Lawsuit seeks to remove Louisville lawmaker from ballot over co-signer’s registration

A lawsuit seeking to remove Rep. Nima Kulkarni, D-Louisville, from the primary ballot over an issue with her re-election paperwork was filed Monday in Jefferson Circuit Court.

The complaint centers around a woman who was a registered Republican at the time signing Kulkarni’s re-election filing papers.

The suit against Kulkarni was filed by Dennis Horlander, a former Democratic representative who held office for a decade before losing his seat in a 2018 primary to Kulkarni. In 2020, he lost by a larger margin.

In a statement to the Herald-Leader, Kulkarni called the suit “desperate” and an attempt to “take away the rights of the voters in the 40th district to choose their own representation.”

“I have defeated Mr. Horlander in fair elections twice, once by over 20 points, and the second by over 57 points,” she wrote. “Voters have overwhelmingly rejected Mr. Horlander at the ballot box, and I am sure a court will do the same.”

Sharon LaRue was one of two “registered voters of the same party from the district” required by law to sign Kulkarni’s candidate paperwork; she was a Republican at the time, but weeks later became a Democrat on Jan. 8, according to records obtained from the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office.

LaRue signed Kulkarni’s filing on Dec. 22, 2023, according to the suit, as well as records obtained from the Kentucky Secretary of State’s Office.

The Herald-Leader verified these claims, which appeared in the lawsuit, regarding LaRue’s political affiliation using open records requests.

Primary elections are slated for May 21. The only other person to have filed for Kulkarni’s office is Louisville Democrat William Zeitz.

Horlander’s challenge does nothing to immediately change Kulkarni’s current status on the ballot.

The suit asks the court to issue an injunction or restraining order that “Kulkarni’s name be stricken from the written designation of candidates” and that votes cast for her in the primary aren’t counted.

Horlander’s attorney, Steven Megerle, reached out to Kulkarni earlier this month asking her to withdraw from her re-election bid.

Megerle is a Northern Kentucky attorney who has previously been involved in GOP politics; last year, he filed an ethics complaint against former attorney general Daniel Cameron during his GOP gubernatorial primary run.

Kulkarni said that the challenge was based on “an outdated technicality to disenfranchise voters.” She called it outdated because LaRue is now a Democrat and became one before the filing paperwork was certified by the Secretary of State’s Office on Jan. 17; a spokesperson for Secretary of State Michael Adams confirmed the date of certification.

“At the time of certification by the Secretary of State, and of this court challenge, I have had two registered Democrats on my filing papers. Any issue was resolved before certification, as the courts require,” Kulkarni wrote.

A similar case occurred last cycle when a judge disqualified Kim Holloway from the Republican primary ballot in the West Kentucky district held by Rep. Richard Heath, R-Mayfield, for having a registered Democrat signing her paperwork.

In Louisville that year, a Democratic candidate for GOP Rep. Kevin Bratcher’s seat withdrew from the race after Bratcher sued him on the grounds that he did not switch his party affiliation early enough to run.

Professionally, Kulkarni works as an attorney with a focus on immigration law.

As a legislator, Kulkarni has served in the House since winning election in 2018. She scored a bipartisan victory in 2022 when a bill of hers cracking down on so-called “strategic lawsuits against public participation” (SLAPP) became law – an increasingly rare occurrence for a Democrat in Frankfort.

The lawmaker framed the lawsuit as an attempt to “silence” her and “scare” her off the ballot.

“Let’s be clear, they have not been able to silence me. They have not been able to scare me. They know they cannot beat me, so now they are trying to use an outdated trick to remove me from the ballot. It will not work.

“The voters of the 40th district deserve a true choice in May, and I will fight to ensure that they have one.”