On Monday a New York judge ruled that Governor Andrew Cuomo will face a little-known challenger in the Democratic primary slated for September 9.
The court’s decision, which finds that Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham University law professor satisfies the constitutional residency requirement to run for governor, provides a look into the factors that courts consider in reaching such determinations.
“New York courts have recognized that, in our modern mobile society, an individual can have more than one bona fide residence,” Judge Edgar Walker wrote for the trial court.
To be eligible to run for governor in New York a person must be at least 30 years old and have resided in the state for at least five years preceding the election. Under New York law, residency requires that a person be physically present with the intent to remain for a time.
The Cuomo camp contended that despite moving to New York City in 2009, Teachout continued to use her parent’s Vermont address as her address for her driver’s license, car registration, North Carolina bar registration, tax withholding forms and other documents filed with the federal and state governments. Cuomo’s camp also argued that Teachout had reported on her 2009 federal income tax return that she lived zero days in New York City and did not pay city taxes.
Teachout countered that notwithstanding her using the Vermont address as her mailing address and taking trips to the state for family visits and summer vacations, she always returned to New York with the intent to make the state her primary residence.
She also presented evidence that she has maintained a residence in the Empire State continuously since moving to New York City in June 2009, when she arrived here to begin teaching at Fordham, and that she paid taxes in New York and North Carolina for the portions of 2009 that she lived in each state.
The governor’s team did not present proof sufficient to invalidate Teachout’s residency in the state, the court found. “Petitioners have failed to establish, under the clear and convincing evidentiary standard, that Ms. Teachout did not reside in the State of New York after June 2009, to the present date with the intent of making it her permanent home,” wrote Walker. “Whether or not Ms. Teachout misrepresented her actual residence address to regulatory bodies in New York or elsewhere for self-interested purposes, any improprieties are for bodies to address and not relevant to this determination.”
Teachout hailed the ruling. “Today we beat the Governor and his old boys club in court,” she said in a statement.
Martin Connor, a lawyer for Cuomo, told reporters the governor will appeal.