Lawsuit claimed Khanna was putting up straw candidates.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A California judge has disqualified a desi candidate from the race to win California’s 17th Congressional District, but has cleared Ro Khanna of any wrongdoing in the lawsuit filed against him.
Republican candidate Vinesh Singh Rathore will not be on the ballot for the primary race, which will take place in a few months’ time, due to several “irregularities” that were found with the paperwork filed on his behalf. But the other candidate who entered at the same time, Joel Vanlandingham, will be allowed to run on the Republican side.
The case alleged that Khanna was essentially creating straw candidates on the Republican side of the race to split votes and make it easier for him to win the upcoming June primary. The suit was filed by Jeffrey Wald, a Republican official from Fremont, California, in Sacramento County Superior Court on Wednesday.
According to Wald, two new Republican candidates, Vanlandingham and Rathore, were recruited by Khanna and his campaign to run on the Republican ticket to dilute votes. Vanila Mathur Singh, who entered the race last December, is also a Republican vying to represent California’s 17th District in the House of Representatives.
The thinking was apparently that, if there were more candidates running for the GOP, their voters would spread the votes among all three of them, thus ensuring that no one candidate got all the votes and posed a threat to the floundering Khanna campaign. Khanna, who has been lagging in the polls behind long-time Rep. Mike Honda, also a Democrat, allegedly did this to ensure that he would have enough votes to make it through the primary elections, and contend through November.
The California primary system is a free-for-all, meaning that all candidates from all parties compete for two spots in the general election. Two Democrats, two Republicans, or one of each can make the ticket – it all depends on which two candidates receive the most votes.
The lawsuit also alleges that the entry of Rathore, another Indian American, would dilute the votes coming from that demographic, in addition to the votes coming from Republicans. As the sole Democratic Indian American in the race, Khanna would have a distinct advantage, especially since most Asian and Indian Americans tend to vote Democrat.
“The addition of Rathore and Vanlandingham, both of whom are running as Republicans, will split the GOP vote, effectively moving Khanna to second place in the top two June 3 Primary Election,” Wald’s lawsuit contended. “The addition of Rathore, another Indian-American, will split the Indian-American vote. In addition, the fact that Rathore has added his middle name on his ballot designation appears to be a clear effort to cause confusion between ‘Vanila Singh’ and ‘Vinesh Singh,’ both of whom are designated as Republicans.”
Rathore, a 35 year-old product attorney for Google, told the press that the votes he received to submit his candidacy were all valid. Vanlandingham took exception with Ward’s lawsuit claiming that his platform did not actually reflect GOP principles, which was used as evidence that his campaign was, in fact, fraudulent.
Khanna’s campaign as vociferously denied any part of this, saying that the entire thing is a smear tactic being used to discredit Khanna. In an effort to boost his profile, Khanna launched a TV ad campaign earlier this week, and is hoping that increased exposure will narrow the gap between him and Honda, who has a comfortable lead thus far in the race.
California’s primary election will be on Tuesday, June 3, and the 2014 general election will take place on Tuesday, November 4.