The Blake Miguez-Rick Edmonds war in Louisiana’s 6th District congressional race is heating up, with less than seven weeks to go before Election Day, and what isn’t being discussed is anything that would affect the lives of constituents in the district.

At issue instead is domicile, because Edmonds is attacking Miguez for living in a different congressional district than the 6th. Miguez is countering with the accusation that Edmonds doesn’t even live in Louisiana.

But there’s even more going on. More about that below. First, there’s the Domicile War…

Two Republican state senators competing for a Baton Rouge-based congressional seat lobbed hefty allegations at one another Wednesday involving their residency and one candidate’s unpaid taxes.

Sen. Rick Edmonds of Baton Rouge said a New Iberia resident has filed a complaint with Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill that claims Sen. Blake Miguez does not live in his state Senate district that covers portions of Iberia, Lafayette and St. Martin parishes.

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are not required to live in their district, but there is a residency requirement for Louisiana state lawmakers. If they move out of their district, their seat becomes vacated according to provisions of Article III of the state constitution.

That could happen to Miguez if the complaint is found to be accurate, Edmonds said at a news conference where he publicized the complaint.

“Blake has been caught in a lie regardless of the outcome,” Edmonds said. “Blake Miguez has repeatedly claimed that he lived in Baton Rouge since 1999. … Either his statements that he’s made to the Congressional District 6 voters in this district are misleading, or there are serious questions about where he has satisfied the requirements for representing State Senate District 22.”

Online records for the East Baton Rouge assessor show Miguez purchased a home in Baton Rouge on March 16. As of May, he claimed an homestead exemption at the address that would indicate it was his primary residence. A check of the assessor’s records Wednesday showed Miguez no longer claims the exemption there.

The complaint was filed by David Levy, according to a copy of the document the Illuminator received through a public records request. Levy is a former Democratic candidate for the Louisiana House of Representatives.

“Senator Blake Miguez cannot have it both ways,” Levy wrote. “The Louisiana Constitution does not allow it. His domicile is either in New Iberia or in Baton Rouge.”

“This isn’t about party,” Levy said in a statement to the Illuminator. “It’s about whether the people of District 22 have a senator who actually lives among them. Every district in this state is entitled to that.”

The complaint might have legs, or it might not. It’s unusual, but hardly unprecedented, for somebody to get elected to Congress from a different district where they live. Do the voters care?

It’s always fun when Republicans use Democrats to attack other Republicans, though. There’s a great track record of that working out well.

Team Miguez doesn’t seem to be fazed by Edmonds’ attack on his residency. They’ve got their own grenades to pull the pin on and throw…

According to Miguez’s team, it’s Edmonds’ residency that should be questioned.

Miguez has previously alleged Edmonds lives in Mississippi, where he is the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of McComb. Edmonds has asserted that he lives in Baton Rouge and commutes to the Mississippi church on Sundays to preach.

“We haven’t seen the complaint, but if Mississippi Pastor Rick Edmonds wants to pick us up a copy the next time he heads home to Mississippi, we’d be happy to take a look,” Miguez spokesman Chris Pack said in a statement. “While he’s home, maybe he can check to see if he has any more Mississippi tax liens to pay off from unpaid income taxes.”

Edmonds does have an unpaid tax lien in the state of Mississippi, according to the Mississippi Department of Revenue’s website, though the lien has a Baton Rouge address on it. The lien, totaling $5,243.25, is related to income from his job at the McComb church.

Edmonds spokeswoman Delia Taylor said Edmonds will address the lien, which is dated June 22. A lien notice was sent to Edmonds’ previous address in Baton Rouge, which is why he was unaware of it, Taylor said.

Taylor said that while Edmonds has lived in Baton Rouge for many years, his wife Cindy is a real estate agent and home “flipper” who briefly owned a house in McComb that she renovated and sold. Taylor said the couple never lived in the house.

Edmonds is something of a peripatetic preacher when he isn’t a practicing politician. He’s lived in Shreveport and Baton Rouge and pastored churches in both places, and now he’s pastoring one in McComb. Can you pastor a church in a town you don’t live in, and only drop in to give a sermon one day a week? Is that really what the congregation would be satisfied with?

We’re asking. We honestly don’t know.

Of course, the dumping-out of opposition research doesn’t end there. As soon as Miguez qualified to run, a text message went out that was associated with a PAC tied to Senate President Cameron Henry and supporting Edmonds that accused Miguez of sexual assault. This stemmed from a police report from nearly 20 years ago that never led anywhere; it was an accusation made by a girlfriend of Miguez’ who turned out to have drug and mental problems, and when the accusation first surfaced back in January the woman’s father, mother and brother all vouched for Miguez and said the woman’s accusation was not true.

That didn’t stop a whisper campaign which has gone on since. Whether that stems from Edmonds’ camp or not we can’t say. We can say Team Miguez thinks it did.

And now, something else has happened related to the fight over the candidates’ past and present sexual behavior. Because at a Republican Party meeting in Livingston Parish a few days ago, a conservative political activist stood up and accused Edmonds of what she called “groping,” at the Jeff Landry gubernatorial campaign launch party in 2023. Edmonds denied the accusation, but it was corroborated by three others who say they saw it. And there are other women who have corroborated the story noting similar incidents.

Some of this is exaggeration, but the gist of the accusations is that Edmonds will on occasion touch women in social settings, a hand on a hip for instance, while engaging in friendly conversation. So far as we know this has been harmless, but it’s been noted. It’s somewhat risky behavior with respect to another man’s wife.

None of which would be newsworthy but for the campaign’s involvement in accusations of bad sexual behavior made against an opponent.

And there is concern we’ll end up in a race to the bottom based on these topics being the dominant issues in the campaign.

Another Republican in the race is pushing a “Pox On Both Your Houses” message toward Edmonds and Miguez…

Data centers and Flock cameras are kinda-sorta campaign issues, we guess, though there is much to unpack on both those fronts. But Wagley is at least trying to talk policy instead of politics.

Maybe if he gets some traction we’ll hear from the two frontrunners on the Republican side on the issues of the day.

Meanwhile the Democrats have a communist, DSA member Lindsay Garcia, running against Baton Rouge Metro Council member Chauna Banks, whose Gary Chambers-in-a-dress antics are well known, for what could be the other spot in the runoff.

The election is November 3.