It seems that the Democrats in New Jersey simply cannot understand the residency requirements for holding office in our state. First they tried to pull a fast one on us with Carl Lewis, and then they tried to run the attractive-but-mute (seriously, did you ever see her commercials? Paul Moriarty voiced every single one and she never said a word!) Gabby Mosquera, a candidate who’s only real connection to the 4th district was that she was a staff member for the Mayor of Gloucester Township.
We were well aware of Gabby’s residency problem, but unfortunately the editors of certain traditional media outlets (looking at you, Courier Post) refused to print anything about it. Here are some of the mail pieces that went out to voters in LD4.
Those were actually some of my favorites from this cycle. Anyway, she did end up winning on election day, but by a smaller margin than expected. A few weeks later, GOP candidate Shelley Lovett sued to invalidate the results, and yesterday she won. Now there will have to be a special election in LD4 this coming November, where Gabby will presumably be the candidate again now that she will meet the requirements under the law. Unfortunately the Democrats will retain control of the seat and will be able to appoint someone to fill it in the interim. So while this is a moral victory at best (which I cannot stand in politics) it does send a message to the Democrat Machine in South Jersey: Know where your puppets, I mean, candidates, live before you put them up for election. It’s really not that hard!
The Dems are claiming that the residency requirement was overturned 10 years ago by a federal court. Someone should remind them that federal decision on state election procedural law is not even close to dispositive. In fact, its barely persuasive. Nice try though.
To be honest, I hope the Republicans actually appeal this decision. Not the holding that Mosquera was an illegal candidate, but that the Democrat Party should retain control of the seat. The two top vote getters in LD4 were Democrats (Moriarty and Mosquera), and Mosquera was not eligible to be on the ballot, therefore the next highest vote getter, Shelley Lovett, should be seated and forced to run in the special election for 2012. This should be treated as though the Democrats only fielded a single candidate, because legally, they did. More to follow, I’m sure.
