Carl Lewis, former Olympic track gold-medal winner who is trying to run for the New Jersey State Senate this year, does not know yet whether he will be on the November 2011 ballot in the 8th district. However, his name will be on the June 7 primary ballot. No other Democrat is running, so he will win the primary by default, barring an extremely unlikely write-in campaign against him.

He does not know if he can be on the November ballot because the New Jersey Constitution requires candidates for the State Senate to have been residents of the state for the past four years. He voted in California in 2009 and the New Jersey state courts have already ruled that he was not a resident of New Jersey during the past four years. But he is in federal court arguing that the New Jersey Constitutional provision violates the U.S. Constitution. The federal case will not be decided until after the primary.