Nickles fulfills promise and becomes D.C. resident

WASHINGTON - After several requests from the media and a non-profit group, D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles has become a District resident.

Nickles has taken an apartment on 7th Street in Chinatown. Earlier this month, the attorney general applied for and received a District driver's license.

He has been living in Great Falls, but was required by law to move into the District once he became attorney general. Nickles has not said whether his wife has moved to the city with him.

Nickles had repeatedly refused to divulge the location of his new home to the public. Public Citizen, Ralph Nader's non-profit group, filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act, seeking his home address.

Nickles said he asked the director to make the change because other high-ranking District officials had privacy concerns - not to hide his home address.

"I had quite a number of people complain about an invasion of privacy," he said.

As for why he has been reluctant to disclose the whereabouts of his new home, Nickles explained it was for his own safety.

"I have a lot of crazy people around who try to storm into my office who are unhappy about one thing or the other," he said.

The attorney general went as far as requesting the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance redact the personal information of every District employee from public records. Wesley Williams, a spokesperson for the OCF, tells WTOP the request was made by Nickles' office and the director complied.

Williams tells WTOP the director of OCF "consulted with her General Counsel before making the decision." Williams says the director did not consult any council members or ask for public input on the change of policy.

D.C. councilmember Mary Cheh, who chairs the committee that oversees the OCF, has concerns about the decision to redact the information. She tells WTOP she's undecided on whether the information should be public, but isn't happy about the way the decision was made.

"I'm troubled that they did this by fiat without consulting the council or the public."

Cheh said she'll talk with the director of OCF before making a decision, but says she may call for a public hearing on the issue.

As for Nickles' voter registration, the attorney general registered to vote on May 5, when he applied for his District driver's license.

The paperwork for his voter registration never made to the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, said Dan Murphy with the BOEE.

Nickles tells WTOP he filled out a second applictaion online and submitted it Friday.

Nickles refused to reveal which party affiliation he chose.

"I'm not going to get into questions about party affiliation," Nickles said. "I support the mayor. I'm not a politician. I support President Obama."

Nickles may support the mayor, but unless he's a registered Democrat, he won't be able to vote for his boss in the primary election, which in the District is where most elections are decided due to the overwhelming number of registered Democrats compared to other parties.

Asked if he registered as a Republican, Nickles said "No." But when asked if he registered as a Democrat, Nickles said, "I'm not going to get into whether I registered as an Independent or a Democrat."

(Copyright 2009 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)