Thursday - September 15, 2011

Torricelli Option Alive And Well In NJ, via PA

Five months after he declared his candidacy for state Senate, Carl Lewis, the Olympic gold medalist, finally made it onto the November ballot today.

After a legal battle that overshadowed Lewis’s candidacy, a three-judge federal appeals court panel [ in PA ] voted 2-1 to overturn Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno’s April decision that he did not meet the four-year residency requirement for state Senate candidates, and a lower federal court decision upholding it.

In a court order issued about six hours after Lewis made a list-ditch appeal, the panel said the state “failed to demonstrate compelling state interest in the application” of the residency requirement.

The campaign manager for Lewis, Chris Walker, summed it up succinctly: “We won.”

Burlington County Republicans, who initiated the suit, were outraged.

Lewis, 50, grew up in Willingboro but spent most of his adult life in Texas and California. He contends that he returned to New Jersey in 2005, which is when he bought two condominiums, one for himself and another for his mother. Two years later, he bought a home in Medford.

Republicans challenged Lewis’s residency shortly after he announced his candidacy. Although an administrative law judge dismissed the challenge, Guadagno, acting as secretary of state, overturned the decision and ruled that Lewis did not meet the residency requirement, in part because he voted in California as recently as 2009.

Since then, the case has been wending its way through federal courts. Last week, a district judge refused to put Lewis on the ballot.

Judge Thomas Ambro, who wrote the decision, was skeptical of the state’s case, saying the requirement exists to make sure candidates know their districts and voters know the candidates.

“It’s hard to say that this candidate doesn’t know the local issues affecting the 8th Legislative District, and it’s kind of hard to say the voters don’t know who he is,” Ambro said.

If you have plenty of money, you can own homes wherever you want. So owning a home in one state, and paying taxes on it, is no proof of residency. Likewise, you can have bank accounts in whatever state you wish, so they’re no proof. Utility bills and credit card bills may be sent to those other homes in other states, and even paid for by a bank account in that state (easy enough thing to do with a bill paying service or attorney, which rich folks can afford). You may have a license to drive in more than one state? I don’t know - it used to be that way, but by now most states have probably cracked down on that. But you can’t be registered to vote in more than one state. Ever. So when push comes to shove, voter registration is the ultimate trump card, even if you don’t vote. This is the law in this state, and that is the key piece of residency proof for all candidates everywhere.

Just last week Lewis was removed from the ballot by a federal judge who upheld NJ aSoS Guadagno’s decision to deny a previous lower judge’s decision to allow him on the ballot in the first place:

“The plaintiff is a man of great and inspiring achievement, justifiably held in high regard, and possessed of promise for the future,” [federal judge] Hillman wrote in a decision that was filed Tuesday and made public Wednesday.

Still, he wrote, the “residency requirement applies to all, regardless of economic status, race, creed, color, age, gender, and political affiliation.”

“Judge Hillman’s decision said it all,” he said. ”The state’s constitutional residency requirement applies to everyone equally, even celebrities like Carl Lewis. We’ve said from Day One that Mr. Lewis clearly did not meet the legal residency requirement, and that he wasn’t above the law just because his name was Carl Lewis.”

The dealine for preparing ballots for the general election is Sept. 19, but in the past late changes have been made.

In 2002, former U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli dropped his re-election effort a little more than a month before voters were to go to the polls amid ethical questions. The state Supreme Court upheld the 11th-hour switch, which was challenged by Republicans, leading the way for Frank Lautenberg, who had retired from the Senate, to replace Torricelli on the ballot.

And of course the argument from the Dems is specious misdirection: Um, it doesn’t hurt anybody! (well, other than the general moral pain we all suffer when government is corrupt enough to break it’s own laws for the benefit of the rich and famous):

“I think the judge signaled his thoughts on the matter early on and his intent was set forth in the initial opinion,” he [Lewis’ attorney William Tambussi] said. “There is absolutely no demonstration of any harm to the state of New Jersey with Carl Lewis being on the ballot.”

But hey, when you’ve got a bench of 3 where one judge is a Clinton appointee, and the other is an Obama appointee, rules can be whatever you want. Here it is in black and white from the decision: our penumbra trumps your law:

In other words, our idea of what is in the best interest of the state is more important than the laws of that state. Read more on that here, with a link to the decision synopsis, and the even higher court cases that struck down the lower court precedence that this panel of judges based it’s decision on.

Next court up the ladder please!

NJ Lt. Governor and acting Secretary of State Kim Guadagno’s original reasoning from back in April below the fold. Damn, she’s got him by the warm and hairies!

Posted by Drew458     on 09/15/2011 at 01:45 PM   
Filed Under: • Judges-Courts-Lawyers •  
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