I really haven’t spent as much time as I should have focusing on the Senate races that are tight this year. I guess with Keyes so far behind Obama here in Illinois, I haven’t really been motivated to look elsewhere.

But I did run across this story over at PowerLine:

Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) may have forfeited his South Dakota residency last year when he and his wife purchased a $2 million home in an exclusive Washington, DC neighborhood. The Senate minority leader declared the mansion to be his “principal place of residence” when he applied for a property tax credit intended to help DC homeowners cope with sky-rocketing property values in the city.

It would appear that Daschle voluntarily surrendered his residency in South Dakota with his April 2003 declaration. Under state statute, Daschle would no longer be eligible to hold elective office in South Dakota or represent it in Washington.

Under South Dakota law, Daschle’s seat became vacant upon executing the affidavit designating Washington, DC as his domicile. SDCL 3-4-1(5) stipulates that vacancy occurs when an officeholder ceases “to be a resident of the state, district, county, township, or precinct in which the duties of his office are to be exercised or for which he may have been elected.”

Article 1, Section 3, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution states, “No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.”

Don’t think that Larry Clayman and the folk over at Judicial Watch won’t be on top of this like white on rice.

I had an old college friend who worked for John Thune’s campaign in 2002, and I really hope Thune knocks Daschle, with or without this scandal.