I honestly cannot say that I saw this coming Save Jerseyans. Never in a million years would I have thought that a court would have so much disregard for the law that they would put Carl Lewis back on the ballot for State Senate in LD8. Apparently the Third Circuit does not care whether a representative of the people actually lives among them.
We have been following this story for a long, long time. So I don’t have to tell you, you already know that Carl Lewis is a desperate move by the Democrats in Burlington County, not to win a seat, but to divert Republican funding from key races such as LD1, LD2, LD4, LD14, and LD38 where the GOP stands to make substantial gains in the state house. Lewis is a pawn who brings nothing to the table but questionable name recognition.As an aside, the above logo makes it painfully clear how hard the Democrat machine is leaning on Lewis’s name recognition as a former olympian. If you are a voter who has never heard of Car Lewis, you would look at this logo and just wonder why that little orange man is running from what appears to the be the AMTRAK logo turned upside down.
Anyway, the Third Circuit found that the district court erred in using rational basis rather than strict scrutiny and a showing of a compelling state interest to keep Lewis off the ballot. As a result, they have ordered him to be placed for the upcoming election on November 8th. The GOP will apparently appeal the decision, as it should, because the law is on their side this time.
Lewis did not live in the district when he was recruited to run. Owning property somewhere is not the same thing as establishing residency. If this decision is allowed to stand it sets up some terrible precedent.
- The ballot eligibility laws mean nothing. In fact, if this is the case, I should just announce my candidacy for 2013 in LD 3 now. I think I feel like running against Sweeney, apparently just because I can now. Legally and all…
- It bolster this bizarre notion that somehow there is a civil right to ballot access without meeting the constitutional bounds established by the people of the state of New Jersey.
- The parties now know that if they just wait long enough, they can get an appellate court decision on the final day of ballot eligibility before the election, which was today.
This case should have ended after Lt. Governor Guadagno refused to certify Lewis for the ballot. Instead, we now will have to live with the long lasting political affects of these court decisions. We surely will not see a Senate Lewis next year, but that hardly matters. He has done enough damage already.
I'm guessing too there's no way in hell the SC grants cert. Disgusting.