GOP skeptical in residency dispute with new Senate Democrat

HARRISBURG >> Republicans in Pennsylvania expressed continued skepticism Tuesday that a newly elected Democratic legislator meets constitutional requirements to serve in the state Senate as Democrats compared the threats to block her with GOP hardball tactics in other states.

Lawyers for Democrat Lindsey Williams on Monday submitted legal arguments and affidavits that they say should satisfy any concerns that she doesn’t meet residency requirements.

The 97-page package went to Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, whose office said Tuesday that Williams’ information “answers some questions but certainly raises new issues.” The question remains whether she meets the constitutional requirement, it said.

The Senate’s Republican majority is threatening to bar Williams from taking her seat, a move that could force a special election in the spring and give Republicans another shot at keeping the Pittsburgh-area seat that Williams won narrowly in the Nov. 6 election.

The showdown is raising accusations by Williams’ allies that Republicans are trying to steal the election, while Republicans insist they are trying to do the right thing under the state constitution.

Williams’ lawyers said they have seen no reason why Williams does not meet the constitutional requirement that senators be “citizens and inhabitants” of Pennsylvania for four years before they are elected. Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, DAllegheny, said he stands by Williams and believes she meets the requirement.

Williams, 35, has maintained that she accepted a job offer with the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers in the days before Nov. 6, 2014, and had begun moving her things from Maryland, where she lived with her sister and brother-in-law.