This story has been updated to include a comment from candidate Danny Seifried.
Has a challenger to an incumbent Republican legislator lived in the district long enough?
That is the question now posed in Boone Circuit Court where Erlanger voter Lucy Riffle has asked for a summary judgment against Republican Danny Seifried, the 23-year old who is challenging incumbent State Rep. Adam Koening (R-Erlanger) in next month’s primary election.
Riffle alleges that Seifried has not lived in the 69th district for a full year prior to the election as mandated by state statute. The date of the general election is November 8, 2016 and Riffle argues that voting records indicate that Seifried voted on November 3, 2015 as a resident of Rose Petal Drive in Florence, outside of the 69th District. He did not move to his current home on Palmetto Court in Florence, which is in the district, until after November 9, 2015, Riffle’s legal argument states. Seifried’s voter registration was not changed to reflect his new address until December.
Riffle wants the court to determine that Seifried is not a candidate for the office he seeks and to have his name removed from the ballot.
Seifried’s campaign responded in a statement. “This lawsuit is nothing more than an act of desperation on the part of a morally bankrupt career politician trying to divert the voters from his liberal record of increasing taxes and supporting tolls on the Brent Spence Bridge,” Seifried said. “I meet every qualification laid out in the Kentucky Constitution under section 32, and will not be intimidated by my opponent’s pathetic last ditch effort to remain in office. I am confident that this matter will be resolved quickly and I look forward to serving the people of the 69th district in Frankfort.”
Koenig, who has been a state representative since 2007 and who served as a Kenton County Commissioner and member of Villa Hills City Council prior, issued a statement on the matter.