Attorney Scott Salmon argues New Jersey’s Sore Loser Law bars presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from appearing on the ballot as a third-party candidate. (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

A judge is expected to decide Monday whether independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can be on the November ballot in New Jersey.

Kennedy’s push to get on the ballot has been challenged by attorney Scott Salmon, who said New Jersey’s Sore Loser Law bars candidates like Kennedy from running as an independent in November after trying and failing to secure a major party’s nomination. Kennedy had initially said he would challenge President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination for president before launching his indepedent bid.

Under questioning by Mercer County Judge Robert Lougy, Salmon conceded that Kennedy didn’t submit paperwork to seek the Democratic Party nomination in New Jersey, but he still took “concrete steps” to win the party’s nod, raising money and holding events to get support from Democrats before launching his third-party bid for the White House. 

“There’s a difference between words and deeds,” Salmon told the judge. “And if someone is just saying, ‘I’m going to run for president,’ and then they don’t do anything about it, that there’s a distinct difference between that and someone who is actively raising money and spending money.” 

Donald F. Burke, attorney for Kennedy, argued that Salmon’s case should not have been filed in state Superior Court, saying that venue is reserved for Kennedy’s presidential rivals. Voters like Salmon are supposed to take their complaints to the New Jersey secretary of state, he said. 

Burke has argued that if Kennedy is dropped from the ballot, the winners would be the Democratic and Republican parties, not voters.

“Major political parties would love Salmon to win because what that would do is make a choice of their candidates and no one else,” he said.

New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Way is a defendant in the case. Adam Marshall, attorney for the state, said Friday that if Salmon had filed an objection to Kennedy’s candidacy with the secretary of state instead of with the courts, there likely would already have been a hearing at the Office of Administrative Law and a decision by a judge, and the secretary of state could have responded to those findings, Marshall said. 

Salmon maintained he filed in the correct venue because he isn’t challenging Kennedy’s petitions to get on the ballot. He added that taking this matter to the Office of Administrative Law now could delay it further and “limit the rights of myself as well as Mr. Kennedy.”

Way, who is also lieutenant governor, has until Aug. 9 to formally certify which presidential candidates will be on New Jersey’s ballot. Lougy said he understands the urgency of ruling on election matters quickly.

Petitions of electors for president and vice president are due to Way’s office on the 99th day before the general election — that would be Monday, July 29 — and filing objections are due four days after that, on August 2, Marshall noted.

Salmon filed his lawsuit in June. He helped get rapper Ye booted from New Jersey’s ballot in 2020.

While Kennedy’s attorneys fight this case in New Jersey and other states, they scored a win in Nebraska. Kennedy secured enough signatures to appear as a nonpartisan candidate on the ballot in that state despite an objection from its Democratic Party, the state’s secretary of state announced Friday.

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Several members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation have again sent a letter calling on the U.S. Department of Transportation to get involved in the issues plaguing train travel for NJ Transit and Amtrak riders on the Northeast Corridor this summer.

The letter, sent to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Friday, is at least the third he has received from officials in New Jersey seeking accountability over the repeated delays Amtrak and NJ Transit customers have experienced due to failing infrastructure.

“I’m sick and tired of a ‘Summer of Hell’ — year after year,” wrote U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, who led the letter, co-signed with U.S. Reps. Frank Pallone, Robert Menendez, Josh Gottheimer, Andy Kim, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Bill Pascrell and Donald Norcross.

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“We need Amtrak to use the $6 billion we passed in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to repair these lines so NJ Transit commuters see fewer delays,” Sherrill wrote. “It’s time to get this fixed.”

Among the requests of U.S. DOT that were outlined in the letter:

• “Have Amtrak provide a schedule regarding how it intends to spend the funds appropriated for state-of-good-repair on New Jersey’s portion of the Northeast corridor”
• “More must be done in the interim to inform riders about outage plans, repairs, and other improvements affecting their daily commute. We ask that you urgently outline a plan to keep commuters fully informed of planned and unplanned disruptions.”

Despite the letters, there has been little direct communication with Buttigieg since the first congressional letter was sent June 25. The secretary was also copied on a letter New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy sent to Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner in May.

Rep. Menendez spoke to Buttigieg during a June 27 hearing of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, imploring the secretary to “treat this like the crisis that it is.”

“We’re hearing from our residents every day who don’t want to go to work, who don’t want to travel, who are worried about what child care looks like because there’s no reliability,” Menendez said.

Buttigieg said federal staff helping Amtrak assess causes

Buttigieg said Federal Railroad Administration personnel have been “on the ground” assessing the situation and are assisting Amtrak and NJ Transit in a joint review they are finalizing. The review is assessing why NJ Transit’s overhead train equipment is getting tangled with Amtrak’s power lines — the central cause of significant cancellations, delays and disruptions in April, May and June.

Those issues have not reoccurred in July, as NJ Transit and Amtrak have increased inspections, brought in third party assistance and placed cameras on top of trains.

A July 10 incident that was reported as “downed wires” was actually a rope that fell, and on July 21 wires that fell on the tracks were not Amtrak’s but PSE&G’s and had nothing to do with Amtrak’s infrastructure, the utility company confirmed.

Murphy said he has kept in close contact with Tony Coscia, Amtrak’s board chair, as the two agencies work to prevent further incidents.

Earlier this month, Amtrak applied for four federal grants that would help pay for upgrades to overhead wires, a substation replacement project and signal improvements, as well as replacing the Sawtooth Bridge, but those projects likely wouldn’t be completed for years.

Similarly, completion of the Portal Bridge replacement across the Hackensack River and construction of the Gateway tunnels, which would include wire upgrades, won’t be finished until 2026 and 2035, respectively.

Overhead wires, signals and substations throughout New Jersey were first identified for replacement 50 years ago, but $4.6 billion in overdue repairs and upgrades have built up over time.

Amtrak, according to its own documents, has adapted a “run-to-fail approach” instead of a long-term strategy that would have required consistent funding it doesn’t normally have. This has allowed the infrastructure to deteriorate. As a result, decades-old wires droop, causing them to fall or get tangled during extreme changes in weather.

Friday’s letter adds pressure to U.S. DOT and Amtrak to use the $6 billion in federal funding allocated specifically for the Northeast Corridor’s maintenance backlog.

“We were proud to secure this funding for precisely this purpose, and these funds should be used to address the problem right now,” the letter said.