The president of a tea party group in Wichita yesterday questioned whether a former Democratic legislator who’s running again for the Kansas House lives at the address he lists as his home, a concern the ex-lawmaker dismissed as “crazy.”
Craig Gabel, president of Kansans for Liberty, said interviews with neighbors and other information gathered by the group suggest that no one lives at the address listed by former Representative Tom Sawyer when he filed for office in June.
Gabel is challenging Sawyer’s right to run as the Democratic nominee in the 95th House District, and a state board is expected to consider Gabel’s objection later this week.
Sawyer said the allegations are politically motivated. Property tax records from Sedgwick County, available online, named Sawyer as the owner of the home listed as his residence.
Legislative directories consistently listed it as Sawyer’s home, starting in 1994, and Sawyer has been registered to vote at the address since 1993, according the Kansas secretary of state’s office.