N.J. GOP House candidate seeks to use ballot slogan ‘Let’s Go Brandon’

A Republican candidate for the 4th congressional district filed his bid for Congress today on a line entitled “Let’s Go Brand*n – FJB,” two variations on a not-especially-subtle code for “Fuck Joe Biden,” which may prompt a smackdown from Secretary of State Tahesha Way.

Robert Shapiro, a perennial candidate who has run for a variety of state and local offices over the years and who has set his sights this year on a primary challenge to Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester), submitted 203 signatures today – just barely over the 200-signature threshold and leaving him vulnerable to petition challenge.

Given Shapiro’s ballot slogan’s hinted profanity and reference to a real person, Way may choose to reject his line, a rejection which could then be appealed. State law prohibits individuals or entities who have not given express written permission from being directly named on ballot lines.

And Shapiro’s line isn’t the only one that Way could choose to reject.

Eugene Mazo is running on three different lines in the 8th district, two of which could be subject to invalidation: the “Endorsed by the New York Times” line in Hudson County and “Supported by the Governor” in Union County, both statements which are, of course, false.

Mazo is an election law professor who has sued against New Jersey’s often-confusing ballot access laws in the past, and lines – as well as his campaign itself – may be primarily meant as another challenge to those laws.

He made a similar maneuver in 2020 when he tried to run on the “Essex County Democratic Committee, Inc.” line, among others, in his bid for the 10th district despite not being supported by Essex Democrats; he was prevented from doing so, and his subsequent lawsuit was ultimately tossed out.