Assemblyman Vince Fong cannot run to succeed Rep. Kevin McCarthy in the 20th Congressional District, California’s secretary of state announced Friday in a ruling that will almost certainly prompt a legal challenge by the Republican candidate over his status in the Central Valley election in March.
Fong, R-Bakersfield, currently represents the 32nd Assembly District but is ineligible under state law to run for Congress “because he had previously filed paperwork to run for reelection to the California State Assembly,” Secretary of State Shirley Weber’s office said in a statement released Friday afternoon.
“Mr. Fong filed his completed nomination documents for Assembly District 32 prior to the close of the December 8, 2023, filing deadline,” the statement continued. “Mr. Fong then submitted completed nomination documents for Congressional District 20 during the 5-day extension period triggered by the incumbent’s decision not to seek re-election. State law prohibits any candidate from filing nomination papers for more than one office at the same election.
This is a tricky intersection of U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, which says states cannot add qualifications to candidates seeking federal congressional office, and the Anderson-Burdick line of cases, which permit reasonable procedural rules to ensure orderly ballot administration. Prohibitions on dual candidacies are usually construed to bar the candidate from running for the state office, not the federal office, to avoid running afoul of Term Limits. But the sequencing of the filing of paperwork here seems more in line with Anderson-Burdick. Of course, California’s extraordinarily early filing deadline for congressional elections exacerbates the problem here. We’ll see how the litigation plays out.