NJ Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno broke election law last year, putting Lonegan's name at top of ballot

[highplainsdem]

Just googled to see if this got any attention here at the time, and didn't find anything, but this article turned up when I was checking Twitter for older news stories about Kim Guadagno, Christie's Lt. Gov.:

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/12/critics_claim_lt_gov_broke_law_by_putting_lonegans_name.html

As is usual for most elections in the U.S., the two major-party candidates in the October race — Lonegan and Democrat Cory Booker — appeared in the top two lines of the ballot.

Guadagno, who also serves as Secretary of State under Republican Gov. Chris Christie, is charged with certifying the ballot to the clerks in all 21 of New Jersey's counties.

But according to Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin, state law shows in order to qualify for a top ballot position, a candidate's party in the primary election must receive at least 10 percent of the number of total votes cast in the last general election in which General Assembly seats were open. In this case, that would have been 2011.

Durkin, a Democrat, said that means at least 259,773 votes would have needed to be cast in the special Republican U.S. Senate primary for Lonegan to receive a top ballot spot. In reality, 130,340 votes were cast.

-snip-

While the favorable position given to Lonegan didn't affect the outcome of the election and Cory Booker won, the fact remains that Guadagno did apparently violate election law to help Lonegan, whose name should have been down the ballot, with the six independents running.

According to the Star-Ledger: "Guadagno's office deferred comment to the governor's press office. Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for Christie, decline to comment."

One of the independent candidates filed suit before the election, and a Superior Court judge in Monmouth County acknowledged that the law had been violated, but dismissed the case a week before the election, "saying it was too late to change the ballot machines."

Lonegan called the charge "total nonsense" and a "crackpot" issue and said Guadagno "did her job properly."

I'm sure Christie agreed with Lonegan.

But the job Kim Guadagno did there -- presumably for Christie, as the pressure she reportedly put on Mayor Zimmer was done for Christie -- was apparently illegal.

[madaboutharry]

1. It seems like the way it works is that

the Gov's office believes they can do what ever the hell they please.

[Cha]

2. And, they spent all that extra money on special senate election on

a Wednesday.. so poor little Christie could have his election all to himself and get all those endorsement from democratic mayors. Looks good on his resume ya see.

[Fred Sanders]

3. All Rules And Laws, especially democratic process laws, are for rubes, not Republians.

[highplainsdem]

8. That's the way they see it. IOKIYAR.

[Little Star]

4. k&r

[Pizzaiolo]

5. No conflict here, of course.

The fact that her husband is also a judge on the NJ Superior Court of course played no role in the judges ruling. New Jersey politics is one tangled web of crooks.

[highplainsdem]

6. Welcome to DU, Pizzaiolo! And good point about her husband's influence.

[Wilms]

7. ^

[recordweb]

9. Guadagno did break election laws.

I'm one of the plaintiffs in the same case as 2013. She did it again. The difference in your information was that Christies office claimed they won and that the case was dismissed. That was incorrect. The Democratic-Republican Party of NJ actually won the case and Christie and Guadagno and the County Clerks were all ordered to pay attorney fees to us. You can't spin it any other way than they lost. Here we are in 2014 and Guadagno did 100% the same thing again. She had to know it was wrong because Superior Court Judge Jacobson made her pay attorney fees last year for the same thing. We asked for expiated hear 2 months ago. We just got an order from the court thanking us for our request for a delay and that has been granted. We never asked for anything such thing. Just another example of our corrupt courts and our corrupt administration. 2 plus 2 will never equal 22 unless you are Christie. The complete trial of LaVergne vs Lonegan is on Youtube. The state is doing everything they can to ruin LaVergne and has been at his throat now for six years. Corrupt Judges, like I said and like Eugene has been fighting for 20 years now.
Scott Neuman for Congress 4th CD NJ D-R Party Candidate.