Legally speaking, does Massachusetts Republican Party state committeewoman Lindsay Valanzola live in Tennessee or Massachusetts?
She has provided evidence of both in recent years, and the MassGOP wants to figure which is true — and if the party has to remove her from her state committee seat.
At stake is a single seat on the elected 80-member state committee that oversees the party. But it’s also a potential proxy-skirmish in a divided party: Valanzola is not a supporter of party chairman Jim Lyons, who narrowly won re-election to a second two-year term in January 2021, 39-36.
The current case is ostensibly proceeding not on political grounds but on legal questions.
The party had attorney David Carr send a letter to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office asking how the state defines residency and if Valanzola has met the threshold of vacating her status as a Massachusetts resident — which would create a vacancy in her state committee seat. She is the state committeewoman for the Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire & Middlesex state Senate district, and says that she lives in Wales, which is in the district. Wales is a town of about 1,800 in south-central Massachusetts that borders Connecticut.
Valanzola has a Massachusetts driver’s license plus a license to carry a firearm, is a registered voter in Massachusetts, and her bank statements show a Massachusetts address. However, the party has also found that she has an apartment in Nashville, Tennessee, she posts on social media about living in Tennessee, and she has a car registered in Tennessee. A report given to the party also concludes that she pays utility bills in Tennessee and has a driver’s license number that starts with a W — which Massachusetts doesn’t offer.
The party hired a private investigation firm called The STIRM Group to investigate the matter. On September 13, it concluded its report, writing in a cover letter: “When you combine the circumstantial evidence with the validated Tennessee RMV documents, you can safely conclude that you would have [met] the evidentiary standard of preponderance of the evidence, and I would argue that it exceeds the clear and convincing standards, which are the standards used in all civil matters.”
The STIRM Group noted that Valanzola does not have a motor vehicle registered in Massachusetts, either, and found that fact informative: “An unmarried 30+ year old that resides in a remote geographic location will need access to a motor vehicle to survive, as public transportation is not a viable option to complete all the tasks necessary to reside in a remote area. As opposed to a 30+ year old who resides in a major city, where not having a vehicle is more common than not.”
The report includes information from the web site of the clerk of Davidson County, a central Tennessee county that includes the city of Nashville. It says that to register a vehicle in Davidson County, “the owner must possess a State of Tennessee issued Driver License/I.D., or provide two documents that prove residency in the county.”
The state of Tennessee’s web site lays out the acceptable documents to prove residency to register a vehicle in the state:
The investigative report performed for the Massachusetts Republican Party notes some of Valanzola’s social media postings that NewBostonPost reported on back in August.
That includes her LinkedIn Account saying that she lives in Nashville and is a business manager for Dell-EMC in Nashville. It also includes a post from her private Instagram account about her apartment being destroyed in a March 2-3 tornado.
“Today is bittersweet,” Valanzola wrote in early March. “I’ve called Nashville home for just over two years. I’ve lived in the same apartment the whole time. She had pros and cons but for most importantly she holds all my memories. Two weeks ago a tornado ripped through this city I love taking part of my neighborhood and my apartment with it. I found a new home (a block and a half because I [heart] G-Town). I’ve had amazing friends help me every step of the way. 567 will always be number one in my heart. Here’s to new beginnings! #RIP567 #newhome #TLDR #friendsarefamily #germantownnashville #stillgonnaberegulars.”
NewBostonPost confirmed in August that Valanzola’s previous apartment in Nashville was apartment Number 567. The investigative report also found that Equifax lists her as now living in another apartment in Nashville; the address listed is part of the Broadstone Stockyards complex, which is what NewBostonPost found using premium WhitePage listings in August.
The investigative report says that it was conducted using social media platforms and publicly available government records and that no interviews were conducted and no surveillance was performed.
Additionally, NewBostonPost noted in August that Valanzola was a bridesmaid at a wedding in Nashville earlier this year and she participated in the Predators Fangtastic 5k run in the city in February 2018; the investigative report does not mention these occurrences.
Valanzola told Politico in August that she travels to Nashville frequently for work.
“It’s disheartening someone is going to take that and call into question my residency simply for a witch hunt,” Valanzola told Politico.
The Massachusetts Republican Party could not be reached for comment on Thursday. Nor could Valanzola.
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