Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ability to run a competitive presidential campaign appears to be in free fall, my Wall Street Journal colleagues and I reported last week. Read the whole story here.
Kennedy’s support in national polls, already slipping before President Biden ended his re-election bid, has dropped even further since Vice President Kamala Harris emerged as the Democrats’ standard-bearer. He has faced many controversies, from a sexual-assault allegation to a photo of him with a barbecued dog. This week, he acknowledged leaving a dead bear cub in Central Park in 2014 as a prank. He has barely been seen on the campaign trail.
Indeed, Kennedy spent most of last week in an book-lined courtroom in Albany as a witness in a challenge to his claims of legal residency in New York. The suit, brought by a group of voters and supported by a Democratic-aligned political-action committee, says Kennedy’s legal residence is actually in California.
The ruling could have a big effect: If a judge finds the address isn’t valid, it could block Kennedy from the ballot in New York and spark challenges in other states. It also could prevent Kennedy’s campaign from winning electoral votes from California, which is Shanahan’s home state. The Constitution says presidential electors can’t cast ballots for two people from their own state—a de facto ban on having a president and vice president from the same place.
The testimony and evidence included photos of Kennedy’s bed in the room he says he rents in Westchester County, with the discussion ranging from where family mementos are stored to where the candidate has active falconry licenses and where his animals—at one point including an emu—reside.
Roughly a dozen Kennedy backers attended the trial. James Shear, a supporter from nearby Schenectady County, said the case was “harassment to drain his coffers.” The founder of Clear Choice Action, the PAC that engineered the suit, said, “The address listed on his candidate filing papers and petitions is false; those petitions do not meet the legally required standard set by the state of New York; and they should be declared invalid.”
Kennedy stayed at a hotel near Albany Medical Center hospital and dined at the Recovery Room. (There are MUCH better ways to spend time in Albany, folks.) In that period he had burgers with Scott Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector. Ritter is a controversial figure: he has sharply criticized U.S. foreign policy in Ukraine and also has a criminal history.
As the Times Union reported, “He was convicted in 2011 in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, after Barrett Township police presented evidence that in 2009 he had masturbated in front of a webcam being viewed by an undercover officer who was posing as a 15-year-old girl. He served three years behind bars.” The F.B.I. raided Ritter’s home on Wednesday; Ritter said the raid was “related to concerns apparently the U.S. government has about violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.”
After court adjourned on Wednesday, Kennedy spoke to reporters in the hallway. He said he appreciated Ritter’s foreign policy views. He tried to avoid questions about the bear incident — which was one of many nuggets in a big New Yorker profile of RFK Jr. — but then along came my buddy Vaughn Golden of the New York Post.
“So, I'm from Pennsylvania. This isn't a really weird question, but have you picked anything else up off the road, roadkill wise?” Vaughn asked.
“I’ve been picking up roadkill my whole life,” Kennedy replied. “I have a freezer full of it. A thousand-cubic-foot freezer full of it.”
A spokeswoman later texted to clarify that it was a 21-cubic-foot freezer. And it was located in Westchester County.
THE QUESTION: What prompted Robert F. Kennedy Sr. to move to New York?
Know the answer? Drop me a line at jimmy.vielkind@gmail.com. Or just write with thoughts, feedback or to say hi.
THE LAST ANSWER: Bob Menendez became a U.S. senator in 2006, when he was appointed to succeed Jon Corzine, who had been elected governor.