Augustus Shaw, Republican candidate for State Representative, has been kicked out of the race by a judge because he doesn't live in the right district.
The ruling by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Edward Burke prohibits Shaw's name from appearing on the primary ballot in Tempe's District 17 this year. Shaw lives a few miles away in south Tempe's District 20 with his wife and kids, though he had claimed to be living at his in-law's house.
Burke found the evidence against Shaw presented in yesterday's court hearing, (which we detailed in a blog post earlier today), very persuasive. For instance, the judge noted, Shaw's wife testified that the candidate sleeps in the District 20 home five to seven nights a week.
And, as we had noted, the testimony by Shaw's father-in-law, Peter Bergsneider, was especially damning.
Bergsneider told the judge that Shaw asked him about using the District 17 home as his place of residence a few weeks before Shaw launched his campaign for State Representative. Burke's minute entry quotes some of that testimony in transcript form:
THE WITNESS: He said that he wanted to run for office and that he wanted to represent my district.
THE COURT: And?
THE WITNESS: And asked me if he could use my house for his legal residence...
Burke also had questions about Shaw's claim that he "moved" to his in-laws' home in District 17 because of his disabled son.
Burke wrote that he found Shaw's testimony about his son "compelling."
Yet "because it was so compelling," the judge added, "the court would think that his father-in-law would have known of this reason and have been able to articulate it while on the stand when asked by the court. He did not."
Shaw, who's being backed by Sheriff Joe Arpaio, told the court yesterday he knows he could have won a Legislative seat in District 20.
Now he'll get his chance to find out -- in a couple of years.
