Press release this morning from Esther Kim Varet:
Perennial Candidate Joe Kerr Challenged By Esther Kim-Varet In State Court
for Hiding Shady Business Ventures And Deceiving CA-40 Voters!
Lawsuit Contests 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 the 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.”
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.
EDITORS: We like Lisa Ramirez too, and hope either Lisa or Esther makes it through the primary, but this is Esther’s press release. And Joe should have dropped out long ago.
First he “lived” in Brea. Then he “lived” in Placentia. Then when he lost that election for Supervisor he was frequently seen in Coto de Caza. In fact, Coto Joe never left Coto de Caza.
China?
China has been quiet this year.
No, she has not. You’ve probably been blocked.
I just don’t see her on my blog’s comments sections this year like 2024. I wasn’t looking for her on social media. You’re probably right that she has me blocked, that’s good, we make each other too mad.
Much ado about nothing.
Probably a bad challenge. You can use “Retired” if five factors exist: (1) you worked in the profession for at least 5 years; (2) you collect a pension; (4) you’re over 55; (4) you voluntarily retired; and (5) “the candidate’s retirement benefits are providing him or her with a principal source of income.” (CCR Tit. 2, Sec. 20716, subd. (h)(2). Esther is challenging the last factor. But “principal” source does not have to be “only” source, and a firefighter’s pension is significant. Additionally, the regs look at right now. Even if Joe *had been* collecting millions in salary on other jobs, if he is a full time candidate now, and is not collecting significant funds (and the government boards will not displace his pension income), it’s still a “principal source of income.”
Esther has raised a lot of money, but this is a bad use of it.
Thank you Lee. It’s a bad look too. Is she scared of him?
If she wins she may have to stay in DC forever because she ain’t making friends behind the Orange Curtain this way.
Did she just take the writ against Jung and replace names and facts??
Hope you are not an attorney Lee Fink because you apparently didn’t read down to section (h)(4) which overrides (h)(2) and is therefore determinative in this case, making Kerr’s “retired” designation plainly invalid:
(h)(4) A candidate may not use the word “retired” in his or her ballot designation if that candidate possesses another more recent, intervening principal profession, vocation, or occupation.
Does anyone know who or if the “SANTA DEMOCRATIC CLUB” exists?
Santa Ana Councilmember and State Assembly candidate Jessie Lopez is claiming she was endorsed by them.
The state party endorsed Santa Ana Councilmember David Penaloza.
Okay, Kerr is a giant pustule. But who cares if he is retired or not?
I guess that works the magical “firefighter” into the description.
I guess Esther joins the list of people who assured me I was wrong and yet the Court’s ruling shows I was right.
Didn’t you swing on some old dude?
Aka elder abuse
I just watched a tv commercial that dusted liberal abtitrump Yiung Kim opposed Trump ? Wtf?
WUT
I think you are saying you saw a commercial that painted Young Kim as a Trump opponent? Did you see who funded it? Before the primary it’d be Calvert. After the primary she would like that message and fund it herself.
Google Gemini says they support young Kim
“b” is next to “n” on the keyboard. He was writing “antitrump.” Also not “Yiung” Kim, for similar reasons.
Google young Kim antiTrump ad
“Backstabber Young Kim” (Anti-Trump Young Kim) CA-40 TV Ad paid for by Americans 4 Security PAC? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptuTd9sqWSM
That’s funny. Liberal Young Kim.
I’ll put this up since I can do this as admin
Americans 4 Security PAC? This here sounds like a group trying to get loyal MAGAts to pick Calvert over Kim in the primary. Though it COULD have the effect of getting Kim some Democrat votes but that’s a stretch, they all know she’s voted with Trump 97% or so, and they have a wide selection of Democrats running. The dire situation right now for Democrats having a chance at this seat is – there are too many Democrats (just like in the Governor race) and Calvert and Kim could very well make it through the top two.
SO if this ad succeeds in depressing Kim’s republican vote, it could help one of our Dems (hopefully Esther or Lisa) make it through the primary. ALTHOUGH if there are a lot of Republicans who are getting sick of Trump which is not a stretch, but still have conservative values, it could actually get Kim more votes.
Who is Americans 4 Security PAC? AI Overview:
Americans 4 Security PAC is an active Conservative Super PAC registered in 2020 (ID: C00733352), heavily funded by the non-profit Americans 4 Security Inc. It primarily engages in independent expenditures for federal elections, having spent over $4 million in 2024. The group has faced complaints for not disclosing its donors, acting as a “dark money” group.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
+3
Key Aspects of Americans 4 Security PAC:
Funding & Structure: It acts as a “Super PAC,” which allows it to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money from individuals and corporations, but it cannot donate directly to candidates.
Relationship with Non-profit: The PAC receives massive funding from “Americans 4 Security Inc.,” a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that does not disclose its donors. This structure has led to accusations that it exists primarily to hide the source of political contributions, as noted by [!cite]Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)[/cite].
2024 Election Activity: The PAC was highly active in the 2024 election cycle, contributing over $2 million to support candidates, including a significant focus on Republican Rep. Tom Cole’s primary election.
Controversy: In December 2024, CREW filed a complaint with the IRS alleging that Americans 4 Security Inc. violated tax laws by functioning primarily as a political committee rather than a social welfare organization, demanding disclosure of its funding sources.
Political Focus: The PAC is generally aligned with conservative causes and Republican candidates
This election matters. Vote Democrat.
In the Governor’s race I like the idea of of two Republicans getting in the runoff. Our State is a complete mess and the legislature is wingnutty.
A California Governorship would strengthen MAGA immeasurably.
No it wouldn’t it. A Republican governor might be able to stop the worst of the Legislature’s nonsense – like the idiotic RHNA dictat.
It may well stop some legislative spending that you hate, but it would definitely be considered a huge win for MAGA — mostly because it would be. Trump recently endorsed Steve Hilton (for whom I will vote if Dems are shut out)l he is a talk-show influencer with views much like Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. But Bianco is a flat-out election-rigging fascist — and an incompetent sheriff as well. He’s everything you’d hate in law enforcement.
Bianco is fascist asshat but he’s finished. now anyway.
With Swallows tanked, I think one Dem will get enough of his support to jump into second.
Their choice of voice to represent Young Kim in that video may qualify as a hate crime. Oof!