D.A. to Review Complaints About Senate Candidates : Election: Hurtt and LeBlanc are accused of living outside the legislative district. Both say they have rented housing there to qualify.

The Orange County district attorney’s office said Friday that it will review separate complaints alleging that two candidates in an upcoming state Senate election do not live within district boundaries.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig McKinnon said the complaints involve Robert Hurtt, the only Republican in the 32nd District race, and one of the four Democratic candidates, Ken LeBlanc.

Both candidates said they previously had lived outside of the central Orange County Senate district but that they recently rented housing within the boundaries in order to qualify for the March 2 election.

Hurtt’s family lives in Orange just outside the district. Hurtt said in an interview Friday that he still lives primarily at the family home. Before he announced his campaign, Hurtt changed his voter registration to a condominium in Garden Grove.

Hurtt, 48, a heavy favorite to win the traditionally Republican district, said the condominium is furnished and that it has a telephone. He said his daughter stays there frequently and that “occasionally I stay overnight there.”

Hurtt said the bad real estate market prevented his moving his family to a new home in time for the election, which was called after former state Sen. Ed Royce (R-Anaheim) was elected to Congress last November.

If he wins the election, Hurtt said, he and his family will buy a home in the district and move.

The district includes most of Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Fullerton and also parts of neighboring cities. Even though he doesn’t live there, Hurtt said, he is well acquainted with the area because the company his family has owned for years has its headquarters in Garden Grove.

“I probably spend more time in the district than I do where my original house was because I’ve worked here for 24 years,” he said Friday. “I’m always kind of active in the Chamber of Commerce in Garden Grove, active in the City Council in Garden Grove and active in other issues.”

McKinnon declined to identify the source of the complaints. He also would not discuss the residency requirements for candidates or speculate on the what the penalties would be for a candidate who was found to have violated the law.

According to the California Election Code, candidates for state office are required to have a “domicile” within the district. That is defined as a place where “the person has the intention of remaining and to which, whenever he or she is absent, the person has the intention of returning. At a given time, a person may have only one domicile.”

Hurtt said his understanding of the law is that “you have to have residence” in the district “when you pull your papers, (and) you have to have voting registration based” in the district.

LeBlanc’s family lives in Huntington Beach, where he ran unsuccessfully for a state Assembly seat last year. LeBlanc said Friday that he now lives during the week at a rented home in Garden Grove.

When he filed candidate papers for the election, LeBlanc changed his Huntington Beach voter registration to that of a home on Wild Goose Street in Garden Grove. Although his address changed to Garden Grove, LeBlanc continued to list his home phone number as being in Huntington Beach.

The owners of the Wild Goose Street home were not available for comment Friday.

LeBlanc, who is the co-owner of an auto parts sales company in Huntington Beach, said Friday that he has lived at the Wild Goose Street home “a few nights a week” and that he did not stay there more often because he was having trouble with its telephones.

On Monday, LeBlanc changed his registration again, to a home on Nina Street in Garden Grove.

“I think I’m being more than adequate in showing my commitment to what I’m doing,” LeBlanc said. “I have absolutely nothing to hide.”

LeBlanc said his Huntington Beach home is on the market but that he has not been able to sell it.

In addition to LeBlanc and Hurtt, five other candidates for the seat will be on the ballot when voters go to the polls a little more than four weeks from now.

The three other Democrats are Rick Foster, a businessman from Anaheim; Wayman L. Nelson, a health insurance consultant from Santa Ana; and Linda K. Rigney, a teacher in Garden Grove. Richard Newhouse is the Libertarian Party candidate, and David G. Porter the Peace and Freedom Party candidate.