Sunday, August 29, 2010
Arkansas Politics Jim Keet's legal problems
Posted by Max Brantley on Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 7:34 AM
The Democrat-Gazette today ran through the Jim Keet residency issue, which I first wrote about some weeks ago. Basics are the same. The Constitution requires seven years of residency for a governor. Must it be consecutive or does cumulative residency count? Keet, the Republican nominee who spent 2003-08 in Florida, thinks the Constitution doesn't bar him. I think a court would be loathe to toss Keet should someone challenge his residency, which Gov. Mike Beebe's campaign doesn't intend to do. On the jump, I pass along a lawyer's take on this question, favorable to Keet.
But here's the thing that is not ambiguous: Keet continues to insist, contrary to a later date that he told me, that he moved to Arkansas in August 2008. He then cast an absentee ballot in Florida in November 2008. I don't know why he's insisting on sticking to that August move date rather than early 2009, as he told me (the motivation might be an interesting question). But by doing so, he's made a prima facie case that he cast an illegal vote in Florida in November 2008. A Florida resident who moves is permitted to cast an absentee ballot only if he moves AFTER the registration books have closed in his new state. They were open in Arkansas through early October in 2008. Keet moved before the books closed, by his own, repeated, account.
- BEECHCRAFT BONANZA: Photo of plane similar to Jim Keet's.
It is not exactly true, as Keet told the D-G, that some counties don't assess planes in Nevada. Here's the rule in Clark County on airplane assessment. An advisory from the Carson City assessor puts it in plain language:
Aircraft are assessed by the county in which they are physically based. If the aircraft shares time between counties or states the applicable governmental entities can share the assessment and taxes.
In other words, yes, you can avoid assessment and taxes in Nevada if a plane is physically based elsewhere. But it does not free you from taxes in those other jurisdictions. As an Arkansas judge once learned, it can be considered fraud to register property in another state as a means of avoiding taxes. I'm not leveling that charge here, but I do note that Jim Keet has been a resident of Arkansas, according to him, for two years. During that time he did not pay taxes on a plane based here and he has used as an excuse registration in another state. Problematic.
A LAWYER WRITES:
Assuming the court found Art. 6, sec. 5 (Qualifications of Governor) ambiguous, basic rules of statutory construction would take over. One of the basics is that you look at a statute (or Constitutional provision) alongside other similar statutes to determine the intent behind the vague one. Here, Art. 5, sec. 5, (Qualifications of House and Senate) explicitly states that the residency requirement is for the time preceding the election. Likewise, Amendment 80, sec. 16, says that judges have to have been licensed attorneys in this state for X years immediately preceding taking office. My guess is that the Court would determine that, because the drafters of the Constitution didn't put the temporal restriction on the Governor that they did on the House/Senate, it was purposefully omitted, and cumulative years as an Arkansas citizen are what matter. This is bolstered by the interpretive canon that you cannot add implied words to a statute if the statute makes sense without the implied words.
Comments (14)
Showing 1-14 of 14
The seemingly numerous tax foibles of Keet will do nothing to discourage his supporters. Tax evasion/avoidance is acceptable to those whose rallying cry is "Taxed Enough Already!" The statements such actions make about his lack of personal responsibility, abiding by the law of the land, and good citizenship are meaningless to the party of Palin, Limbaugh, Beck, et al. Those rules only apply to "those people" - aka poor and/or non-white, non-evangelical (evangelicals can always ask for forgiveness on Sunday, non-evangelicals are almost as bad as muslims) and/or citizens who are against the endless slate of neo-con wars.
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Shirley, the Arkansas Dems have a lawyer lurking to get inexpensive advertising by filing such a suit to knock a Republican out of the race. Imagine a Governor's election pitting a Green, a Democrat, and a motley crew of write-ins. The Republican crazies would have to learn how to spell.
I'm sure whatever legal technicalities that may be involved are the fault of Keet's wife. After all, she got the blame for all the late tax payments, etc. last week. No way he could be responsible for keeping up with that airplane and everything else he has to keep up with.
As Hugh Mann put it a few nights ago, Keet always pays his taxes and on time, except when he doesn't.
Seen a lot of political sleaze over time and this will be rated right at the top. Republicans are like pickup drivers they have their own set of road rules and law.
Where are all of those "birther" Republicans who feigned outrage over Obama's supposedly missing birth certificate? An imaginary violation of law by a Democrat is more important to lawnorder Republicans than actual violation of constitutional requirements by one of their own. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the proper gander.
As usual, Democrats are too nice to respond unkind to Republicans. R's have got to learn that their histrionics and lies are going to come back and bite them in their asses.
The gall of Keet to blame his wife for financial mistakes. He didn't make his millions by being a financial dunce. He knew where every penny was and was not going.
Let him get away with this (the residency and tax lies) and the other Republicans will realize (more than they currently do) that Democrats are just patsies who just roll over and be rolled over.
I don't know if it is the fault of Keet's wife or not, but a man who would blame this situation on his wife has no honor.
Keet is a Republican. Tax laws don't really apply to them. What more can you say?
Looks to me like Jim Keet is getting his airplane advice from Mike Huckabee. You all are right though, tax laws don't apply to Republicans, and as Huckabee showed, screw Arkansas when you find a deal in Florida that saves you a little tax money. It's a wonder Wal-Mart doesn't register their trucks in the Cayman Islands.
I have as much chance of being Arkansas's next governor as Keet does, so whatever stuff on Keet falls out of the cracks, it won't make much difference. Beebe will win by a mile. Who knows...maybe this airplane screw up will turn out to be the mistake of Keet's girlfriend? Tax evasion is always more fun with a hot woman on the side.
Max, what is the tail number of that plane? It would be interesting to FOI the FAA for the flight plans from the past few years.
Yes, to everything....BUT, Jim Keet is against burdening our grandchildren with debts.
I seen it on TV.
I always wondered what Arkansas debts would be burdening future generations?
The debts of unpaid taxes?
If an enterprising lawyer did file suit that removed Keet from the ballot after the cut-off date for a replacement, what would happen to the status of the Republican as a recognized political party? Guess they would have to gather signatures like the Green Party -- or hope to rely on the ACLU legal team for ballot access.
Now that would be entertaining.
They'd get just about the same number of votes running no one. Those that will vote Republican in November will with or without a Republican candidate...they're obviously not paying attention anyway.
It would be fun to watch the Republicans gather signatures and count them in the manner of Jeannie Burlsworth and Secure Arkansas. They'd no doubt collect 5 million signatures overnight. So much for Mathpublicans.
Keet not only blames his wife for not paying all the bills correctly, but I saw in print with my own two eyes somewhere -- Here or in the fort smith paper, DBI?? -- that her name is Margaret (Doody) Keet, Doody apparently being her nickname.
now how bout THAT for first lady of Arkansas? all those pictures they make every year with every single high school valedictorian and salut. with their parents would include "Doody Keet," Arkansas's First Lady.
The one thing that might help Keet, not that he has a snowballs chance in hell, would be if somehow he shut up, quit talking, took a few days off to rest, no interviews ---because everything he says digs the hole he's in a little deeper.
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