Residency snag may doom Demo

As if Salt Lake County elections weren't chaotic enough this year, county officials have learned that council candidate Steven Shamy, running for the District 2 seat, does not live in that district.

"Basically, he can't take office even if he were to run and win," County Clerk Sherrie Swensen said.

Democrat Shamy lives on Oxford Way in West Valley City in District 3, only a few blocks from the District 2 border on 4000 West.

Swensen, who found out about the problem Wednesday, will meet with Shamy today to figure out what to do. She says the most likely scenario is that he will withdraw from the race.

From all accounts, Shamy, who was traveling Thursday and unavailable for comment, simply made a mistake. "He was really sad and upset and concerned" when he was told of the problem, Swensen said.

County Democratic Party chairwoman Nichole Adams said the party probably won't seek to replace Shamy. District 2, on the county's west side, is heavily Republican, and any Democratic candidate there is an extreme long shot to win.

That's good news for Swensen, who is already wrestling with a ballot question in the Salt Lake County mayoral race.

"I certainly hope they don't" try to replace him, she said.

Shamy had raised slightly more than $1,000 in his campaign, according to a Sept. 15 financial disclosure report. Incumbent Republican Michael Jensen had raised more than $15,000.

Interestingly, while Swensen and most everybody else at the county was in the dark, Jensen's administrative assistant, Ryan Perry, has known about Shamy's residency problem for a month. After a Sept. 23 debate, Perry says, in which Shamy was talking about issues curiously outside the scope of District 2 matters, he looked up the Democrat's home address and found out the truth.

"I wasn't quite sure how to handle it," Perry said. "I didn't know if Michael should know about it. I was unclear on what the law was and what should happen."

Perry decided to approach Jensen, but only obliquely.

"I found out something about Steve," he told the councilman. "It's pretty damaging to him, and probably fatal. Do you want to know what it is?"

Jensen said no.

Perry ultimately concluded that, since Jensen was likely to beat Shamy anyway, the residency situation didn't matter. The matter was dropped.

In hindsight, Perry said, "I should maybe have sought legal advice, but I didn't feel that was my place."

As for Jensen, he said there has been "some speculation" for the past few weeks that there could be a problem with Shamy's address, but he didn't follow up.

"I had a couple of people say, 'Hey, I think he's outside the district,' but my focus was on my race and my campaign."

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E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com