TRENTON — In a ruling that outraged Democrats and prompted accusations of a conflict of interest, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno today threw Olympic track-and-field champion Carl Lewis, a Democrat, off the ballot for state Senate. 
 
 Guadagno, a Republican, said there was "substantial credible evidence" that he had not lived in New Jersey for the four years required under the state Constitution. 
 
 "(Lewis) did not yet own his home in New Jersey, did not otherwise live in New Jersey, did not file his taxes in New Jersey, was not registered to vote in New Jersey and did not have his business in New Jersey," she wrote. 
 
 Guadagno’s decision overturned an order issued last week by an administrative law judge, who ruled that Lewis should remain on the ballot because Republicans had failed to prove their case. 
 
 An attorney for Lewis, William Tambussi, immediately filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the residency requirement and claiming Lewis’s civil rights were violated. He said he planned to appeal the decision today in state court. 
 
 "It’s clear the administration will do anything to keep Carl Lewis off the ballot," Tambussi said. "But it’s unconstitutional. So we’ll rectify that." 
 
 The decision by Guadagno — who is the first to serve in the newly created position of lieutenant governor — is likely to reignite the debate about whether Gov. Chris Christie should have given her the responsibilities of the secretary of state, which include overseeing the Division of Elections. 
 
 Senator Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex) the majority leader, issued a statement saying Guadagno, the number two Republican in the state, "should have taken the common sense approach and recused herself from being involved in this controversial and seemingly partisan decision." 
 
 Lewis, 49, who grew up in Willingboro and then lived in the West before returning to New Jersey, announced two weeks ago that he planned to challenge state Sen. Dawn Addiego (R-Burlington) in the Republican-leaning 8th Legislative District in South Jersey. 
 
 In recent days Lewis, a sports legend who won nine Olympic gold medals, accused the governor of trying to talk him out of running on the eve of his election announcement. 
 
 Carl Lewis, Olympic gold medalist, announces his plans to run for N.J. Senate The nine-time Olympic gold-medal winner also accused Gov. Chris Christie of trying to dissuade him from running as a Democrat. 
 
 "Basically he called and it was pretty clear to me he did not want me to run, and the things he was talking about were to get me to not run," Lewis said in a phone interview yesterday. 
 
 Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), who stood by Lewis’s side when he announced his candidacy, accused Guadagno of doing Christie’s bidding. 
 
 "The governor couldn’t bully Carl Lewis out of the race and the Republican Party couldn’t make a case stand up in court, so the lieutenant governor did their bidding for them," he said. 
 
 Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak disputed Lewis’ account, saying, "It’s just completely false." 
 
 "I don’t know why he’s inflating what was a friendly conversation, a casual conversation," Drewniak added. 
 
 He also dismissed the notion that Christie influenced Guadagno’s decision to remove from the ballot. 
 
 Lewis grew up in Willingboro, then attended the University of Houston in Texas and later moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. He switched his voter registration to New Jersey on the day he declared his candidacy. 
 
 Republicans argued that Lewis could not have lived in New Jersey long enough to fulfill the state’s residency requirements for seeking office, partly because he voted in California as recently as 2009 and paid income taxes there until at least 2008. 
 
 Democrats countered that Lewis bought his first home in New Jersey in 2005, has been a volunteer track coach at Willingboro High School since 2007 and has had a New Jersey driver’s license since 2006. 
 
 In making her decision, Guadagno said Lewis bought a home for his mother in New Jersey in 2005 in Mount Laurel, and did not buy one for himself, also in Mount Laurel, until November 2007 — "at least eight days after the constitutional cut-off." 
 
 But Tambussi said Guadagno had her facts wrong. 
 
 "He purchased two condos in 2005, one for himself and one for his mother," he said. "He lived in one, his mother lived in the other, This evidence is highlighted in Lewis’ closing brief." 
 
 Property records indicate that two condominiums, both in Mount Laurel, were purchased in July 2005 — one by Lewis and one by a family trust. He bought another home in Medford in November 2007. 
 
 Nonetheless, Division of Elections spokesman Shawn Crisafulli said, "We stand by the facts presented in the opinion of the secretary of state." 
 
 Previous coverage: 
 
 • Guadagno is expected to decide whether Carl Lewis can run for state Senate 
 
 • The Auditor: Guadagno taking her time to decide on Lewis 
 
 • Lt. Gov. Guadagno waits to decide if Carl Lewis meets residency requirements to run for N.J. Senate 
 
 • Judge dismisses Republican attempt to block Senate ballot of Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis 
 
 • Carl Lewis testifies at NJ residency challenge 
 
 • Republicans challenge N.J. Senate candidacy of Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis 
 
 • Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis announces plans to run for N.J. Senate 
 
 • Democrats in talks with Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis for legislative run ||||| New Jersey's top election official ruled Tuesday that nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis is ineligible to run for state Senate because he failed to meet the four-year state residency requirement for candidates seeking elected office. 
 
 Secretary of State Kim Guadagno ordered Lewis' name to be stricken from the June Democratic primary ballot. 
 
 "I find that respondent was not a resident of New Jersey for the constitutionally required four years prior to the date of the election for the office he now seeks," Guadagno said at the end of a 15-page opinion. 
 
 Guadagno, who is also New Jersey's lieutenant governor under Gov. Chris Christie, noted that Lewis said he filed taxes in California, was registered to vote there until recently and has business offices there. He owns a home in California. 
 
 Lewis, 49, grew up in New Jersey and has owned homes in the state since 2005. He has been a volunteer track coach at the public high school in his hometown of Willingboro since 2007, and he has had valid New Jersey driver's license since 2006. 
 
 Lewis lawyer Bill Tambussi said the decision by Guadagno, a Republican, will be appealed. 
 
 Tambussi said he would file a complaint in federal court alleging that New Jersey's four-year residency provision is unconstitutional and that Guadagno violated Lewis' civil rights. A separate appeal of the decision will be filed Wednesday in state Appellate Court. 
 
 "Today's decision is unfortunate but not unexpected," Tambussi said. "It is clear that this administration will do anything to keep Carl Lewis off the ballot. We are not going to let that happen. Carl Lewis is and has been a legal resident of New Jersey and it is unconstitutional to declare him otherwise." 
 
 Mark Sheridan, a lawyer for Republicans who challenged Lewis' run, saying he hadn't met the residency rule, said he was confident decision would be affirmed. 
 
 "It is absolutely the right decision," Sheridan said. "It upholds the constitutional requirement that candidates for state Senate in NJ reside in the state for 4 year preceding their run for office. Carl Lewis demonstrated over and over again during that period he was a resident of California, and you cannot be a resident of California and New Jersey at the same time." 
 
 Guadagno rejected an administrative law judge's recommendation that Lewis be allowed to stay in the race to represent the 8th Legislative District in the state's south-central region. 
 
 The former track star told The Philadelphia Inquirer Gov. Chris Christie tried to talk him out of running and threatened to cut an athletic program Lewis wanted to start. 
 
 The Christie administration told the newspaper Lewis misunderstood the talk. However, the athletic program is all but dead. ||||| Olympic medalist Carl Lewis (left) said Gov. Christie tried to talk him out of running for the New Jersey Senate hours before he announced his candidacy. (Staff, AP File Photos) 
 
 Olympic medalist Carl Lewis (left) said Gov. Christie tried to talk him out of running for the New Jersey Senate hours before he announced his candidacy. (Staff, AP File Photos) 
 
 Gov. Christie tried to talk Olympic medalist Carl Lewis out of running for the New Jersey Senate hours before he announced his candidacy, Lewis said Monday. 
 
 The conversation April 10 with the governor came after several days of talks in which Christie's staff threatened that if Lewis decided to run, an athletic program he wanted to start would be scuttled, according to Lewis and his foundation's director, Chris Walker. 
 
 Christie's administration dismissed Lewis' interpretation of the conversations as "silly" and a misunderstanding on Lewis' part, but acknowledged that the athletic program is all but dead. 
 
 Lewis said the governor "was really trying to make it clear he did not want me to run in this race. He said, 'If you're going to do this race, we probably don't have time to do this program.' " 
 
 The governor and the track star began discussing a youth fitness program in May 2010 when they met as Lewis was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. In December, they fleshed out the details in the governor's office. Lewis would be the "physical fitness ambassador for New Jersey" and run "Carl Lewis Fitness Academies" at schools and municipal recreation centers. 
 
 But when word circulated April 7 that Lewis might run as a Democrat for a Burlington County state Senate seat, Walker said, he received the first of increasingly tense phone calls from Frank Luna, a veteran political operative who performs constituent services for the governor. 
 
 Luna asked Walker, executive director of the Carl Lewis Foundation, whether Lewis was running for the Eighth District Senate seat. According to Walker, Luna told him: "The governor is concerned." 
 
 The two spoke daily the next two days, and on April 9, Walker said, Luna told him "the governor is very upset and disappointed, and Carl would be embarrassing himself by running." 
 
 Walker said that in that April 9 conversation, Luna told him, "How can you expect the governor to work hand-in-hand with Carl when Carl is working against him? You can forget about this program." 
 
 Christie and Lewis spoke April 10. 
 
 According to Lewis, the governor told him he would be supporting Republican freshman State Sen. Dawn Marie Addiego, a longtime friend. That did not come as a surprise, Lewis said, adding that he believed they could have a civilized campaign. 
 
 Christie's press secretary, Michael Drewniak, confirmed the basic facts but disputed Lewis' interpretation. 
 
 "If that's somehow being interpreted as he was talking him out of something, that's just silly," Drewniak said. 
 
 Lewis' candidacy "changed the whole plan for Carl Lewis representing the administration. That's a no-brainer. Jeez," Drewniak said. 
 
 Lewis said that he was pretty sure he would take the long shot at winning a Senate seat in the heavily Republican district by the time he spoke with Christie but that he could still have been talked out of it. Talking with Christie, though, "really helped seal it, because that's politics as usual." 
 
 He said he felt during the conversation that Christie was subtly threatening him. 
 
 "You know how someone is telling you what someone else is going to do to you, and they're really talking about what they're going to do to you?" he said. 
 
 Although Lewis is running in a strongly Republican district, his candidacy has worried the GOP enough to challenge his residency. Candidates for state Senate must have lived in the state for four years, according to the state constitution. 
 
 Administrative Law Judge John Schuster last week ruled that even though Lewis had admitted voting in California in 2009, he did not think the Republicans had proved that Lewis was not a New Jersey resident. Lewis registered to vote in New Jersey on April 11, the day he announced his candidacy. 
 
 Lewis testified at the residency hearing that he intended to make New Jersey his home when he purchased a condo in Mount Laurel in 2005. He bought a home in Medford in 2007. He has had a New Jersey driver's license since 2006 and has been a volunteer track coach since 2007 at his alma mater, Willingboro High School. 
 
 But the nine-time gold medalist owned a home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., voted there, and housed a business there. 
 
 Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who also serves as secretary of state, must wade through these apparent contradictions and come up with a ruling, possibly as early as Tuesday. 
 
 Contact staff writer Cynthia Burton at 856-779-3858 or cburton@phillynews.com.
– New Jersey won't let a favorite son run for state office. The lieutenant governor ruled today that Carl Lewis, who has nine Olympic gold medals on his mantle, doesn't meet the four-year residency requirement to run for a state Senate seat, reports the Star-Ledger. The 49-year-old Lewis plans to appeal. "The lieutenant governor has her facts wrong," says his attorney. Lewis grew up in Jersey and has owned homes there since 2005, reports AP. He also has a state driver's license and volunteers as a track coach in his hometown of Willingboro. But he also has a home and business offices in California, and he voted there as recently as 2009, prompting Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno to declare that state to be his legal home. Guadagno is a Republican, and Lewis a Democrat. He told the Philadelphia Inquirer this week that Gov. Chris Christie tried to bully him out of running by threatening to cut a physical fitness program Lewis wants to start. Christie's office called Lewis accusation "silly."