California’s chief elections officer said late Friday that Bakersfield Republican Vince Fong cannot appear on the ballot for a Central Valley congressional seat because he is already running for reelection to the state Assembly, a decision the state lawmaker vowed to challenge in court.
When Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) announced his retirement earlier this month, Fong, 44, announced he would stay in his current job in the 32nd Assembly District and would not run for Congress. Then, days later, Fong changed his mind and filed paperwork to enter the race, prompting complaints from other candidates that he was trying to run for two offices at once, which they said was prohibited by state law.
Fong’s paperwork to run for Congress was “improperly submitted,” the office of Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber said late Friday. The office said that Fong “will not appear on the list of certified candidates for Congressional District 20 that our office will transmit to county election officials on candidates on Dec. 28.”
Fong’s campaign released a statement vowing to file a lawsuit “imminently” and calling the Secretary of State’s decision an “unprecedented interference in the candidate filing process.”
County elections offices have “full jurisdiction to qualify candidates for the ballot,” while the Secretary of State “simply has a ministerial duty to certify the candidate lists and include ALL qualified candidates,” the campaign said.
Fong was sworn in as a candidate for the Congressional race on Monday at the Kern County Elections Division office in Bakersfield.
“I will fight the Secretary of State’s misguided decision and do whatever it takes to give voters in our community a real choice in this election,” Fong said in a statement.
Fong, 44, has been widely seen as the front-runner in the Congressional race and has already secured McCarthy’s endorsement. Born and raised in Bakersfield, Fong began his career working for McCarthy’s predecessor, then-Rep. Bill Thomas, then worked for nearly a decade as McCarthy’s district director.
Fong was elected to the state Assembly in 2016, where he has largely focused on public safety, water and fiscal issues, generally eschewing culture wars that dominate some parts of the GOP. He carried bills attempting to pause a tax on gasoline that funds road repairs and direct money away from high speed rail, both of which were unsuccessful.
Fong has served as the vice chairman of the Assembly budget committee, a perch he has used to advocate for conservative fiscal policies even though Republicans have little power to influence decisions in the state Capitol.
Fong was the only candidate who filed to run for the 32nd Assembly district seat. The filing deadline for the race was last Friday.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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