CNN reported Monday that U.S. Senate candidate Evan Bayh repeatedly has documented as his chief residence the two houses he owns in Washington, D.C., rather than his condominium in Indianapolis.

CNN’s Manu Raju reported that a review of public records showed that since Democrat Bayh left the Senate in 2011, he has provided his Washington addresses for his Indiana driver’s license, a campaign donation to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, an Alaskan fishing license and a deed for a home he owns in Florida.

Raju also reported that Bayh stayed in a hotel rather than at his condo when he was in Indianapolis last summer for an Indiana Democratic Party dinner.

Since Bayh became a Senate candidate a month ago, the campaign for Republican candidate Todd Young has persistently depicted him as a wealthy Washington lobbyist far removed from Hoosiers. Surrogates for Young, a member of the U.S. House who lives in Bloomington, piled on Bayh after the CNN report.

The Republican National Senatorial Committee said Monday in a statement that Bayh "has been playing defense about his Washington residency since the day he announced his campaign, but he can’t hide the fact any longer that he left Indiana years ago to turn a profit on his political career."

Amelia Chassé, press secretary for America Rising PAC, which conducts opposition research against Democrats, said in a statement that Bayh "sadly traded in his Hoosier roots for the smoke-filled backrooms of Washington and the boardrooms of Wall Street a long time ago."

Bayh was a senator from Indiana from 1999 through 2010 after serving two terms as the state’s governor. Since leaving elected office, he has been a partner and an adviser at the Washington law, consulting and lobbying firm McGuireWoods and the New York private equity firm Apollo Global Management. He also has been a member of various corporate boards of directors.

Ben Ray, communications director for Bayh’s campaign, said Monday that Bayh "is a fifth-generation Hoosier and has a record of distinction" as an Indiana officeholder.

"Evan lives in Indiana and pays his taxes in Indiana, unlike Congressman Young, who has fraudulently taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax deductions for a home he didn’t live in in Indiana," Ray said in a statement to CNN and The Journal Gazette.

"Hoosiers know and trust Evan Bayh and will not fall for this cover-up by our opponent," Ray said.

His statement was a reference to CNN’s report in 2014 that Young had improperly claimed a homestead tax deduction in 2012 for a Bloomington house he no longer lived in. CNN reported at the time that Young paid back taxes amounting to $5,300 and apologized for what he said were "embarrassing oversights."

Young’s campaign declined to respond to Ray’s statement.

The U.S. Constitution requires that a senator must be an inhabitant "when elected" of the state that person is to represent.

Bayh, Young and Libertarian candidate Lucy Brenton seek to replace Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind, who does not seek re-election. Bayh became the Democratic candidate for the Nov. 8 general election after the party’s original nominee, former congressman Baron Hill, withdrew his candidacy last month.

bfrancisco@jg.net