By Javier Panzar, Los Angeles Times

It was the spring of 1998. Then-Assemblywoman Grace F. Napolitano was in the middle of a heated battle with fellow Democrat Jamie Casso.

With the primary to fill the House seat opened up by the retirement of Casso’s father-in-law, Democratic Rep. Esteban Torres, approaching, Napolitano and her advisors zeroed in on what usually amounts to a throwaway issue. Casso, a longtime Torres aide, did not live within the boundaries of the congressional district he sought to represent.

Rep. Tom McClintock represents the California side of Lake Tahoe. Photo/LTN file

Napolitano won that primary by 618 votes.

Some state and local lawmakers have been prosecuted for not living in the districts they ran to represent — a requirement under California law. When it comes to Congress, federal law only requires members live in the same state as the district.

Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove, faced attacks from opponents in 2008 when he sought to represent a Northern California district hundreds of miles away from his state Senate district in Ventura County.

As he announced his bid for the 4th Congressional District on the steps of the historic Auburn courthouse in Gold Rush country, a U-Haul truck drove around the building carrying a sign reading “Termed out Tom All the way from L.A,” according to a report in the Ventura County Star.

Former Rep. Doug Ose, one of McClintock’s rivals for the GOP nomination that year who also lived outside the district boundaries, was responsible for the truck, the Star reported.

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