On Monday, November 3, the 2nd circuit refused to disturb Friday’s U.S. District Court decision, in the controversy over who should be listed on the November 4 ballot as the Working Families Party nominee for U.S. House, 26th district. Therefore, Jonathan Powers will be listed. The case is Republican Party of New York v New York State Board of Elections.

Powers doesn’t want to be the Working Families Party nominee, so he moved to Washington, D.C. However, Article I of the U.S. Constitution, which lists the qualifications to be in Congress, says the candidate must be a resident of the state “when elected”, which means November 4, not any time prior to November 4. This outcome is consistent with the 2006 ruling in Texas, in which the Republican Party hoped to show that Tom DeLay wasn’t eligible to run for re-election in Texas because he had moved to Virginia.

If Powers had been ineligible to run in this year’s New York race, the Working Families Party could have listed Alice Kryzan as its nominee. She is also the Democratic nominee. The Republican Party of New York state filed this federal lawsuit because it doesn’t want Kryzan to be helped by having both the Working Families and Democratic nominations.