Where did John Thompson live when he was elected to the Legislature? MN or WI?

Dave Orrick, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
·4 min read

Jul. 10—The same month John Thompson appeared on the ballot for election to the Minnesota House of Representatives for a St. Paul seat — November 2020 — he renewed his Wisconsin driver's license.

The question of residency for Rep. Thompson, a first-term Democrat representing St. Paul's East Side, surfaced Thursday when the Pioneer Press reported that over the weekend he had been pulled over for driving with no front plates and furnished a Wisconsin driver's license to a St. Paul police sergeant.

Thompson did not reply to requests for comment for this story Friday. On Thursday, he told the Pioneer Press he had kept his Wisconsin driver's license and had not switched it over to a Minnesota one. On Friday it became clear that he had actively renewed his license numerous times, including after he was publicly presenting himself as a Minnesotan.

Public records for the 49-year-old Illinois native list numerous addresses over the years since he made his way from Chicago to the Upper Midwest, including at least one address in Wisconsin, although most of the recent addresses are from Minnesota.

HE SAID MINNESOTA

In October 2020, Thompson told the Pioneer Press that he'd lived in St. Paul for 18 years.

More legally binding, however, is what he told the Minnesota secretary of state's elections office in May 2020, when he filed for the candidacy of House seat 67A. In his affidavit of candidacy which he signed, an address in the district is written and then scratched out, with a box checked stating that his address is private for personal safety reasons.

Checking that box activated a set of laws and rules designed to protect people who are stalked, abused or otherwise under threat of violence. As a Black activist, Thompson has received violent threats, many of them filled with racist vitriol.

According to the secretary of state's office, Thompson would have been required to fill out a separate form attesting to his residence in the district. Presumably, Thompson filled out that form, since his name appeared on the November 2020 ballot, where he overwhelmingly defeated Republican John Stromenger in the overwhelmingly Democratic district. The secretary of state's office wasn't able to fully confirm this on Friday.

Under state law, a candidate for the Legislature needs to have lived in the district for at least six months on Election Day.

The penalty for falsifying such a form could be perjury, a felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison or a fine of up to $10,000, or both, according to spokeswoman Risikat Adesaogun.

HE SAID WISCONSIN, TOO?

According to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, which oversees the state's driver's license program, Thompson has held a valid Wisconsin license since July 2000. Thompson renewed the license in 2005, 2012 and November 2020, a spokesperson said.

The address or addresses on Thompson's renewed and expired licenses are not public, but Wisconsin driver's licenses are only available to Wisconsin residents. The state requires either two forms of proof of residence or an expired license if you essentially attest to living in the state. In at least one such form — the original driver's license application — the penalty for falsifying that is perjury. It wasn't clear Friday what forms Thompson filled out when renewing his license in November, when he was telling Minnesota officials — and the voters of St. Paul's East Side — that he lived in Minnesota.

An initial query of Wisconsin voting records did not show anyone with Thompson's name and birthday has voted in Wisconsin during recent years.

REVOKED MINNESOTA PRIVILEGES

If Thompson has, in fact, lived in Minnesota in recent years, renewing his Wisconsin license — truthfully or not — might have been the only way he could have kept a valid license to drive.

His Minnesota driving privileges were revoked because of a Ramsey County child support issue from April 2019, a Minnesota Department of Public Safety spokesman said Thursday. Thompson said Thursday that he does not owe child support and he takes care of his children, and his privileges were reinstated Wednesday after apparently dealing with the issue that had them revoked.

While Thompson does not hold a Minnesota driver's license and never had one issued by Minnesota, the state can still take action on people's driving privileges.

Senior House Democrats had no comment Friday. House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, who heads the majority Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party caucus in the chamber, was unavailable for comment, and a spokeswoman for the caucus said other senior members would have no comment.

Mara H. Gottfried contributed to this report.