A federal judge will hear arguments on Monday over New Jersey Rep. Andy Kim’s lawsuit to stop state ballots from using the “county line,” a unique system that gives preferential treatment to primary candidates endorsed by political parties.
The county line system has come into sharp focus in the Democratic primary between frontrunners Kim and first lady Tammy Murphy for the U.S. Senate seat held by Bob Menendez, who faces a federal corruption indictment.
“This Senate race has become in many ways a key pivotal moment in the fight to address New Jersey’s broken politics,” said Antoinette Miles of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance, one of the plaintiffs in a separate case also challenging the county line system.
Many political activists and rank-and-file members of the party organizations united behind Kim after the powerful chairs of the state’s largest Democratic Party county organizations quickly endorsed the governor’s wife.
The county line system is used in 19 of New Jersey’s 21 counties. Kim’s lawsuit names their clerks as defendants, and he’s seeking a court injunction to block use of the county line format before ballots are printed in this year’s primary.
If U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi rules in Kim’s favor, a controversial feature of New Jersey elections and the power of the state’s political machines will likely change dramatically. But even if the judge rules against the congressmember, Kim’s Senate campaign has already put pressure on party bosses to reform the system.
“This is probably the most consequential legal case related to New Jersey’s elections, or New Jersey politics, in quite some time,” Miles said.
What is the county line?
In the 19 counties that use the system Kim is challenging, Democratic and Republican party committees decide which candidates to endorse. Then, county clerks place the endorsed candidates for different offices all together in one column or row on ballots.
The endorsed candidate for Senate appears…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply