Candidate’s St. Cloud residency rejected

12/17/2005

By Rachel E. Stassen-Berger
Pioneer Press, St. Paul, MN

Sue Ek lived in St. Paul in July, a Ramsey County district judge decided Friday.

While that may be a fact only her friends and family cared about at the time, Judge George Stephenson’s finding has much wider ramifications. Ek, a Republican, is on the ballot in a special election in two weeks to represent the St. Cloud area in the Minnesota House of Representatives. In order to be an eligible candidate, she would have had to live in her St. Cloud district for at least six months before the election or by at least June 27.

Stephenson’s decision, though, doesn’t end the dispute. On Monday, the state Supreme Court will hear arguments to determine whether Ek, 42, can still be a candidate in the Dec. 27 special election after Stephenson’s ruling. If she is knocked off the ballot, that leaves the very real possibility there will not be a Republican in the election.
The case is equal parts politics and personal business.

“This is nothing more than an extension of a political campaign,” prominent Republican attorney Tony Trimble argued on Ek’s behalf in a court hearing Friday.

But the tools of this political campaign aren’t lawn signs, stump speeches or lapel stickers.

Instead, to a swiftly called hearing Friday, Trimble brought along records from Ek’s allergist, dentist and physician, along with a mailing Ek received for a cruise line. All her doctors are in St. Cloud and the mailing and medical bills were sent to her in St. Cloud, where she says she now lives with her parents.

Ek offered further proof that she moved from St. Paul to the place that she says has always been her home — St. Cloud. She brought her parents themselves to the courtroom.

“How do you know she’s come home?” Trimble asked Mary Catherine Ek, Sue Ek’s 71-year-old mother.

“She’s there with her belongings,” came the reply. Ek, her mother and her father all testified that Sue Ek moved to her parents’ St. Cloud home by the first week of June.

But prominent Democratic-Farmer-Labor attorney Alan Weinblatt said in court that the story is quite a bit more complicated than that. He represents a St. Cloud voter who claims that Ek doesn’t belong on the special election ballot because she isn’t a resident.

Weinblatt offered what he called a “smoking gun” — an affidavit Ek signed July 9 pledging that she lived in a St. Paul home on Niles Avenue at that time. The affidavit was part of an agreement that allowed her to run a small nonprofit out of the Niles house, which is also owned by Ek’s parents.

She had reached the agreement with the city of St. Paul’s licensing and zoning department after the city received complaints from neighbors that there were too many people coming and going from the house.
The St. Paul inspector who put together the agreement, Yaya Diatta, testified in court Friday that Ek was clear about the intent of the document.

“Did you ask Ms. Ek, ‘Is this your home?’ “ Weinblatt asked.

“I did,” said Diatta.

“Did she tell you she lived there?” Weinblatt restated.

“Yes,” said Diatta. “She did.”

Ek admits to living in St. Paul for the past four years, until this spring, and running Billings Ovulation Method Association USA, a tiny nonprofit headed by her mother, out of the residence. The organization promotes natural family planning. Living and working in the same place saved the association money on rent and her parents money on taxes.

Ek was confused when she signed the St. Paul document, Trimble said.

“It’s simply a mistake. She should have taken more time. Perhaps she should have read it. Of course, she should have,” Trimble told the judge.

Ek said she just skimmed the affidavit.

“I am terrible about reading documents,” she said.

In his written conclusion to the case released late Friday, Stephenson said Diatta was the only objective, disinterested witness and that “Ek’s testimony on this crucial issue is simply not credible.”

Ek and DFL candidate Larry Haws are vying to replace Rep. Joe Opatz, a Democrat who is stepping down to serve as interim president of Central Lakes College in Brainerd.