ST. LOUIS, Missouri — In order for Mike Hamra to relocate from his $1.4 million mansion in Springfield to the Governor's Mansion in Jefferson City, he'll need to persuade voters, and perhaps a judge, that Missouri is his home.
Hamra, a multi-millionaire fast food franchise owner whose business, Hamra Enterprises, is based in Springfield, Missouri, is expected to file paperwork to officially enter the 2024 Democratic primary contest seeking the party's nomination in the governor's race later this week.
Hamra grew up in Missouri, graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia Law School, and now runs the successful business his father launched in Springfield. Until recently, he sat on the board of Oakstar Bank in Springfield. He remains a member of the Missouri Bar Association. His low-income and senior housing development firm, Trinity Housing Development, is based in Springfield. His dad, Sam Hamra, even holds a symbolic key to the city. Yet paper trails left behind by Hamra's sprawling real estate portfolio and sporadic voting history have raised questions among Democratic lawyers as to whether or not he may satisfy the Missouri State Constitution's ballot eligibility requirements.
Article IV of the state constitution says, "The governor shall be at least thirty years old and shall have been a citizen of the United States for at least fifteen years and a resident of this state at least ten years next before election."
Adam Sommer, a municipal attorney and host of the progressive Heartland Pod podcast, suggested that last line in the constitution's eligibility requirements could pose legal headaches for Hamra's campaign if someone were to challenge Hamra's right to appear on the ballot.
"I think it's really hard to imagine how he could convince a court that he meets those qualifications given the fact that I don't see where he has owned a residence in Missouri prior to like 2020," Sommer said. "And even then, it appears his intentional activity was elsewhere. It looks like Chicago was probably his real residence."
Sommer was referring to search results of public records linked to Hamra's name, including a Washington, D.C. home, two condominiums in Boston, four in Chicago, and most recently, two Springfield properties purchased in 2020 and 2021.
His review of Hamra's holdings left him with the impression that some lawyers might have a low degree of confidence in his ballot eligibility, and may be reluctant to take his case.
"I'm getting paid up front," he chuckled. "Would I be telling everybody that I'm about to go win this case? No. And I'd say if you're Mr. Hamra, my first call would be to Chuck Hatfield."
Hatfield, an attorney at Stinson, LLP, is widely regarded as the state's foremost election law attorney.
"I think when he explains all of his ties to Missouri, a court is likely to find that he has been a resident for 10 years, meaning Missouri is where he is intended to return," Hatfield said, citing court precedent established in an eligibility suit challenging former Governor Kit Bond's residency.
"I looked it up. (Hamra) has had a Missouri law license since '98. And it's been current the entire time," Hatfield said. "So he's been eligible to practice law in Missouri and still is, and it's not listed as an out-of-state license."
Hamra's vast holdings also include some properties that were not as easy to locate. For example, in the course of reporting this story, 5 On Your Side later identified another residential plot of land in Springfield which Hamra purchased with a shell company in 2011. Greene County property records show a home was built on the vacant parcel and was approved for occupancy in 2014. It was later sold in 2020 to the homeowners who live there now. The small side yard located next to it is still registered to Hamra's shell company, Qana Properties.
A local official familiar with the Springfield real estate market suggested Hamra may have used the shell company to avoid detection and reduce the likelihood the seller might try to jack up the price if they learned the buyer was from one of the wealthiest families in town.
Even without the 2011 real estate purchase, Hatfield suggested the courts would still probably rule in Hamra's favor in a hypothetical challenge to his eligibility, for a variety of other factors rooted in the Bond precedent.
"The courts in Missouri have generally said, 'home is where you wish to be.' And the fact that you've been gone from home for a long time, doesn't mean it's no longer your home," Hatfield said.
Advisors to Hamra's campaign told 5 On Your Side they have no doubt he would ultimately survive any legal challenge to his candidacy with ease.
"We are confident that Mike Hamra meets all of the legal qualifications to run for governor and any attempts by Jefferson City insiders to challenge his qualifications will fail," a spokesperson for the campaign told 5 On Your Side. "It's unsurprising that entrenched politicians in Jefferson City would do everything they can to try to stop Mike Hamra, because he is everything they fear: an outsider with a proven track record of getting things done who is not afraid to shake things up because he understand the status quo is not working for hard working Missourians."
Missouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade filed papers to run for governor in the Democratic primary, along with three other lesser-known candidates Eric Morrison, Sheryl Gladney, and Hollis Laster.
Hatfield suggested any Democratic candidate who mounted a legal challenge to Hamra's eligibility would likely face the perception that they were using underhanded tactics to weaken an opponent instead of facing them at the ballot box.
"I think it's a bad look to challenge eligibility," Hatfield said. "There have been other candidates where there were questions of eligibility and nobody brought the lawsuit."
Whether or not Hamra ever faces the eligibility question, he will undoubtedly face the electability question. While he worked as a political appointee under President Bill Clinton's administration in the Federal Communications Commission, his sporadic voting record shows a certain degree of disinterest in races of significant interest to Democrats.
Voting records maintained by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners show Hamra registered to vote there in 2012; but two years later, when multi-millionaire private equity investor Bruce Rauner, a Republican, challenged incumbent Democratic Governor Pat Quinn, Hamra didn't vote. Quinn lost. Hamra's name was also missing from the voter rolls when Chicago elected mayors Rahm Emanuel in 2015 and Lori Lightfoot in 2019, and when Democrats nominated J.B. Pritzker to run for Governor in 2018.
"The fact that you don't vote in Missouri elections is not good for candidates," Hatfield conceded. "Yeah, the fact that you own homes in other states is probably not good. But I don't think it's an eligibility disqualifier. It's more a question of, 'How do the voters want to handle that?'"
When Hamra was asked about his voting record on 'The Record' last October, he said, "I've actually been involved in politics my whole life here in the state of Missouri, going all the way back to (Gov.) Joe Teasdale when I helped as a kid, volunteered to support him and his campaign. Ralph Slavens, who was running for the state senate back in those days.
"Myself and my family have supported people running for office for 50 years here in the state of Missouri," Hamra said. "I've actually even participated at the 1984 Democratic Convention. My dad was a delegate from Missouri. I've been very active in Missouri politics for many, many years.
When asked why his name didn't appear in Missouri voting records during major political battles of the last several decades, Hamra said his business ventures had taken him elsewhere.
"I was building companies in other states," he replied. "Part of our business -- we're based here in Springfield, Missouri -- but there was a time when I was a resident of the Chicago and voted in Chicago primaries and general elections there."
Sommer suggested Hamra's wealth could pose another hurdle for him in his push to relate with Missouri Democrats who are struggling to make ends meet.
"I think there's plenty of folks in Missouri who wouldn't be put off by the fact that somebody owns more than one property," Sommer said. "Having a lake house in Missouri is sort of a rite of passage, so to speak. But there's a big difference between Missouri successful and this guy. He's not Missouri successful, he's second-generation, national successful on a level that I don't think people fully grasp just how much this guy is worth, and how much money it takes to maintain properties in multiple places. To have a place in Boston and Chicago at the same time, and one in DC? I mean, that's crazy. You're talking about some of the most expensive real estate markets on the planet."