CBS Radio has announce that the NJ Democrats have filed a suit in Superior Court (the trial level court) in Middlesex County seeking to amend the ballot to replace Torricelli's name with someone else (as yet unnamed). The law seems to be that any ballot changes must already have taken place, so they are late.

Question 1: Why Middlesex? That's not where Torricelli lives, but its where McGreevey's base is. He was mayor of Woodbridge, which is in Middlesex County. Does anyone think that politics might not have dictated that choice?

Question 2: Can the ballot be changed? I have no clue.

Question 3: What happens if the ballot can't be changed? I think that the Carnahan Gambit would work. Treat Torricelli as if he had died. As Governor, McGreevey gets to appoint his replacement, so McGreevey announces that Torricelli's name will stay on the ballot and that in the event of a Torricelli victory, McGreevey will appoint X. Thus a vote for Torricelli will be a vote for X. This does not risk any other seats in the election, because if X is a sitting House member like Menendez, McGreevey gets to appoint his replacement, too. It doesn't risk anyone's political reputation as a winner of elections. The only drawback might be if the replacement could only be temporary and a special election were required. But even a special election is better than having your guy come into the race 5 weeks before the election. In fact, the more I think about it, the better this option looks. It looks so good compared to attempting to change the ballot that I wonder why the Democrats are even attempting to change the ballot.

Any thoughts?