Republicans have appealed a decision by Secretary of State Dale Caldwell to keep Libertarian candidate Lana Leguía on the ballot in New Jersey’s 7th district and are awaiting a decision by the state Appellate Court.
Leguía is relying on the state attorney general, who is backing up Caldwell’s ruling. She did not file a brief with the appellate division on her own behalf.
The Libertarian candidate submitted 759 signatures to qualify for the November ballot, and the Division of Elections accepted 755 of them. Congressional candidates nominated by direct petition need at least 250 valid signatures.
But the New Jersey GOP, citing a state law requiring petition circulators to be New Jersey residents, challenged 670 signatures because three New York residents circulated them. Without those signatures, Leguía would have only 85 valid signatures and would not qualify for the ballot.
Administrative Law Judge William Courtney initially sided with Republicans and ordered Leguía removed. Caldwell reversed Courtney’s ruling, finding that a 2021 federal court decision striking down a similar residency requirement for primary election petition circulators should also apply to independent and third-party candidates seeking spots on the general election ballot.
In a brief filed with the Appellate Division, the attorney general’s office defended Caldwell’s decision to accept Leguía’s nominating petition.
“The Committee’s asserted interest is for an election with as few competing candidates as possible to maximize the probability that its nominated candidate wins,” Deputy Attorney General Gordon Estes wrote. “No court has previously recognized such an interest, and this Court should decline to do so here.”
The GOP appealed and asked the Appellate Division to stay Caldwell’s decision while the case proceeds. The state supports an accelerated appeal but opposes the temporary removal of Leguia from the ballot.
Republicans contend that Caldwell, who also serves as lieutenant governor, exceeded his authority by effectively declaring a state statute unconstitutional. Administrative agencies cannot invalidate laws enacted by the legislature, they argued; only the judiciary can make that determination.
The GOP also maintains that the constitutional issue was decided without participation by the attorney general and that the federal case Caldwell relied upon, Arsenault v. Way, involved a different statute and an as-applied challenge brought by professional circulators after years of litigation.
Republicans say the law governing Leguia’s petition remains unambiguous: circulators must be at least 18, United States citizens, eligible to vote and residents of New Jersey.
“Respondent made a conscious choice to roll the dice in utilizing out-of-state circulators to gather signatures,” said Mark Sena, the lawyer for the state GOP.
The calendar has added urgency to the dispute. The drawing for general election ballot positions is scheduled for August 10, followed by an August 31 ballot-preparation deadline. Mailing of vote-by-mail ballots begins September 19.
The Appellate Division has not yet ruled on the Republican committee’s application for a stay.
The attorney general’s office rejects that argument, noting that the signatures came from qualified voters in the 7th district and that Republicans have not alleged fraud or challenged Leguía’s qualifications to serve in Congress.
“At worst, the Committee’s nominated candidate would suffer the inconvenience of an additional competitor on the general election ballot,” Estes wrote.
By contrast, the state argued, granting a stay could exclude Leguía from the ballot-position drawing and ultimately remove her from the ballot altogether, harming her, the hundreds of voters who signed her petition and the broader electorate.
The state said the Department of State has allowed nonresident circulators for both primary and general election petitions since the 2021 Arsenault ruling. Reimposing the residency requirement now would reverse five years of established practice and treat independent candidates more harshly than major-party primary candidates.
Caldwell did not claim authority to declare the law facially unconstitutional, the administration argued. Instead, he applied the federal ruling consistently to two materially similar petition requirements.
Republicans counter that a prior New Jersey case, Empower Our Neighborhoods v. Guadagno, left the statewide residency requirement intact. The state says that case resolved a narrower requirement that circulators reside within the particular district and expressly declined to decide whether out-of-state circulators must be permitted.
“As an officer of the Executive Branch, it is not within the Secretary of State’s purview to decide what the law should be; it is his job to apply the law as it is determined by the Legislature,” Sena stated.
Leguía was not invited to participate in the New Jersey Globe 7th district congressional debate between Democrat Rebecca Bennett and Republican Tom Kean, Jr. on September 27. She did not meet the New Jersey Globe debate qualification criteria for independent and minor party candidates. Neither did another independent candidate, Seamus Patrick O’Toole.
