Grants Pass voters trying to oust state Representative Christine Goodwin and prevent her from running for the state Senate say she was never eligible to run for her current House seat.
The Oregonian reports documents filed as part of a lawsuit alleging that Goodwin lives outside the House district she represents show that she listed the Myrtle Creek home where she lived for decades, but that is just outside her district as her address on a state business registration dated July 6, 2022. Goodwin signed the document attesting under penalty of perjury that the Myrtle Creek address was correct.
To be eligible to run for her House seat, Goodwin had to have lived within the House District 4 boundary as of January 1, 2022. The lawsuit contends that the document helps to prove Goodwin was never eligible to run for the District 4 seat because she hadn't lived in the district for the requisite amount of time.
Five days ahead of the residency deadline to run for a House seat in 2022, Goodwin switched her voter registration address from her longtime Myrtle Creek home to a residential property in Canyonville, within District 4 lines, the Douglas County Clerk's Office confirmed to The Oregonian earlier this month.
Goodwin, a Republican, won the uncontested election to represent House District 4, which stretches from south of Myrtle Creek to the area east of Grants Pass. She's now seeking the Republican nomination for Senate District 2 to replace outgoing Senator Art Robinson. To be eligible to seek that seat, she may not live in the Myrtle Creek house, but the Canyonville home that is her voter address qualifies.
But her effort to run for that seat has been challenged by the lawsuit filed earlier this month by four local voters and the chair of the Josephine County Commission.
Goodwin has called the lawsuit an attack by supporters of Noah Robinson, Art Robinson's son and her opponent in this spring's Senate primary race. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for April 5th.
