TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Democrats and Republicans will determine their parties’ standard bearers for the Senate on Tuesday amid the federal corruption trial in New York of incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, along with candidates for president and the House of Representatives.
Menendez, a longtime Democrat, filed Monday to run as an independent. He is not present for the first vote. Instead, Democratic voters are choosing between Rep. Andy Kim, labor leader Patricia Campos-Medina and longtime grassroots organizer Lawrence Hamm.
On the GOP side, it’s a four-way battle, but southern New Jersey hotel developer Curtis Bashaw has received significant support from the county party, and Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner won the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
Although New Jersey has not elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972, much is at stake in the divided Senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority. The Republican Party views Menendez’s independent run as a potential wedge that could boost their chances in the fall.
Menendez, his wife and two business associates have pleaded not guilty to federal charges that the senator exchanged the promise of official actions for gold bars, cash, a luxury vehicle and a mortgage payment. A third business associate has pleaded guilty and agreed to testify for prosecutors in the case.
President Joe Biden and Trump are also on the ballot, both already their parties’ presumptive nominees.
The Democratic Socialists of America also support a protest vote for delegates to the national convention against Biden over his handling of violence in Gaza. Democrats in delegate districts across the state will have the opportunity to vote “uncommitted” on the delegate ballot.
Jessica Dunlap, a spokesperson for the New Jersey effort, said the goal is to send Biden a message about his policies toward those living in Gaza. The slogan will appear under ‘not recorded’ on the ballot paper: ‘Justice for Palestine, permanent ceasefire now.’
A similar effort in Michigan this year gave the group two delegates, compared to Biden’s 115 in that state.
New this year for Democrats will be the demise of the so-called county line, the voting system in which those with party support were grouped and those without were often listed in what was known as “Ballot in Siberia.”
The end of the practice stems from a lawsuit Kim and other Democratic candidates filed in federal court, claiming the system unfairly puts the thumb on the scale for people with party connections. Only for this year’s Democratic primaries did a federal judge halt the system because no Republicans had joined the lawsuit.
In practice, the change means that candidates for office will be grouped together, as happens in every other state.
But that doesn’t apply to Republicans — whose provincial parties that still support candidates have kept the system. State legislative leaders have said they will take up the voting issue, but so far have not passed legislation changing the way the state conducts primaries.
Voters will also choose candidates for the House of Representatives. Among the most closely watched districts are those that have some connection to Menendez’s current circumstances. In the 3rd District, which Kim represents and is leaving to win the Senate seat, Democratic Assembly colleagues Herb Conaway and Carol Murphy are vying to go to Washington. In northern New Jersey’s 8th District, incumbent Democratic Rep. Rob Menendez — the senator’s son — is seeking reelection against Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, who has tried to tie Rob Menendez to his father.
