ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PARISH, La. — In a curious case of old-fashioned Louisiana political intrigue, a state House candidate in the River Parishes acknowledges in qualifying documents that he doesn’t live in the district he’s seeking to represent.
Albert “Ali” Burl III, a Democrat and longtime St. John the Baptist Parish School Board member, is essentially daring one of his seven opponents in the District 57 House race to stop him, even though his qualifying papers and other public documents show he’s domiciled in District 81.
Even stranger, several of those opponents told WWL-TV on Tuesday that they either couldn’t or wouldn’t be bothered to pursue the legal process required to stop him. On Wednesday, one candidate told the TV station he and another candidate had agreed to share the cost of filing a lawsuit to object to Burl’s candidacy.
Article 3, Section 4 of the State Constitution lays out the qualifications to run for and serve in the state Legislature. It says a candidate must have “been actually domiciled for the preceding year in the legislative district from which he seeks election” or, if districts have been redrawn since the last election, the candidate must have lived in the old district and has a year to move to the new one if he or she wins.
In paperwork filed with the St. John the Baptist Parish Clerk of Court last Friday, Burl lists a house in Garyville as his official domicile and gave a post office box in Garyville as his official address.
No part of Garyville is in District 57, nor was it in the district prior to the recent redistricting.
District 57 includes part of the east bank of St. John the Baptist Parish, all of the west bank of St. John and portions of the west bank of St. Charles Parish. Garyville is upriver from District 57, on the east bank of St. John. The whole municipality is in District 81, which covers parts of the east bank of St. John and St. James parishes.
Burl confirmed he lives in Garyville during a phone interview with WWL-TV, but insisted he meets the qualifications to run in District 57.
“If a candidate has any objections to it, why don’t they object? It’s their prerogative to object,” Burl said.
Asked how he meets the qualifications if he isn’t domiciled in the district, Burl said, “If I was under oath and challenged in court I would say. But until I’m challenged in court under oath, I will not state or answer any questions in regards to it.”
State law gives any voter in the district until 4:30 p.m. Thursday to file a lawsuit objecting to a candidate who filed by last Friday’s deadline.
“I’m at a loss for words that people would make a mockery out of our democracy,” said one of Burl’s opponents, Larry Sorapuru Jr. of Edgard, a former St. John parish councilman and one of five Democrats in the race.
But asked if he would file an action objecting to Burl’s candidacy, Sorapuru said, “I don’t think it’s worth my time or money to do that. I don’t consider him a threat to my winning.”
Russ Wise, a No Party candidate in the District 57 race who has served on the school board with Burl and been friends with him for over a decade, said he called Burl on Tuesday to say he might have to object, but wasn’t sure.
“Everyone agrees there’s something wrong. But will anybody act on it?” he said Tuesday. “I’m trying to decide whether obeying the law supersedes my long friendship with Ali Burl.”
Wednesday morning he told WWL-TV that another candidate had agreed to share the cost of a lawsuit with him.
Shondrell Perrilloux, former president of the St. John the Baptist Chapter of the NAACP and the only Republican in the race, said she would have lodged a formal objection but is on vacation until after Thursday’s deadline and can’t get to the courthouse to file suit.
“When I return, I would like a press conference to raise awareness to the compromise of public trust and how we should prevent this from happening again,” she said.
But WWL-TV Political Analyst Clancy DuBos said by then, it will be too late to stop Burl’s candidacy.
“If nobody challenges him by 4:30 Thursday, he will legally appear on the ballot,” DuBos said.
What’s more, DuBos said it’s unlikely anyone would be able to stop Burl from taking the District 57 House seat if he wins the election. That would require a House member to raise a challenge and the whole chamber to vote not to seat him; a rare feat, DuBos said.
“There have been plenty of other instances where representatives and senators did not live in the district, and the inclination has been that if the voters elect someone, (the other legislators) are not going to do something to disturb the voters’ choice,” he said.
Most notably, former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke won a House seat in 1989 after an investigation found he lived outside the district. Objections were made by House members, but they weren’t successful.
But, unlike most of those previous cases of candidates deceiving voters about their true domicile, Burl has never claimed to live in District 57.
“He’s admitting it,” DuBos said. “He’s not lying and not trying to fool anybody.”
DuBos suspects there’s a strategic reason Burl entered the crowded field to replace Rep. Randall Gaines, who is term-limited.
Burl’s “responses suggest there’s some political intrigue at play here and, as is often the case in Louisiana, it’s not easy to plumb the depths of political intrigue,” DuBos said. “But perhaps it will come out as the campaign progresses. I certainly expect the voters and the other candidates to raise this issue” on the campaign trail.
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