State court intercedes in election suit over Rollins’ profession

The 2024 election season started in 2023. Before the Secretary of State could print the voter information guides for the March Primary, Matt Dobler, chair for the Republican Party of Riverside County, challenged Democratic candidate Will Rollin’s description of his profession on the ballot, which has to be three words or less, according to state law.

In his Dec. 14 filing, Dobler’s attorneys wrote, “His [Rollins] proposed ballot designations of ‘Counterterrorism Attorney’ and ‘Counterterrorism Advisor’ are false, inaccurate, and misleading, and therefore are not valid ballot designations under statutory and regulatory authorities and well-established judicial precedents …”

Two weeks later, on Dec. 26, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Shelley Anne W.L. Chang issued a balanced opinion. She granted Dobler’s objection and said, Rollins’ ballot designation should read “counterterrorism law attorney.”

Dobler’s litigation was filed against the Secretary of State, Shirley N. Weber, since her office oversees the election ballots and Voter Information guides.

Both she and Rollins responded to Dobler’s challenge in filings with the court. Weber had her staff contact Rollins’ staff for more documentation on his current profession. After an exchange of messages, the Secretary of State’s Office felt Rollins had justified his use of “counterterrorism attorney” and created “an acceptable ballot designation under California law that was supported by Mr. Rollins’ ballot designation worksheet.”

In his response, Rollins stressed that in his more than 20 years with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he has handled many security and counterterrorism cases. Further, he joined the law firm of Raines Feldman Littrell LLP in March of 2023 “… in part, to develop my national security and counterterrorism practice, a growing area of private legal practice at national law firms like Raines often spearheaded by former federal prosecutors like me …

“I have legal expertise in a wide variety of U.S. counterterrorism, export control, and national security laws, including the statutes prohibiting disclosure of classified information, the provision of material support to foreign terrorist organizations,” he added.

Following the responses and a hearing, Wang ruled in favor of Dobler’s challenge. She stated that both “… ‘counterterrorism attorney’ and ‘counterterrorism advisor’ would be confusing or misleading to the voters, and therefore are not permissible ballot …”

She concluded the descriptions of either “Counterterrorism Legal Advisor” or “Counterterrorism Law Attorney” would not be misleading.

“These designations accurately describe his current professional activities, including providing to clients, ‘legal advice regarding compliance with federal laws and regulations covering counterterrorism and national security law …,’” she opined.

So on the ballot and in the coming Voter Information guides, Rollins’ current profession will be “Counterterrorism Law Attorney.”

Following Wang’s ruling, both the Rollins and Ken Calvert campaigns issued statements that argued Wang’s decision was a victory for their campaign.

Cody Eiss, Rollins’ campaign manager, issued the following statement, “The court’s ruling confirms what we knew all along. This absurd lawsuit was nothing more than a politically-inspired partisan attack to distract voters from seeing Will’s experience in counterterrorism on the ballot.”

And Calvert’s campaign spokesman Calvin Moore issued his statement, “This ruling proves what we’ve been saying all along: Will Rollins is a perpetual liar who cannot be trusted to tell Californians the truth. The fact that a court was forced to correct Rollins for lying to and misleading voters is a major red flag that he is not who he says he is …”

It should be noted that U.S. Congressman Calvert did defeat Rollins for the 41st California Congressional seat in November 2022.

They are the likely candidates in November 2024 for the same seat. As of Sept. 30, 2023, Calvert had $2 million cash for the race and Rollins already had $1.5 million.