Rep. Little accused of living outside district

Group charges Rick Little with living at a home that, until recently, was located outside the N.M. House district he represents; Little says he’s been primarily living at his business address, which has been in the district since before he ran for office.

State Rep. Rick Little says there’s a simple explanation for why he lists the address for his business, not a nearby home he owns, as his primary residence: He and his wife are divorced; she lives in the home, and he lives on the business property.

The two are in the process of “reconciling” their relationship, and Little said he does spend time at the home at 2301 Nike Air Road in Chaparral. But the Republican said his primary residence is a double-wide modular home located on the business property at 305 Mesilla View Drive.

“I sleep here most of the time,” Little told NMPolitics.net. “I’m not saying I sleep here all the time, but this is my main place.”

Little’s explanation came after the left-leaning group ProgressNow New Mexico accused him on Monday of representing a district in which he didn’t live – at least until recently, when redistricting moved the Nike Air home into House District 53. From a blog post on ProgressNow’s website:

“Though both Little’s voter registration and declaration for candidacy list his permanent residence as 305 Mesilla View in Doña Ana County precinct 75, public property and business records show that the property contains only ‘vacant land’ and the commercial and ‘non-residential’ property serving as the office for his house moving business. Little himself even lists the property, as well as the phone number for his campaign, as his business address as a member of a Texas professional association.

“Little and his family actually live miles away in precinct 74 at 2301 Nike Air Road, which county property records confirm as Little’s 4-bedroom, 3-bath $307,000 residential property co-owned with his wife Cecelia.”

“This is a fraud against voters on a monumental scale,” Pat Davis, executive director of ProgressNow New Mexico, said in a news release. “From what we’ve found, Ricky Little’s standing as a state representative has been illegitimate for two years.”

‘An absolute, bald-faced lie’

Little disputes the allegations.

“That’s an absolute, bald-faced lie,” he said of Davis’ claim. “I’ve got a residence right here along with where my office is.”

Court records confirm that Little and his wife Cecilia divorced in 2007. Since then, he said, he’s been living in the residence on the Mesilla View property, which he said has two bathrooms and four bedrooms. She has been living in the Nike Air residence and renting out a home she owns in El Paso, Texas.

Little sent NMPolitics.net a photo of side-by-side buildings on the business property. The structure on the left, he said, is his residence. The structure on the right is the office for his business, which moves buildings, such as school portables, and also fixes up and resells structures.

State law says candidates can run for office using an address where they’re registered to vote, provided they live on the premises. Little is registered to vote at the business address.

Little said he often spends weekends at the Nike Air Road residence with Cecilia Little, and sometimes goes there for dinner during the week. Though ProgressNow refers to Cecilia Little as Rick Little’s wife, Rick Little said they have not remarried. Still, he acknowledged he sometimes refers to her as his wife.

Attempt to serve lawsuit led to allegations

Little was first elected in 2010 by defeating incumbent Democrat Nate Cote of Organ. At the time, the Nike Air Road residence was not located in House District 53, but his business property was. Redistricting recently shifted the boundaries, and both properties are now located in the district Little represents.

You can view the new House Districts here. You can also view the old District 53, where Mesilla View was located from 2001 to 2011, here, and District 52, where Nike Air Road was located, here.

Cote is trying to retake the seat this year, and three supporters who live in the district recently filed a challenge to Little’s candidacy because he, like a number of other candidates, failed to list the district number on nominating petitions as required by a new state law. That issue hasn’t yet been resolved.

Elias Barela, a former Democratic state representative and the attorney for the three Cote supporters, said he became aware the situation surrounding Little’s residency when a summons server tried to deliver notification of the court challenge to Little.

The server found the Mesilla View address to be a business with commercial equipment and materials on the property, and he could not gain access, Barela said. The server went to the Nike Air address and spoke to Cecilia Little, who said Rick Little had left for a political meeting in Albuquerque earlier in the day. That led to the assertion that Rick Little was living at the Nike Air home.

Davis said ProgressNow stands by its allegations.

“From our research and in talking to folks who have been in the community… he has been living there at Nike Air and not at his business address,” Davis said.

More to come

ProgressNow’s charges against Little are the third brought against a Republican in recent weeks. It’s the same group that dug up the fact that a man who registered his dog to vote was married to staffer on U.S. Senate candidate Heather Wilson’s campaign.

And the group recently brought voter-fraud allegations against an Albuquerque-area House candidate that have led to an investigation by the Sheriff’s Department.

Davis said there’s more to come.

“We are far from done,” he said. “We’re not looking only at Republicans. It just so happens that those have come to fruition.”