[calvin sun]

Beleaguered by his bad polling numbers IMO, so how can he chose to just drop out? The Senate itself did not throw him out. How can anyone after the deadline say, "Gee, I'm losing abnd the Senate is gone for sure, so I want to quit to cheat the Republicans of my seat. Slightly transparent.

Reminds me of how, in my college, we couldn't just drop out of a course within x days of finals if we were failing. If we could, we would be spared the failing grade. Of course, I never had to worry about this regulation LOL

[mwl1]

Good post. This analogy should be shared with Forrester people and RNC. Even a typical voter in NJ might understand this analogy.

[CharacterCounts]

The New Jersey court has ruled on a matter closelly resembling the current situation

Just last year in BRET SCHUNDLER v. GLENN R. PAULSEN, et al the facts were that the legislature passed legislagiot extending the deadline in the gubernatorial election so that the 48 day period would be extended.

From The Decision:

We first consider appellant's argument that Chapter 73 applies retroactively to destroy his vested rights. Appellant contends that the right of the DiFrancesco vacancy committee to certify a substitute candidate perished on April 18, 2001, forty- eight days before the originally scheduled June 5 primary date. He asserts that the Legislature's attempt to resurrect the vacancy committee's authority by extending the deadline to May 9, forty-eight days prior to the new primary date, results in a "manifest injustice."

;Before examining the applicable legal principles, we note the practical ramifications flowing from appellant's contention. In practical terms, the "vested right" postulated by appellant is the right to run unopposed. That claimed right contravenes New Jersey's well settled policy in favor of contested elections and voter choice. As we emphasized earlier, the objective of our election laws is to promote "participation in the candidate- selection process, and to give voters more choices in a primary election." Lesniak v. Budzash,

Were we to adopt appellant's argument, our decision would render nugatory this important public policy and reduce the primary election to a choice of one. Nothing in our jurisprudence compels that course.

We are satisfied that applying Chapter 73 retroactively does not deprive appellant of any vested right. Indeed, the statute merely preserves the authority of a vacancy committee to replace a candidate who dies or resigns as long as such action is taken not later than forty-eight days from the date of the primary election. That authority preexisted the enactment of Chapter 73. The only change effected by Chapter 73 is to allow a vacancy committee to make a substitution not later than forty-eight days from the newly scheduled primary election.

Full opinion

So if the New jersey legislature passes a law reducing the 48 days to something like three weeks, this court will have no problem with it.