Former Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, who is running for his old seat, reportedly did not stay overnight in his private Indiana condo once in 2010, contrary to his assertion that he has spent “lots and lots” of time there.
{mosads}According to a copy of Bayh’s schedule obtained by The Associated Press, Bayh spent most of his last year in office in Washington, D.C., and did not once spend the night in his condo.
On the rare trips that Bayh did take to Indianapolis, the lawmaker spent taxpayer money and campaign funds to cover his expenses and stays in various hotels.
Since his surprise July entrance in the Senate race against GOP Rep. Todd Young, Bayh has insisted that he still has a connection to his home base in the state despite spending most of his recent years in Washington.
“I’ll always be a Hoosier,” he said last week. “We own our condominium. Period. From time to time I would stay someplace else, but our condo has always been our home.”
In August, Bayh attempted to quell speculations that he was far removed from his voters by giving out his condo address during an interview with WLFI-TV. However, the address Bayh gave was inaccurate, according to AP.
Earlier in the month it was revealed that the former lawmaker spent a significant portion of his last year in office hunting for jobs.
During his job search, Bayh was still voting on legislation that impacted businesses in various industries and may have potentially violated Senate ethics rules.
Bayh is currently ahead of Young in the polls by an average of 4.3 percentage points.