A California judge rejected a lawsuit filed by one Congressional candidate against another over the right to be identified as a small business owner on the November ballot.

According to news reports, a lawsuit was filed against GOP Congressional (California's 39th District) candidate Young Kim, owner of public relations firm YK Connections, claiming she did not have the right to identify herself as a small business owner. The Kim campaign blamed Democratic Congressional opponent Gil Cisneros for funding the “frivolous” lawsuit. Cisneros, who won $266 million in a Mega Million lottery jackpot, did not respond to questions whether he funded the lawsuit filed by two small-business owners.

"Winning the lotto doesn't give you the right to bully other candidates, and it certainly doesn't mean you can buy an election," said Kim spokesman David Gilliard. "The judge saw right through this false lawsuit and outright rejected this attempt to smear Young Kim's well-documented history as a local small-business owner."

In ruling for Kim and rejecting the lawsuit, Judge Allen Sumner wrote, “The court is not convinced petitioners have even made a prima facie showing Kim's ‘small business owner' ballot designation is either false or misleading. Assuming they did, Kim's declaration sufficiently rebuts any such showing."

In rejecting the lawsuit, the judge determined the case was unmerited because it didn't consider that the business in question is a sole proprietorship and is not required to file taxes or incorporation documents with the state, contrary to plaintiffs’ claim. Instead, the judge noted Kim appropriately reported the income from her sole proprietor business on her personal income tax returns.

Kim's ballot description was approved by California's secretary of state for the June 5 primary and went unchallenged. The lawsuit was filed after Kim and Cisneros were the top two finishers in the primary.

—Source: The Washingtn Free Beacon