If he gets away with it he may be right.
Josh Hawley (r) [2016 file photo].
In Missouri Revised Statutes:
Missouri Revised Statutes
Chapter 27
Attorney General
Section 27.010.1
August 28, 2016
Attorney general, election, term of office, begins when–compensation.
27.010. The attorney general for the state of Missouri shall be elected at each general election at which a governor and other state officers are elected, and his term shall begin at 12:00 noon on the second Monday in January next succeeding his election, and shall continue for four years, or until his successor is elected and qualified. The attorney general shall reside at the seat of government and keep his office in the supreme court building, and receive an annual salary of sixty-five thousand dollars plus any salary adjustment provided pursuant to section 105.005, payable out of the state treasury. The salary shall constitute the total compensation for all duties to be performed by him and there shall be no further payments made to or accepted by him for the performance of any duty now required of him under any existing law. The attorney general shall devote his full time to his office, and, except in the performance of his official duties, shall not engage in the practice of law.
(RSMo 1939 § 12897, A.L. 1943 p. 869 § 1, A. 1949 S.B. 1010, A.L. 1955 p. 573, A.L. 1967 p. 97, A.L. 1977 H.B. 520, A.L. 1980 H.B. 1266, A.L. 1984 S.B. 528, A.L. 1987 H.B. 456)
Prior revisions: 1929 § 11272; 1919 § 692; 1909 § 966
[emphasis added]
Okay, that’s plain language. Live in Jefferson City, keep your main office in the Supreme Court building, get paid for the job, and no moonlighting.
But this is republican controlled Missouri. There are no rules:
Questions raised about where new Missouri attorney general is living
By Kurt Erickson St. Louis Post-Dispatch
JEFFERSON CITY • In one of his first acts as Missouri’s new attorney general, Republican Josh Hawley decided he doesn’t have to live in the capital city.
That decision comes despite a law that says the state’s top legal officer “shall reside at the seat of government and keep his office in the Supreme Court building.” The state’s Constitution designates Jefferson City as the seat of government.
Hawley, a political newcomer who campaigned as a “constitutional lawyer,” is living on the south edge of Columbia, about 24 miles to the north.
[….]
The gyrations coming from Josh Hawley’s (r) spokesperson are amusing. All those people in the office with law degrees and that’s the best they could come up with? Maybe they should ask for their law school tuition money back.
