Candidate lives in 3 districts

From the Daily News:

ASSEMBLY CANDIDATE John Ciafone says he wants to represent the residents of Astoria's 36th District.

There's just one problem with his plan: the 40-year-old lawyer doesn't live there - at least not full-time.

Ciafone has a house in the nearby 30th Assembly District, in another part of Astoria, where he says his wife and two children live. He also has a $1.7 million waterfront mansion with a private beach in Whitestone that he calls a "summer place."

Earlier this year, Ciafone changed his voter registration to show he lives at his mother's Astoria home on 35th St., located in the 36th District.

"I've done research. You can have more than one residency," said Ciafone, a Democrat and former local school board president. "I was born and raised in Astoria. I have enough connections here."

But even Ciafone said he expects his multiple dwellings will fuel legal challenges from opponents in the September primary.

State election law requires candidates to reside in their districts for at least 12 months prior to Election Day. Ciafone said he filed paperwork to change his registration in May 2009 but that the Board of Elections failed to process the forms.

In November, he voted in the 30th District. Ciafone went to court in March and a judge agreed to backdate the address change to 2009. Ciafone said he spends substantial time at his mother's house to help care for her and his disabled sister. "All my important paperwork and all my licenses go there," he said.

Ciafone and his wife, Gina Argento, also receive a $3,593 property tax abatement - set aside for owner-occupied homes - on their Whitestone mansion.

The break, part of the 421b program, knocks their annual tax bill down from $17,532 to $13,939.

"We really don't live there. That's really more of a summer place," he said. "It's an investment, and we are going to sell it."

Oh, so what? It's Astoria. The rules are different there.