A Dover councilwoman who filed for re-election as an independent after losing party support for re-election could have a problem if judges continue to enforce New Jersey’s Sore Loser Law.
Karol Ruiz sought the Democratic organization line earlier this year – before U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quariashi ordered office block ballots for the June 4 primary – but lost the local Democratic convention in March, 16 to 5.
Rather than take on Veronica Velez, an ally of Mayor James P. Dodd, in the primary, Ruiz filed to run as an independent.
Under similar circumstances, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. faces a lawsuit alleging that his prior candidacy for the Democratic nomination prohibits a general election candidacy. A Superior Court judge has scheduled a hearing on Kennedy’s candidacy on July 17.
“Courts in New Jersey have repeatedly upheld the Sore Loser Law in recent years to preclude individuals from running as independents even when they did not appear on the primary ballot itself,” Salmon, a prominent election lawyer and Democrat who filed the lawsuit to toss Kennedy from the ballot.
Dodd thinks that Ruiz should drop out of the race.
“As a believer in the rule of law, it is evident to me that Ruiz planned to run in the Democratic primary and dropped out only when she decided she was unlikely to win,” Dodd told the New Jersey Globe. “Based on the spirit of the Sore Loser Law, Ms. Ruiz should abide by the law and stay out of the general election. I cannot comment further as to what legal actions may be taken should she refuse to do what is right by her constituents.”
Ruiz did not immediately respond to a text message and did not answer her cell phone.
Last September, just days before the ballots were due to be printed, a South Jersey judge tossed Penns Grove Mayor LaDaena Thomas, an independent, from the general election ballot last year. An individual not affiliated with Thomas’ campaign used Facebook to urge voters to write in Thomas in the Democratic primary; while the first-term mayor didn’t seek votes, she alluded to it on Facebook, and that was enough for Judge Benjamin Morgan to kick her off the ballot. Salmon worked on that case.
In 2022, a judge in Monmouth County found that an unsuccessful write-in candidate in a Colts Neck GOP primary could not file as an independent.
After an East Rutherford councilman who lost the GOP primary was offered an open slot on the Democratic ticket in 2018, Judge Estela De La Cruz found that the Loser Law applied and wouldn’t permit Jeffrey Lahullier to run as a Democrat. (The following year, Lahullier ran for mayor as a Democrat and won.)
The Division of Elections rejected a nominating petition filed by Peter Vallorosi, who wanted to run as an independent for the U.S. Senate after previously running as a Republican. He filed for the GOP primary but withdrew after it became clear he didn’t have enough signatures on his nominating petition to sustain a challenge.
Kennedy filed petitions to get on the November general election ballot in May, but New Jersey will not certify his candidacy after the July 29 filing deadline.