Democrats revolt against party leaders in race to replace Menendez
Polling shows that the loss of a key convention has impacted Tammy Murphy’s position as frontrunner.
Tammy Murphy, the first lady of New Jersey, may have misjudged the moment.
Murphy’s Senate campaign was a success, at least according to conventional standards. Murphy sought the support of New Jersey’s powerful county chairmen when federal prosecutors charged Sen. Bob Menendez with corruption. When she announced her candidacy in November, Murphy hoped to be the Democratic favorite.
Murphy faces a level of hostility and resistance that is bordering on hostile from her own party members.
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The anti-establishment feeling that was apparent in the previous Senate election has now become a dominant theme in the primary between Murphy and Rep. Andy Kim. Kim announced his candidacy the day after Menendez’s indictment, hoping to harness the message of reform. The three-term House Member scored a major victory on Saturday that showed his message was breaking through. He easily defeated Murphy in her own county at the first Democratic nomination convention in New Jersey.
Robert Torricelli, former Democratic Senator, said: “I believe there is a real revolt in the ranks of the Democratic Party.” “Tammy Murphy is now the symbol of establishment, even though she is not in a public office.” Kim was the one who first challenged Menendez.
The race is now a matter of national importance. Its implications go far beyond the two candidates. The frustration that has been building up for years with the only-in Jersey system is now exploding into public discourse in an unprecedented way. One party insider, who spoke candidly and was allowed to speak anonymously, said that Murphy represents the broken establishment while Andy Kim is a “cause” for critics.
Alex Altman, a spokesperson for the Murphy campaign, said “Tammy” is “excited to continue engaging in Monmouth County just as she does with other communities throughout [the] State to build a wide coalition and earn support from New Jersey voters.”
Kim’s campaign refused to comment. However, after the convention on Saturday, he stated that the results had “confirmed my belief that we are the campaign with the momentum.”
Years ago, there were signs of this coming revolt. New Jersey Democratic leaders backed Menendez in 2017 during his last corruption case, denying any oxygen to Democrats who wanted to challenge him. Menendez enjoyed the support of his party’s establishment almost everywhere. However, in his 2018 primaries, Lisa McCormick – an unknown Democrat – won 38 percent, carrying several counties as a protest after his mistrial. Menendez, despite running in a year of anti-Trump sentiment, was able to win reelection with ease in the general election.
New Jersey’s unique system of ballot design has allowed county political chairs to influence primaries for their preferred candidates. Parties that award candidates the “county-line” place them in the same column or row as every other candidate endorsed by their party, from the President of the United States down to a town council member.
Others award them based on the influence of a few party leaders, such as Passaic County in North Jersey, which awarded its line to Murphy based on the votes of mostly municipal Democratic chairs from the county’s 16 towns and cities. Some counties award them based on the influence or votes of a few party leaders. Passaic County in North Jersey, for example, awarded the line to Murphy on the basis of the votes of the majority of municipal Democratic chairs of the county’s sixteen towns and cities.
Murphy’s strategy of securing key organizational support, which her husband followed to go from a virtual unknown to the frontrunner in 2017, is well-known. He gave $250,000 in two years to local parties and invested more than $16,000,000 of his own fortune into the contest. This allowed him to dwarf his competitors while securing key county endorsements.
In 2021, Progressives filed a constitutional complaint against the county-line system at federal court. The case has been moving slowly. Kim’s campaign took up the cause, signing a joint letter with two other Democratic Senate candidates who are long shots, Patricia Campos Medina and Lawrence Hamm, urging party leaders and local election officials to abandon the county line system in favor of office block voting, which is used by other states.
“It is no longer the maligned activists and progressives of the party,” said Antoinette, interim director of New Jersey Working Families Party. She was the lead plaintiff in the county-line lawsuit. There’s a wider coalition of people reacting to New Jersey’s status quo politics.
Torricelli predicted that the New Jersey primary system could be changed forever, or at the very least, a significant change will occur. He said that this could be the end of New Jersey’s county-based system.
Uyen “Winn” Khuong is a progressive activist who said that county conventions such as Monmouth, which have secret ballots, give rank and file Democrats the chance to express their preferences without fear of backlash.
Khuong, a Democrat who re-registers to vote for party primaries despite being unaffiliated to protest corruption and high pressure tactics, said that “from all the tea I received from county committee members they felt they were under pressure to publicly say that they would be supporting [Murphy].” “Publicly, they felt they had to support Murphy but in secret voting they voted for someone else.”
The Monmouth Convention is not the only protest against the Democratic Machine.
Kim leads Murphy by 12 points in the only poll conducted so far. Murphy raised more money than Kim in the last quarter, bringing in $3.2 million to Kim’s $1.7. Kim’s campaign is able to tap into a large network of small donors, with 90 percent giving less than $100. Murphy’s fundraising was only half that.
Even Murphy’s supporters admit that there is a difference in enthusiasm between the two candidates.
One Democratic operative described how high-ranking Democrats acted during the New Jersey League of Municipalities Convention in Atlantic City, one of the biggest political events in the state. Murphy, who had just been elected to the office of governor of New Jersey, was able to secure the endorsements of party leaders from the most Democratic counties in the state.
“Nobody really liked this. The operative who spoke anonymously said that Andy Kim was not worth the fight against the governor for them. “I don’t think they will be disappointed if Tammy wins the primary.”
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