New Jersey’s first lady Tammy Murphy has tremendous advantages in her U.S. Senate bid, given her relationship with the state’s most powerful person. But she is behind Rep. Andy Kim in the only statewide poll conducted so far, and has lost the first three convention contests where Democratic Party members vote to endorse candidates.
It’s a stunning turn of events for Murphy’s candidacy, which appeared nearly invincible just a month ago as top Democratic Party leaders across the state had already secured endorsements from the political organizations they helm as well as preferred ballot placement in many of the counties with the most Democrats who to vote in the June primary. But the votes so far at county conventions — which will continue through March — constitute a rare, if not unprecedented, rebellion against party bosses by rank-and-file Democrats.
“Her appeal isn’t really resonating with them. She talks really in a kind of a business manner, very transactional in the sense that ‘I get things done,’” Monmouth University Poll Director Patrick Murray said. “But not an overarching vision. And I think that a lot of, particularly, the progressive activists in the party feel they get more of a sense of that from Andy Kim.”
There’s little difference between Kim and Murphy on policy. But when the race began after longtime political powerhouse Sen. Bob Menendez was charged with corruption and bribery in October and the governor’s wife began garnering support from some of the most powerful people in the party her husband leads, Kim capitalized on his appeal to Democrats who are weary of the influence held by their party’s elite.
Yet the first lady has steadfastly refused to back down from using endorsements to gain an advantage on the ballot.
“It’s going to be a campaign that’s going to focus on bossism, which has been a big feature of New Jersey politics for a long time,” said Ross K. Baker, a retired professor from Rutgers University who specializes in congressional history. “It is one in which Democrats, particularly the progressives, see an opportunity to really plant the flag in New Jersey politics.”
Baker said that although Gov. Phil Murphy enjoys support among progressive Democrats, they are backing Andy Kim’s Senate campaign.
“Andy Kim is the candidate of the reformers, the good government people and so on. Whereas, you know, Tammy Murphy is the candidate of the bosses,” Baker said.
Patricia Campos Medina, the director of Latina Civic, and Larry Hamm, of the People’s Organization for Progress in Newark, are also running for the Democratic nomination, but are far behind Kim and Murphy in fundraising and popular support. Menendez hasn’t said if he’ll run again. A Republican hasn’t won a Senate race in New Jersey in 50 years, making the June primary a key race.
The rank-and-file revolts
The Hunterdon County Democratic Party convention on Sunday was Tammy Murphy’s latest setback. County Chair Arlene Quiñones Perez had endorsed the first lady. But unlike many of New Jersey’s county political machines, Hunterdon asked its members to vote before endorsing a candidate and awarding them the coveted “county line,” which groups endorsed candidates into a single row or column and confers them with a perceived legitimacy that researchers say greatly increases their chances of victory.
But Quiñones Perez announced the executive committee had decided that anyone who received 30% of the vote or more would share the line of the ballot.
Many committee members cried foul, shouting ensued and the membership successfully voted to appeal the executive committee’s decision. When the endorsement votes were counted, Kim won 62% to Murphy’s 33%.
Murphy told reporters after the convention that she didn’t know who was behind the last-minute switch in rules.
“They were just trying to find an equitable way to be responsible and, I don’t know, I actually thought it might have made sense, but I had no vote,” she said.
Kim noted that Murphy’s 33% was “suspiciously close” to the threshold the party leadership suggested for sharing the endorsement.
He also previously won the county line for the Senate race in Monmouth and Burlington counties, with votes among party members. But in four of the five counties with the most Democrats, party chairs have already awarded the line to Murphy without any vote among their members. Bergen County, which is home to the second-most Democrats in the state, will hold a vote among its members on Monday.
“This is the biggest grassroots uprising against the Democratic bosses since [George] McGovern in the 1972 primaries,” said Jeff Tittel, the former director of the New Jersey Sierra Club who has watched politics in his home state for 50 years. McGovern won the Democratic presidential primary after party members fought for him at the national convention.
At the Monmouth County Democratic Committee convention, members waited in line for more than hour to enter the hall and cast their vote.
“Democracy is my first issue and just making sure everyone has a voice and that, somehow, truth will get out there,” said committee member Angela Lamangino.
But she declined to say whom she was supporting because she didn’t want to be criticized on social media.
“Being interviewed by you – there’s a fear factor always involved, too,” she told Gothamist.
Drawing contrasts
Kim filed a lawsuit the day after the meltdown at Hunterdon County’s convention seeking an injunction to stop use of the county line in the June primary.
“We cannot be a party that claims to and champions the idea of protecting democracy if we are not fixing it here in New Jersey,” Kim said during an event in South Orange in late January.
Murphy has sought to portray herself as an ally to progressives. She’s promising to fight for strong control, Medicare for all and environmental protection. And during a recent convention she emphasized that “New Jersey needs a senator who gets stuff done in Washington, DC.”
Kim’s positions are similar. But in his campaign materials and stump speech, he talks about integrity first. He boasts that 92% of the nearly $3 million he raised between October and the end of January came from donations of $100 or less — while the same applies to only about half of Murphy’s.
Murphy has struggled when reporters at recent campaign events have asked her about whether it’s fair that the governor’s wife is running with the support of the party leaders who are beholden to her husband in a variety of ways.
The first lady pledged her opposition last week to a new gas-powered plant in Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood, a project the governor supports.
She didn’t mention the governor, who has the ultimate say in whether the plant gets built, and that led to questions by reporters after her speech.
“I am making the comments today as Tammy Murphy. I am not speaking for the governor, and I haven’t talked to him about it,” she said. “I’m not here to stand up and speak for the administration. That’s not my role here today. And if that’s the essence of your questions, with all due respect, that’s the end of the conversation.”
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