I don’t want to start a thread arguing for or against Romney running for president or anything like that. I’m looking for straight information here, and I can’t find anything that states what Mitt Romney classes as his home state right now. I realize he’s a native of Michigan, he lived in Utah for a while, he lived in Massachusetts while governor (but has sold his house in Massachusetts,) and has (or has had) residences in New Hampshire and California and possibly other states.
So: what’s his home state right now? I suppose it doesn’t really matter much, electorally–he’ll be associated with–or not associated with–states he’s had public experience with. But where does this guy live now? I’m genuinely curious, and I can’t figure it out.
A lot of rich people who have homes in multiple states tend to structure their living situation so they can claim the state with the lowest personal income tax as their home state.
I don’t know the answer, but based on taxes alone there is no way he’d keep a house in Mass. His main residence will be the state with the lowest income taxes and the largest political clout.
It will probably come out in the wash during primary season, but it doesn’t really matter. Running for president isn’t the same thing as running for senate from a state. Except if your name is Clinton and want to run for the NY State Senate seat, of course, in which case rules can be bent.
Romney - He is a cross between Wink Martindale and the Muppets Guy Smiley.
The only rule in the Constitution is that a Senator “when elected, be an inhabitant of that state for which he shall be chosen.” So the candidate must establish residency in the state by election day. Which Hillary Clinton did. (Actually, they bought a home in New York over a year before the election.) And apparently the voters of New York accepted that; they elected her overwhelmingly (55+%).
During his presidency, G.H.W. Bush’s legal residence was a hotel suite in Texas (Houston?) even though he primarily lived in Kennebunkport, Maine. You could even stay in his “home” when Bush wasn’t in town.
It’s hard to follow his peregrinations, but I think his legal address was his son’s basement only briefly, from 2009 to 2010. I believe his current legal residence is a townhouse or condominium in Belmont, Massachusetts, which he bought in 2010. This is a different place from the house in Belmont that he owned while he was governor.
There is one point of relevance to residency when running for President: An elector from a state isn’t allowed to vote for both a President and Vice-President from his or her own state. Thus, for instance, if the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidate were both legally Texans, the Texas electors could vote for one or the other, but not both. In practice, this means it’s a really bad idea for both to be from the same state, and so Dick Cheney established residency in Wyoming before the 2000 election.
Isn’t/shouldn’t this be against the law? I understand that if you own multiple homes, you can decide which one your consider your “main” home, even if you spend less time there than you do the others.
But to just pick out a spot on the globe at random where you obviously don’t spend a fraction, if any of your life, seems to be ridiculous.
Can I buy a 10 square foot parcel of land in Alaska and claim that I live in a tent on that land? No income or sales tax, baby, plus all of the oil revenue!
