for multiple years and not be there.
I don't think the current laws are fair to candidates who may live very close to the District they want to represent. If you don't win the election, it is a lot of uprooting your life just to run for the chance to be elected.
If you win, however, I expect representatives to be honest with their voters.
This is why I despise Richard Alarcons lies so much.
He is filled with contempt for voters... and why shouldn't he be?
The voters in the 7th District were dumb enough to elect a man who wanted nothing to do with them.
Ramani would have been a lot different. He's a good guy.
I know people who worked on his campaign.
