ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A lawyer for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked a state appeals court Wednesday to restore him to New York’s presidential election ballot, even though he has suspended his campaign.
A state judge knocked Kennedy off the state’s ballot earlier this month, ruling that he had falsely claimed to live in New York on his nominating petitions, despite actually living in California. Kennedy suspended his campaign less than two weeks later and endorsed Republican Donald Trump.
Kennedy began withdrawing his name from the ballot in states where the presidential race is expected to be close, including Maine, where election officials said Wednesday that he met a deadline to withdraw from the ballot.
He has asked supporters to continue to back him elsewhere, however.
In Oregon, Kennedy submitted his candidate filing as the nominee of the We the People party on Monday, three days after dropping out of the race. For now, this means Kennedy’s name will appear on the state’s ballot, election officials said.
Candidates in Oregon have until Friday to withdraw by submitting a form to the secretary of state’s office, spokesperson Laura Kerns said, and if they don’t, they will appear on the ballot.
Kennedy’s communications team did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. But Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that Mike Cully, who ran Kennedy’s Oregon operations, said the move was “meant to suck votes away from the Democratic Party, which obviously he has disenfranchised himself from.”
Meanwhile, Kennedy’s legal team has pressed ahead with arguments that Kennedy is right to keep calling himself a New Yorker, and wasn’t trying to trick anyone when he listed a friend’s house in a New York City suburb as his home address.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could have put his residence as the moon and no one would be confused with who Robert F. Kennedy is,” his lawyer, Jim Walden told a mid-level appeals court judges during a brief hearing.
He said courts in the past have considered petition addresses valid unless there is evidence of deception or confusion. He argued there was no evidence of that with Kennedy, a member of “one of the most distinguished political families in United States history.”
A lawsuit backed by a Democrat-aligned political action committee challenged Kennedy’s nominating paperwork claiming a home address in the tony suburb of Katonah, New York. Kennedy was a resident of the state for decades — his father represented New York in the U.S. Senate — but he has lived in Los Angeles area since 2014, when he married “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Cheryl Hines.
John Quinn, an attorney for voters listed as plaintiffs in the suit, told the judges that Kennedy had a legal obligation to fill out his paperwork truthfully.
“Mr. Kennedy could live anywhere. He just wasn’t allowed to lie about where he lives,” Quinn said.
A decision from the appeals court is expected soon.
Kennedy faces a separate challenge in a state court on Long Island over allegations that a contractor used deceptive tactics to gather petition signatures.
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Associated Press writer Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed.
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