Van Luven a recent voter in the 40th

Republican Steve Van Luven, a candidate for state senate in the 40th Legislative District who represented the 48th LD in the state legislature for almost twenty years but has been living in Skagit County since 2003, continued to vote from his Bellevue address until March 25 of this year, the Bellingham Herald's Sam Taylor reports.

He first started raising money for his campaign in April.

 "It was a nostalgic thing for me," Van Luven told the Herald. "When you represent people that long ... I guess it just became a habit, a nostalgic thing, even though I moved up here," he said. "I don't have a real good reason it was just the way it is."

State voting laws are less than explicit about what makes for legal residency requirements.

Van Luven also tried to stick up for himself by pointing out that his chief opponents, Democrats Kevin Ranker of San Juan Island and Ken Henderson of Bellingham list their campaign headquarters in Mount Vernon.

"It's deceptive and that's what they're doing," he said. "They don't want people to think they're from the island or from Bellingham."

Both candidates told Taylor that they have their headquarters in Mt. Vernon for reasons of convenience.