Decision comes days before deadline to print ballots; Republicans vow to appeal ruling
Nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis is shown in this August file photo. A federal appeals court panel has put him back on the ballot to run for state Senate.TRENTON — 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 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.
"This was a miscarriage of justice and another example of why Americans are losing faith in government institutions that are supposed to treat everyone equally," said Chris Russell, a campaign consultant for the Republicans.
For Lewis, it was a desperately needed reprieve since the deadline for getting ballots ready for the printer is next Monday. At the same time, the ruling was a blow to Guadagno, whose removal of Lewis from the ballot was one of her most closely watched decisions since taking office.
Unless Republicans or the state successfully appeal the decision, Lewis will run against state Sen. Dawn Marie Addiego (R-Burlington) in the Republican-leaning 8th Legislative District.
Lewis’s lawyer, William Tambussi, said the victory puts the matter with voters, "where it rightfully belongs."
Mark Sheridan, an attorney for the Burlington County Republicans, said they planned to appeal and were considering the options: a hearing by a larger group of judges for the Court of Appeals in the 3d Circuit or an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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.
Despite Lewis’s legal victory, he is running in a district where any Democratic candidate — even a famous one — is considered a long shot. But he has name recognition because of his track and field accomplishments — enhanced by ample news coverage of his court battle.
"This court case has given Carl Lewis the opportunity to be soundly defeated by Dawn Addiego," said Patrick Murray, a pollster at Monmouth University. "This is a Republican district."