SYLLABUS

(This syllabus is not part of the opinion of the Court. It has been prepared by the Office of the Clerk for the convenience of the reader. It has been neither reviewed nor approved by the Supreme Court. Please note that, in the interests of brevity, portions of any opinion may not have been summarized).

In re: Contest of November 8, 2011 General Election of Office of the

New Jersey General Assembly, Fourth Legislative District (A-58-11)(069853)

Argued January 27, 2012 -- Decided February 16, 2012

LaVECCHIA, J., writing for a majority of the Court.

This appeal considers a challenge to the November 8, 2011 election of Gabriela Mosquera for the New Jersey General Assembly, Fourth Legislative District. Shelley Lovett, who received the next highest number of votes, challenged the election alleging that Mosquera was ineligible because she failed to meet the one-year durational residency requirement set forth in Article IV, Section 1, Paragraph 2 of the New Jersey Constitution. Complicating the matter is the decision and accompanying order in Robertson v. Bartels, 150 F. Supp.2d 691 (D.N.J. 2001), wherein a federal trial court had concluded that the durational residency requirement of the State Constitution violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and had enjoined the New Jersey Attorney General and Secretary of State from enforcing the provision’s one-year durational residency requirement for eligibility for General Assembly office.

The Fourth Legislative District consists of nine municipalities located in portions of Camden and Gloucester Counties. Mosquera has lived in New Jersey since early childhood. She first became a resident of the Fourth District shortly after purchasing a home in Gloucester Township on December 29, 2010. Mosquera stated that she did not purchase the home with the intent to run for office in the Fourth District, and that she made a determination to run as a Democratic candidate for the Assembly sometime in 2011.

Lovett, who ran as a Republican candidate for the Assembly, testified that she had lived in Gloucester Township for approximately thirty-two years prior to the 2011 election. After the June 2011 primary, she “heard a rumor” that Mosquera had not been a resident of Gloucester a full year prior to the November 2011 election, but she did not litigate Mosquera’s compliance with the residency requirement at that time because she did not have the money or resources to do so.