Lawsuit Contests Joe Kerr’s Congressional Ballot Designation As Illegal

COTO DE CAZA, CA — Esther Kim-Varet, frontrunner to flip California’s 40th Congressional District, today announced that she has filed a Petition for Writ of Mandate in Sacramento Superior Court to block Democratic opponent Joe Kerr from using an illegal ballot designation in the June 2, 2026 primary election. Kerr was served a summons at his Coto de Caza, CA home on March 20th, with an emergency hearing scheduled for 10:30am PT March 26th before Judge Stephen Acquisto.

The petition, filed by leading election law firm Olson Remcho, LLP, presents overwhelming evidence that Kerr has held at least six separate paid positions since leaving the fire department fourteen years ago — including roles as director and secretary of a Nevada wildfire consulting corporation that paid him nearly $400,000 in salary over an 18-month period, a state-appointed water board director, a full-time COVID vaccination site worker, a union business agent and consultant, and the President of a company that was twice cited and ordered by the State of California to cease unlawful marketing of its securities to investors.

Under California law, a candidate may not use the word “retired” in a ballot designation if the candidate has had a more recent, intervening principal profession, vocation, or occupation. Kerr has had at least six.

“Joe Kerr has been lying to voters, and we won’t let him get away with it,” said Esther Kim-Varet. “While I respect his past service, Kerr left the fire department fourteen years ago, and has since held a string of paid consulting jobs and corporate officerships, including nearly $400,000 in salary from a Nevada corporation. Calling yourself ‘Retired’ after all of that is simply dishonest. The residents of CA-40 deserve integrity and honesty from those who serve them in Congress, and that’s exactly what I’ll deliver.”

A Pattern of Deception

Since taking early retirement in 2012 at just 52 years old from his admirable service with fire department, Kerr has repeatedly provided dishonest statements to the California Secretary of State and county registrars in order to justify a ballot designation he is not legally entitled to use, in connection with his various unsuccessful candidacies for public office.

In 2022, when the Secretary of State questioned the legality of his ballot designation, Kerr responded via email dishonestly downplaying each of his six post-retirement jobs: describing a six-figure corporate salary as “occasional phone calls,” a decade-long union role as “attending some meetings,” and a gubernatorial board appointment as a minor Zoom commitment. He omitted two other jobs entirely. In every case, his own financial disclosures tell a very different story.

While Kerr told the Secretary of State that his role at Rapid Response to Carbon Ignition (RRCI) involved only occasional phone calls, his U.S. House Financial Disclosure Report reveals that RRCI paid him $207,555 in 2022 and $180,000 in the first half of 2023 alone — a total of approximately $387,555 in salary over just 18 months.

Similarly, while Kerr minimized his work for the Orange County Professional Firefighters Association, a 2020 state press release described him as having been “a business agent at the Orange County Professional Firefighters Association since 2012”, a paid position he held for nearly a decade after his supposed retirement. His campaign website’s bio page states that he was a President of the organization.

“The right of voters in California’s 40th Congressional District to be accurately informed about the candidates who seek to represent them, and to not be misled by materials issued by the State and county, will be irreparably injured if Kerr is permitted to use the ballot designation,” wrote Kim-Varet’s attorneys Margaret Prinzing and Andrew Werbrock of Olson Remcho LLP in their March 20th Superior Court petition.

Perennial Loser, Serial Liar

Joe Kerr is not a viable candidate for Congress. He is a perennial candidate who has failed in every one of his many bids for various elected offices. In 2024, Kerr lost his mostly self-funded bid for CA-40 to Republican Young Kim by a wide margin, after being outspent nearly 10-to-1, despite having accepted funding from corporations and foreign interest PACs.

Kerr’s record of skirting the law extends beyond willful violation of ballot designation rules. In 2011 and then again in 2014, the State of California issued a citation and order to cease and desist against Superior Traffic Controls, Inc. (originally LLC), a Nevada corporation of which Kerr was President (and against Kerr personally in 2014!), for the unlawful offer and sale of securities.

MAGA Consultants Running a “Democrat” Spoiler

Kerr’s Virginia-based sole campaign consultants, i77 Strategies received an astounding 79% of all disbursements from Kerr’s failed 2024 CA40 campaign. Other than Kerr, i77 exclusively advises MAGA Republican candidates. i77 partner Aaron Spradlin serves as Kerr’s campaign treasurer. i77 partner Jeffrey Hoeflich-Nickels is Treasurer of a PAC registered with the FEC to support “Republican/Conservative” candidates, and has posted on his personal X account many Trump/MAGA endorsements including “SAVE AMERICA! Vote Trump/Vance” (on 10/28/24) and “PASS THE SAVE AMERICA ACT!” (On 2/19/26). Spradlin and Hoeflich-Nickels and their spouses all maxed out as donors to Kerr’s 2024 campaign. FEC records confirm that Kerr is the only non-Republican candidate affiliated with i77 Stategies. In 2022 i77 ran Greg Raths, a far-right Republican and noted bigot against Young Kim in the CA-40 primary. Read that again. Yes, Kerr’s campaign is controlled by MAGA consultants who previously ran a far-right Republican in the same district.

It gets even worse. FEC records reveal that i77 co-founder Hoeflich-Nickels served as treasurer of Flip the 40th, a Super PAC that i77 created out of its own Roanoke, Virginia PO Box to spend in the 2024 CA-40 race — the same race i77 was simultaneously being paid to manage as Kerr’s campaign consultants. The PAC raised donor money and paid it right back to i77 for the same texting and digital advertising services the campaign was already paying them for — including a single October 2024 disbursement of over $121,000. Federal law requires strict independence between campaigns and Super PACs; operating both from the same two-person firm at the same mailing address with money flowing in both directions constitutes farcical disregard of campaign finance laws.

When your campaign is a front for a MAGA firm, unable to raise money, built on lies, and structured for grift — you are not a Democrat. You are a fraudulent spoiler.

Kerr’s Former Field Director Defects to Kim-Varet

Esther Kim-Varet also today announced that Harrison Levitan has joined her campaign as Field Director. Levitan previously served as Field Director for Joe Kerr’s campaign during the 2024 CA-40 general election — and has now joined the only campaign with the resources, strategy, and integrity to actually flip this seat.

“I worked for Joe Kerr in 2024 and saw firsthand what happens when a campaign can’t compete,” said Levitan. “Esther Kim-Varet has the courage to call out corruption in CA-40 and she will bring that same fight to Washington.”

Court Deadline: 5PM on March 26, 2026

The Sacramento Superior Court must act by March 26, 2026 at 5:00 PM — the deadline for the Secretary of State to transmit the certified list of eligible candidates and ballot designations to county elections officials. Kim-Varet’s legal team has asked the court to prohibit Kerr from using any designation related to his prior vocations from over a decade ago.

“Each of these serious issues — the willfully fraudulent ballot designation, the securities violations, the MAGA consultants, serial failure as a perennial candidate — are individually disqualifying,” said Kim-Varet. “Together, sadly they reveal that Kerr is a candidate who has no business running for Congress. CA-40 deserves a Representative who can actually defeat incumbents Young Kim and Ken Calvert, who will fight relentlessly to root out corruption from all three branches of the Federal government. The path to a better tomorrow for our community and our nation starts with confronting corruption today — on both sides of the aisle.”

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California’s newly drawn 40th Congressional District, spanning portions of Riverside County and Orange County, is one of the most consequential U.S. House district battlegrounds in the nation. CA-40 includes the cities of Rancho Santa Margarita, Murrieta, Menifee, Lake Elsinore, Wildomar and Canyon Lake as well as parts of Mission Viejo, Orange, Anaheim and Corona.

First-time candidate Esther Kim-Varet has raised over $2.75 million to date, powered by over 50,000 individual small dollar contributions from across the nation, with no corporate or foreign PAC money whatsoever. Esther is not a politician — she is a working mom of two young kids, running for Congress to restore the American Dream for all. In Congress, Esther will combat corruption, defend democracy, and fight for the middle class, small businesses, public education, and healthcare access.

California's Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis Endorses Esther Kim-Varet for Congress in CA40