Lewis camp gets ballots delayed

A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction to prevent New Jersey election officials from issuing ballots for the June primary while Democrats work to have Olympian Carl Lewis restored as a candidate for state Senate.

Lewis, 49, was pushed off the ballot Tuesday when Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, acting as the New Jersey secretary of state, ruled that he had failed the four-year residency requirement for candidates.

Republicans reacted to Wednesday's legal maneuver by saying they were confident they would keep Lewis from running.

"They still can't change the indisputable facts of this case. By his own admission, Mr. Lewis voted in California in 2009 and hasn't paid New Jersey income taxes like other state residents are required to do, and therefore does not meet the four-year constitutional residency requirement," Burlington County GOP spokesman Chris Russell said in a statement.

Lewis hopes to run in Burlington County's solidly Republican Eighth Legislative District.

Though he has owned property in the state since 2005, Lewis voted in May 2009 in California, where he also owns property.

He filed voter-registration forms in Burlington County on April 11, the same day he declared his candidacy against freshman Republican State Sen. Dawn Marie Addiego, who is running unopposed in the primary June 7.

Guadagno's ruling overturned the findings of an administrative law judge who declared that Republicans had failed to prove that Lewis was not a resident.

Republicans filed a complaint April 15 to have Lewis removed from the Democratic ballot.

William Tambussi, Lewis' attorney, filed a complaint in the New Jersey Appellate Division on Wednesday to overturn Guadagno's ruling.

A hearing on whether the ballots should be issued as well as the constitutionality of New Jersey's residency requirement was scheduled for Thursday before U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman in Camden.

Though Lewis, a first-time candidate who grew up in Willingboro, would run in a GOP stronghold, he has said Gov. Christie tried to talk him out of entering the race.

The governor's office vigorously disputes Lewis' interpretation of an April 10 phone call between the governor and the nine-time gold medalist in track.

Lewis said that he was working with Christie to set up a fitness program for New Jersey youngsters but that it was killed when he decided to run for the state Senate.

In the phone call, he said, Christie "was really trying to make it clear he did not want me to run in this race. He said, 'If you're going to do this race, we probably don't have time to do this program.' "