TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn't violate New Jersey's “sore loser” law and can appear on the ballot as an independent candidate for president, the state's top elections official said Wednesday.
Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way, who also serves as secretary of state, issued an order upholding in part an administrative law judge's determination just a day earlier.
The ruling means Kennedy can appear on the November ballot, and Way accepted his petition as an independent.
Way rejected part of Administrative Law Judge Ernest Bongiovanni's ruling saying that election attorney Scott Salmon's challenge to Kennedy was untimely. She found the judge was mistaken.
Kennedy's campaign praised the decision in an emailed statement.
"New Jersey is a perfect example of where we have defeated a Democratic Party complaint that had no merit," the campaign said.
New Jersey, like a number of other states, has a sore loser law that bars candidates who ran in a primary from running as independents in a general election. Bongiovanni's ruling follows another judge's similar opinion.
Way decided the matter under state law in her role as the state's top elections official
Salmon brought a suit in 2020 saying that then-potential presidential candidate Kanye West gathered an inadequate number of signatures. At the time, Salmon said he was a registered Democrat. West eventually withdrew his petition to be on the ballot.
In a statement Salmon said he believes Kennedy went afoul of the law and should have been kept from the ballot, but said he believes Way put “reasonable guardrails in place.”
Kennedy’s famous name and a loyal base have buoyed his bid for the White House. Strategists from both major parties had voiced concerns that he might negatively affect their candidate’s chances.
A similar challenge in New York questioning his claim that he lives in New York is unfolding in court there. He testified this week that his address is in the New York City suburb of Katonah.
Salmon sought to keep Kennedy from the ballot as an independent under a state law that bars candidates who run for a major party nomination in a primary from seeking the same office in the general election as an independent. Salmon sought to use the statute, known as a sore loser law, because Kennedy had filed with the Federal Election Commission in April 2023 to run as a Democrat; he amended the filing in October to begin an independent bid.
Kennedy argued that Salmon didn’t have standing to sue because he isn’t a candidate for president himself, among other arguments.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can appear on New Jersey's ballot, state's top elections official says
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can appear on New Jersey's ballot, state's top elections official says
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., right, arrives at the Albany County Courthouse to fight a lawsuit he falsely claimed to live in New York state, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)
STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Nobel memorial prize in economics was awarded Monday to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson for research into reasons why some countries succeed and others fail.
The Nobel memorial prize in economics was awarded Monday to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson for research into differences in prosperity between nations.
The three economists “have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for a country’s prosperity,” the Nobel committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said at the announcement in Stockholm.
“Societies with a poor rule of law and institutions that exploit the population do not generate growth or change for the better. The laureates’ research helps us understand why,” it added.
Acemoglu and Johnson work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Robinson conducts his research at the University of Chicago.
“Reducing the vast differences in income between countries is one of our time’s greatest challenges. The laureates have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for achieving this,” Jakob Svensson, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, said.
He said their research has provided "a much deeper understanding of the root causes of why countries fail or succeed.”
Reached by the academy in Athens, Greece, where he is due to speak at a conference, Acemoglu said he was surprised and shocked by the award.
“You never expect something like this," he said.
The economics prize is formally known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The central bank established it in 1968 as a memorial to Nobel, the 19th-century Swedish businessman and chemist who invented dynamite and established the five Nobel Prizes.
Though Nobel purists stress that the economics prize is technically not a Nobel Prize, it is always presented together with the others on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.
Nobel honors were announced last week in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace.
Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands.
The Nobel memorial prize in economics awarded to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A Robinson, seen on screen, during a press meeting at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, Monday Oct. 14, 2024. (Christine Olsson/TT News Agency via AP)
Academy of Sciences permanent secretary Hans Ellegren, center, Jakob Svensson, left, and Jan Teorell, of the Nobel assembly announce the Nobel memorial prize in economics winners, Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A Robinson, seen on screen, during a press meeting at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, Monday Oct. 14, 2024. (Christine Olsson/TT News Agency via AP)
FILE - A close-up view of a Nobel Prize medal at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
The Nobel economics prize is being announced in Sweden
The Nobel economics prize is being announced in Sweden
FILE - A bust of Alfred Nobel on display following a press conference at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, on Monday, Oct. 3, 2022. (Henrik Montgomery/TT News Agency via AP, File)
