Lugar faces hearing on residency, reportedly uncertain about address on license
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Feb. 20, 2012: Sen. Richard Lugar talks to reporters about his official state residency. (Fox59)
In a rare moment of bipartisan accord, Republicans and Democrats alike are putting pressure on Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Lugar over the fact he doesn't actually live at the address he uses to claim residency.
The senior Indiana senator has been using the address of a home he sold in 1977. In recent interviews, he even seemed uncertain about what address is on his state driver's license.
"I do have a driver's license," he said Monday, according to Fox 59. "I presume it is 3200 Highwoods Court, which is the address, my voting address."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He also told ABC affiliate RTV6 that he still goes to the proper motor vehicles office in Indiana to renew his license, though he reportedly was not sure of the address on that license.
The Highwoods Court address belongs to the house Lugar sold in 1977 after he was first elected to the U.S. Senate. Lugar told reporters he sold the house because "it was too expensive, at least for us at that time in our lives, to maintain two houses."
He then moved his family to the Washington, D.C., area.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The state Election Commission plans to take up the controversy at a hearing on Friday, though Lugar maintains that two attorneys general have found he is a legal Indiana resident.
The campaign told Fox News earlier this month that between February 2011 and February 2012, the senator spent 89 days in Indiana. And he still owns a farm in the state which he manages.
Lugar told Fox 59 he doesn't use the farm as his official address because "I do not live there."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, Lugar's challenger in the May GOP primary, has lunged at Lugar over the residency issue.
"He's out of touch, and the fact that he's out of touch is reflected in the fact that he hasn't chosen to be an inhabitant since 1977," he told Fox 59.
Mourdock also recently held a press conference outside Lugar's old home.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Meanwhile, Lugar is taking heat from both sides. As his primary challenger and state Democrats rag on him over the residency issue, the conservative Club for Growth recently came out against the incumbent -- criticizing him for voting against a permanent earmark ban.