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PHILADELPHIA — Nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis says he's happy the challenge of his bid to run for office in New Jersey appears to be behind him.
Lewis says Wednesday that he's looking forward to campaigning for the 8th District state Senate seat after an appeals court a day earlier restored his name to the ballot. The Democrat says he entered the race because he believes in public service.
Republicans claimed Lewis was ineligible to run because he didn't meet the state's four-year residency requirement for candidates.
GOP lawyers say they'll appeal.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
After several false starts in his bid for a New Jersey Senate seat, nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis is finally planning to talk politics.
Lewis planned to hold a news conference Wednesday, a day after a divided federal appeals court restored his name to the ballot in what could be the final say on a residency dispute that has hung over his candidacy since he announced his run in April.
Attorney Mark Sheridan, representing Burlington County Republicans who sought to keep Lewis off the ballot, said his clients would appeal the 2-1 ruling issued by the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel. But Sheridan said he would have to act quickly and choose to appeal to the entire 3rd Circuit or to the U.S. Supreme Court, neither of which agrees to take on most of the appeals made to it.
Lewis, who is running as a Democrat, is challenging GOP state Sen. Dawn Addiego in the heavily Republican 8th Legislative District. State officials had taken Lewis' name off the ballot, saying he didn't meet a four-year residency requirement to seek the seat, and both state courts and the U.S. District court sided with them.
However, the 3rd Circuit had put Lewis back on the ballot for the primary in June and restored him again Tuesday for the general election on Nov. 8.
Lewis' lawyer, William Tambussi, argues that the residency requirement is meant to ensure that a candidate knows the local issues and the voters know the candidate. He said neither was a problem in the case of Lewis, who grew up in southern New Jersey, went to college in Texas and settled in California. The Olympian also bought homes in New Jersey in 2005 and 2007 but continued to vote in California through 2009.
The appeals panel majority agreed with Tambussi in the ruling issued less than five hours after it heard arguments on Tuesday. The court said a full opinion would be filed later.
After months of legal hair-splitting on exactly when Lewis became a New Jersey resident, the court seemed to indicate that issue was not the heart of the case. Instead, the court said, "the state has failed to demonstrate a compelling state interest" for leaving Lewis off the ballot.
Judges Thomas Vanaskie and Thomas Ambro, who voted Tuesday to put Lewis back on the ballot, were appointed by Democrats. Judge Anthony Scirica, who dissented, is a Republican appointee.
