A super PAC backing President Joe Biden is challenging Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s New York residency claim, saying the campaign lied about it in its ballot petition.
The PAC, Clear Choice, is alleging Kennedy has little connection to his New York residence and now lives on the West Coast in a complaint to the state’s Board of Elections.
“The objectors have proven and, will continue to prove, by clear and convincing evidence that candidate Kennedy violated New York State law when he listed the petition residence on his presidential petitions, and therefore candidate Kennedy should be barred from seeking the public office of president of the United States,” the group’s complaint reads.
A Board of Elections spokeswoman, Kathleen McGrath, told the New York Times that a determination of residency would be “outside the ministerial scope” of the board’s review of petitions.
“I will note that the courts and a judicial proceeding would be the appropriate venue for challenging his residency,” she said. The complaint is likely to stall Kennedy’s efforts to get on the ballot of the state in his quest to get on enough ballots to qualify for the June 27 CNN presidential debate. He has until June 20 to do so, provided he also meets a polling requirement.
If Kennedy can’t get on the New York ballot, it’d be an expensive loss for the campaign. A recent report indicates Kennedy’s campaign has spent over $1.1 million to secure ballot access in the state, paying “petition circulators” $90 per hour.
His campaign says Kennedy has been a permanent resident since 1968 and that he has held several jobs in the state, including an early role as an assistant district attorney in the borough of Manhattan. Kennedy does not own his residence in New York but pays rent to the owner, a doctor friend in Westchester, New York.
“Mr. Kennedy’s best friend invited him to move into his Croton Lake Road residence in which Mr. Kennedy had been a frequent guest,” the campaign said in its statement. “Mr. Kennedy transferred his residence in June 2023.”
The dispute likely arises from Kennedy’s ownership of a $5 million Malibu, California, home with his actress wife, Cheryl Hines, which he bought in 2013. The Kennedy campaign rejects the claim that he doesn’t live in New York.
“He receives mail there. His driver’s license is registered there. His automobile is registered there. His voting registration is from there,” the campaign said in a statement.
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“He has never claimed any other state as a residency,” the campaign added. “He intends to move back to New York after his wife retires from acting.”
New York election law states that residence in the state is defined as “that place where a person maintains a fixed, permanent and principal home and to which he, wherever temporarily located, always intends to return.”
So far, Kennedy has made it onto the ballot in seven states: Utah, Michigan, California, Delaware, Oklahoma, Hawaii, and Texas. He says he has met the requirements to be on an additional nine: New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Idaho, Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio, New Jersey, and New York.