This past Thursday, unshaven Congressman Eric Swalwell declared his candidacy for the governorship of California, despite being constitutionally disqualified to run. At the center of Swalwell’s disqualification is that to become California governor, the candidate’s true, primary, and permanent home must be in the state of California.
The California Constitution and the California Elections Code leave no ambiguity on this point. And yet, Swalwell’s own legally binding mortgage documents state, signed under penalty of perjury, that his home in Washington DC is his principal residence.
This means Eric Swalwell, by his own sworn declaration, is not domiciled in the state of California. And because domicile, and not mere mailing address, is the standard for gubernatorial eligibility according to California law, Swalwell is legally disqualified from becoming governor and must withdraw his announcement immediately.
California’s Constitutional Requirements and Election Law
California’s eligibility rules to become governor derive from the California Constitution, Article V, Section 2, which states a person is eligible to be Governor only if the person is “a citizen of the United States and a resident of this State for 5 years immediately preceding the Governor’s election.”
The operative word is resident. But in California law, “resident” does not simply mean where one receives mail or even owns property. It means “domicile”, one’s true, fixed, permanent home. California Elections Code §349 makes this point absolutely clear: “A domicile is the place where a person’s habitation is fixed and where they have the intention of remaining.” And, “At a given time, a person may have only one domicile.”
Hellbound and Down 