The Republican Party of Texas on Thursday blasted longtime state Rep. Jim Dunnam, claiming the lawmaker is living in a home in McGregor outside his House district.

Dunnam, the Democratic leader in the House, claimed the McGregor property as his residence until the 2001 redistricting, when Republicans drew it out of his district.

State Rep. Jim Dunnam owns properties in House District 56, where his children attend school, and House District 57, which he represents.
Scott Fagner/Tribune-Herald graphic

He since has claimed as his residence a house near the old Hillcrest hospital and, in the last half of the decade, a ranch in Chilton.

House District 57, which Dunnam represents, includes parts of McLennan County and all of Falls, Leon, Madison and Robertson counties.

“We have become absolutely convinced that he does not live in the district,” Texas Republican Party Chairman Steve Munisteri said at a news conference at the Clarion Hotel in downtown Waco.

As evidence, Munisteri presented recent photographs of both properties.

“You’ll note no one’s tending the lawn and overgrown grass,” Munisteri said of the Chilton property, adding that “as far as we can tell, there’s no activity on a regular basis at this home.”

By contrast, Munisteri called the McGregor property “a really nice landscaped home.”

Munisteri referred to a close-up of Dunnam’s driveway showing “cars bearing official state of Texas license plates, which tells you this is where he is.”

Dunnam said his residence is in Chilton and he and his wife held on to their McGregor home to keep his children in their school district.

“My children have been in the Midway School District since pre-kindergarten and have been in classes with the same kids, and we decided we’re going to maintain a house where they can continue to go to school there,” Dunnam said.

“We were not willing to disrupt their education for politics.”

Munisteri called Dunnam’s argument that he has kept his McGregor home to keep his children in the same school “a facade.”

Munisteri said the question is whether he lives with his children at the McGregor house, which is in a neighboring House district.

Dunnam said he would not detail where he stayed on any given night, citing the safety of his wife and family.

But he said, “I’ve spent a significant amount of money to provide a nice home in Falls County that I’m extremely proud of,” and also mentioned his deep ties to the House district.

Grass is for hay

As far as the unmown grass on the Chilton ranch, Dunnam said that was by design.

“I cut and sell about 200 rolls of hay a year off the place,” he said, “and before I bought it was owned by the Thigpen Cattle Co. and used as a hay place.”

“Between the house and the road, it’s supposed to be high,” Dunnam said. “I do try and cut it close to the house, but I don’t do it as much as my wife wants me to.”

Past opponents of Dunnam also have challenged his residency, most recently during a 2002 race.

In 1996, Dunnam said his Republican opponent hired someone to determine where his then-pregnant wife was staying.

“This is the third time since I ran for office that Republicans have had private investigators or whatever following my wife and kids,” he said. “It just shows the lack of anything substantive for the Republican Party.”

In 2002, Dunnam’s opponent, Baylor University graduate student Jeffrey Hibbs, sued to have Dunnam declared ineligible in Leon County. A judge dismissed the suit.

Republican Party of Texas Chairman Steve Munisteri argued during a Thursday event at the Clarion Hotel in Waco that State Rep. Jim Dunnam doesn’t live in his the district he represents.
Jerry Larson/Tribune-Herald

No lawsuit intended

Munisteri said the state Republican Party doesn’t intend to take Dunnam to court.

“Residency cases are extremely difficult to win,” he said, because the state’s standard for determining residency is based in part on a candidate’s “intended residence.”

“You can be absent from a location for a significant period of time and still be determined to be in the district legally,” Munisteri said.

But “there’s a difference between legally being in the district and really in the district.”

Munisteri also swatted away a reporter’s comparison of the Republican challenge to Dunnam’s residency to Democrats’ recent challenges to the residency of state Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury.

Democrats, and two of Birdwell’s Republican special election opponents, argued that he was not eligible to run for Senate because of a five-year residency requirement.

Birdwell’s opponents pointed to his voting record from the state of Virginia.

“Nobody disputes that Sen. Birdwell currently lives in the district he’s trying to represent,” Munisteri said.

He also pointed out that when Birdwell was in Virginia, he was undergoing medical treatment for burns incurred while at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, when the building was struck by a hijacked passenger plane.

Marva Beck, the Leon County Republican running against Dunnam, did not attend Munisteri’s press conference and could not be reached for comment after the event.

mshapiro@wacotrib.com

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