Lines: 117 X-Admin: news@aol.com From: netsanet1@aol.com (Netsanet1) Newsgroups: alt.politics.usa.constitution Date: 03 Oct 2002 12:15:00 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Subject: LAWS DO NOT APPLY TO DEMOCRATS!!! Message-ID: <20021003081500.13096.00007541@mb-mf.aol.com> Path: rsl2.rslnet.net!cyclone.bc.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.cis.ohio-state.edu!ngpeer.news.aol.com!audrey-m2.news.aol.com!not-for-mail Xref: rsl2.rslnet.net alt.politics.usa.constitution:5841 Let's be honest... The real purpose of the Sep. 16th deadline was never to keep Democrats from switching candidates at the last moment... No, the real reason the Legislature enacted a Sep. 16th deadline, is only to keep REPUBLICANS from switching candidates at the last minute!!! Just imagine for a moment that the REPUBLICAN candidate was trailing in the polls, got cold feet, and decided at the eleventh hour to drop out and substitute some other PUPPET with a cleaner ethical record in his place!!! Would the State Courts ever allow it? YOU KNOW THEY WOULDN'T!!! Why? Because there is a simple New Jersey legal precedent involved here. That precedent is: Democrats make the laws, Republicans follow them. Democrats make laws that are only binding on Republicans. Of course the Democrats aren't bound by their own laws, they're supposed to be ABOVE the Law. But Republicans, being second class citizens, are the ones the law was intended to apply to. Using this principle, the solution becomes crystal clear. Democrats can jump horses at the last minute. Republicans can't. After all, that's what fairness is all about!!! *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# GOP Eyes Court Battle for NJ Ballot By KATHY HENNESSY TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Republicans are looking to the U.S. Supreme Court to keep Democrats from putting former Sen. Frank Lautenberg on the November ballot instead of Sen. Robert Torricelli, who shocked the political world this week when he abruptly dropped his re-election bid. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled 7-0 Wednesday that Lautenberg could replace Torricelli, who quit Monday amid questions about his ethics and fears that a loss could cost the Democrats their narrow Senate majority. But a lawyer for the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee said GOP nominee Douglas Forrester would ask that the U.S. Supreme Court delay the New Jersey high court ruling Thursday. The lawyer, Alex Vogel, also said a separate lawsuit would be filed in U.S. District Court in New Jersey on behalf of overseas military personnel who have requested absentee ballots. ``Federal law requires they should already have gone out,'' Vogel said. He added that the ruling by the New Jersey Supreme Court is unclear about when these ballots would eventually be distributed. He said the GOP would ask the Justice Department to ``force New Jersey to mail the ballots immediately.'' Republicans raised some of the issues that figured prominently in the 2000 presidential election. Vogel said the petition to the Supreme Court will cite a provision in the Constitution that says ``state legislators have to decide the time, place and manner of elections, not state supreme courts.'' He said the request for a delay would be filed with Justice David Souter. Republicans argue it's too close to Election Day to replace Torricelli and that Democrats should not be allowed to dump a candidate because he was trailing in the polls. State law bars replacement candidates less than 51 days before an election, the GOP said. Torricelli withdrew 36 days before Election Day. But the New Jersey high court said it was more important to have a ballot ``bearing the names of candidates of both major political parties'' and that state law didn't rule out the possibility of a vacant candidacy within 51 days of the election. Lautenberg, who was chosen Tuesday by party leaders to replace Torricelli, was expected to go to Washington to meet Thursday with Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. New Jersey Democrats wasted no time Wednesday getting core Democratic supporters energized about Lautenberg. More than 300 union members crammed into the Trenton War Memorial to cheer Lautenberg, who was greeted by a lively crowd with cheers of ``We Want Frank.'' ``Thank you very much,'' said Lautenberg, who served three terms but decided not to run again in 2000. ``Frank wants you!'' Democratic Gov. James E. McGreevey, who led the behind-the-scenes talks to find a replacement candidate, told union supporters their efforts would be needed to ensure a Democratic victory. ``We are going to need to have a large grass roots effort in the state of New Jersey to elect Frank Lautenberg,'' McGreevey said. Forrester said he will continue to campaign on the message that New Jersey is dead last in receiving federal dollars and the state needs help to clean its polluted environmental sites. ``We should not be last as we have been for years and years and Frank Lautenberg was part of that,'' Forrester said. He said Torricelli's ethics had prevented the campaign from addressing the issues. ``The Torricelli-Lautenberg machine's disregard for the rule of law, fair elections and the people ... will once again make our great state the butt of national jokes,'' Forrester said Wednesday night. On the Net: Forrester campaign: http://www.forrester2002.com New Jersey Democrats: http://www.njdems.org