Olympic sprinter Carl Lewis in the race for the long haul

EVEN WHEN he's just walking around neighborhoods in sneakers and jeans, talking with people in their front yards, Carl Lewis walks fast and talks fast.

Lewis, one of the greatest Olympians in the history of the games, was tearing up the pavement one recent summer night, knocking on some doors in a leaf-littered South Jersey neighborhood to discuss his tangled bid for a state senate seat.

"It's been the status quo for a long time, and it's time to change," the native of Willingboro told a woman standing outside her home in rural Shamong Township, Burlington County. "I've been doing so many things in the community, and I see this as an extension of that, rather than being a politician."

The reactions were often the same: Some courteous mothers and wives would accept his pamphlets with smiles, not fully realizing who he was. Dads and husbands sort of freaked out, often running down the street after their wives told them who just visited. Kids, some far too young to remember Lewis's international accomplishments, were polite.

"Wow, nine Olympic gold medals?" one little girl asked after reading his pamphlet. "That's amazing! Congratulations!"

Lewis, still lean and fit at 50, won those nine medals and numerous other titles in a long and storied career in track and field. Winning, running fast and crossing the finish line first have defined him, but running for office in the full-contact world of New Jersey politics hasn't been as easy, the hurdles being higher than anything he ever faced on a track.

Many, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and the state GOP, say that Lewis should not be on the ballot at all, his door-to-door campaigning a waste of time, because he voted in California in 2009 and doesn't meet New Jersey's four-year residency requirements to run for office. In an opinion released last week, U.S. District Judge Noel L. Hillman upheld Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno's decision to take Lewis off the ballot, claiming his fame and his deep ties to New Jersey are not enough to bypass the state's constitution.

In recent months, Lewis has kept racking up un-Lewis-like losses in court, until yesterday when the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philly ruled that, above all else, Lewis knew the issues, the area, and deserved to be on the Nov. 8 ballot. They didn't decide whether he lives in the Garden State or the Golden State.

The GOP candidate, Dawn Marie Addiego, could not be reached for comment, but Chris Russell, a Burlington County GOP spokesman, said that Lewis had asked the courts to treat him different from others because he's famous.

"He's got to take his pick: He either committed voter fraud in California or income-tax fraud in New Jersey," Russell said.

Russell called yesterday's decision a "miscarriage of justice" and said challengers plan to appeal.

Lewis - a member of the New Jersey Hall of Fame - lives in Medford now, is a volunteer track coach at his alma mater in Willingboro and considers himself a lifelong New Jerseyan. He graduated from Willingboro in 1979 and attended the University of Houston and, according to court documents, spent most of his adult life in Texas and California, where the Carl Lewis Foundation was based. He also traveled back and forth to New Jersey throughout those decades to visit family and local schools, though, and in 2005, he bought two condos in Mount Laurel and closed on his Medford house in 2007.

Despite the legal turmoil, Lewis remains defiantly positive. His supporters, before yesterday's decision, vowed to keep fighting for his candidacy, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if they had to. He's leaving the legal battles to the lawyers, though.

"It's important for me to focus on the needs of the 8th District and what the people want," he said.

In Shamong, Lewis visited a few dozen households his campaign described as "persuadable," urging them to get involved in his campaign. Many of them were home to teachers, which gave Lewis, whose parents were both teachers, an opportunity to talk about his top priority: education.

"We're just taking the kids for granted and assume that just because education is pretty good and America is number one in the world right now that we're just going to stay there," he said.

One man, a state employee who described himself as "extremely conservative," had a short, private conversation with Lewis in his driveway. Lewis said that he could relate to the man's call for smaller government, because he believes that the state needs to aggressively pursue more shared services.

"I said, 'You know what, you're right, there are 611 school districts in New Jersey,' " he said. "When we say government is too big, it isn't just slash and burn, it can be about sensible consolidation."

Resident Cate Campeau, after the shock of seeing Lewis on her front porch subsided, told him about the pay freezes she's been dealt as a teacher and the call for more sacrifices that she can't afford.

"It's scary because you depend on your pension," she said. "I realize times are tough, but . . . "

Campaign manager Chris Walker said that Lewis is an advocate for health care for women, an increase in shared services and a reduction of New Jersey's hefty property taxes.

"What Carl's overall focus is, when people ask what Carl's platform is, the bottom line is he wants to improve the quality of life," Walker said.

As the sun set in Shamong, Lewis was clearly making everyone's day, talking about their pets, their children and his historic feats on the world's biggest stages, before bounding off to the next house, his Cadillac, and eventually his home in Medford. He said that he had to travel to Paris the next day, but the finish line is in Trenton. Whatever happens, he'll still be running.

"I usually coach Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and the election is Tuesday," he said. "So it doesn't matter if I'm a senator or not, I'm going to be at practice Wednesday."