New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy announced today that she is ending her campaign for Senate. That almost certainly clears the path for Rep. Andy Kim to become the Democratic nominee for the seat currently held by Sen. Bob Menendez. New Jersey isn’t quite in California sure-thing territory. But this makes it very likely that Kim will be elected to the Senate in November.
What makes this a bigger deal than just another primary in a fairly safe Democratic state is that it managed to bring to the fore an almost comical feature of New Jersey politics – something called ‘the line’, which allows county party chairs the ability to exercise an absurd power over the design of ballots to assist their chosen candidates. Machines have long half-lives. But it seems questionable whether the line will survive this race, whether it goes down in the current court fight or just can’t withstand the new scrutiny the race has brought to it. If it is done that will deal a pretty debilitating blow to the party machines in New Jersey.
The other thing to note here is Andy Kim. The New Jersey party machines have been around forever and the line is a staple of the politics of the state. This isn’t some out of the way rural state with no big media market. The state is cut roughly in half between the New York City and Philadelphia media markets. It gets a lot of attention. And yet, it’s machine politics is an only lightly modernized version of a Boss Hogg type system.
You misunderstand the nuances of NJ politics. The Murphys rolled out the party machine alright - in a particularly heavy handed fashion. Party leaders, in advance of budget negotiations, were perceived to be compromised to coalesce around the Governor’s thinly qualified wife.
Virtually all of Tammy’s endorsements came from people and entities with business with the State. Kim was effectively shut out of the party line, and in some instances from delegates as soon as she declared.
The irony that Menendez was both a product of the party machine and a driving force was not lost on voters. Pushing an obvious nepotism candidate to replace a corrupt Senator against a very well qualified candidate was offensive. People were pissed and where they could vote privately, it showed.
@PartisanRobinGreen1mo1MO
I follow closely.
Nuance: I’ve worked inside NJ Dems, running progressive candidates against the machine’s chosen who got the line. A few times we beat the regular Dems even though we had Column C. Ugly time.
Agree: People were pissed to be presented w/nepotism & inexperience.
@ISIDEWITH1mo1MO
@ISIDEWITH1mo1MO
@ISIDEWITH1mo1MO
@VengefulRavenSocialist1mo1MO
Andy Kim beat the machine because he is an strong candidate, a proven winner in a tough district, a genuine Democrat and when the Governor tried to steamroll Democratic leaders to anoint his wife Senator, people reacted viscerally.
@VoterIDRiceDemocrat1mo1MO
He’s worked hard as a Congressman. He has delivered for his district and the Democratic Party. And NJians like me are freaking sick of the machine.
The humiliation of Tammy Murphy dropping out of the New Jersey Senate race today is hard to overstate. By virtue of being the Governor's wife, she had already preemptively secured the crucial "county line" endorsements of the state's main Democratic Party organizations -- Hudson, Essex, Bergen, Camden, etc. That gave her preferential ballot placement in the state's most populous counties, and should've all-but assured her the Dem nomination! But she was so obviously unqualified and entitled that she managed to implode anyway. In the process, Tammy and her politic… Read more
@P0liticLemurGreen1mo1MO
He's been referred to as "Tickle me Elmo with a Switchblade." He's run an amazing POSITIVE campaign. The switchblade is the lawsuit against the line, which looks like it's going down in federal court. Smart, smart, smart guy. And I've been supporting him since he announced.
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