New Jersey’s statewide primary on Tuesday settled the race for Bob Menendez’s November Senate seat, while offering the first test of the state’s county party’s influence following a historic court decision on the restructuring of the ballot papers. However, it produced no major surprises and the incumbents of both parties governed.
Donald Trump won the Republican nomination for president, while Joe Biden secured the Democratic nomination.
Here are takeaways from the primary evening:
The “county line” had a good night
New Jersey’s unique and controversial ballot design was scrapped for the Democratic primary, but candidates backed by the county parties still prevailed.
The line groups candidates endorsed by provincial parties on ballots, giving them a major advantage over others running for office. For Democrats, that system was turned upside down when a federal judge said the party had to use ballots in office blocks, just like every other state in the country (Republicans were not parties to the lawsuit).
That raised the question of whether provincial parties would have so much power without the line. Tuesday evening offered a first answer: they still have influence. In statewide races, party-backed candidates won key races — from Republican Curtis Bashaw for Senate to Democrats Rob Menendez, Bill Pascrell Jr. and Herb Conaway for the House of Representatives.
However, the timing of the judge’s ruling, after the filing deadline, makes it impossible to say whether more qualified candidates would have run against the party organization if they had known there would be no cutoff this year.
The question now is whether a lawsuit to permanently abolish the line will move forward and move New Jersey to office block voting for the 2025 governor’s race.
Andy Kim romp
Andy Kim, the mild-mannered three-term representative, defeated Democrats in court and is now the party’s standard-bearer.
Kim easily dispatched opponents Patricia Campos-Medina and Lawrence Hamm on Tuesday to become the Democratic nominee for Senate to replace indicted Senator Bob Menendez, who filed to run as an independent against him in November.
Prior to Menendez’s indictment, few if anyone saw this coming. Kim was respected and had won a close election in a South Jersey district that voted for Trump, but he was unlikely to have topped the list of statewide Democratic candidates.
Now he’s not only the odds-on favorite to become the next senator from New Jersey, but he’s blown up the county line in the process — at least for Democrats this year.
Kim will face Cape May hotelier Curtis Bashaw in the general election. It remains to be seen whether Menendez, who said he will run for re-election as an “independent Democrat” if acquitted, will ultimately appear on the ballot. Menendez, whose trial is still ongoing, filed on Monday to run as an independent, but he has until mid-August to withdraw his candidacy. Even with Menendez threatening to play spoiler, Kim is heavily favored to win in a state that hasn’t elected a Republican senator since 1972.
Donald Trump is losing on the line
Donald Trump may have won the Republican presidential primary in New Jersey unopposed, but his chosen candidate for Senate did not.
At a rally last month in Wildwood — in the home county of Republican Senate candidate Curtis Bashaw — Trump endorsed Bashaw’s main rival for the nomination, Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner.
“I give her my full support,” Trump said at the May 11 rally, calling Bashaw a “Christie person” in reference to former Gov. Chris Christie.
Serrano Glassner positioned herself as a Trump loyalist and even said she would not have voted to certify the results of the 2020 election that he lost. She is also married to Trump advisor Michael Glassner.
But Bashaw, a more moderate and openly gay hotelier from Cape May with a history of donating to Republicans and Democrats — but never to Donald Trump — had his own strong support: from most of New Jersey’s county commissions. That gave him a favorable voting placement at the county line, which Republicans kept this year even though a lawsuit overturned it for the Democratic primary. Bashaw also outraised Glassner 3-1.
Ultimately, Trump’s endorsement wasn’t enough to convince Glassner. With 62 percent of precincts reporting, Bashaw beat her 48 percent to 37 percent, according to the Associate Press.
While that may seem like a reputational blow for Trump, it could be good news for Republicans in New Jersey. Bashaw, who has said he will support Trump but has no history of donating to him and has tried not to associate himself too closely with him, could be a stronger election candidate for Republicans in this blue state even if he is still a guess. .
Gaza does not have a major effect on the Democratic primaries
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has inflamed the left, but its effect on New Jersey’s Democratic primaries has been limited.
While 67 percent reported, only 8 percent of voters opted for the “unoccupied” list of deputies that Democratic Socialist activists had managed to get on the ballot in most provinces with the slogan “Justice for Palestine, permanent ceasefire now’.
And in the 9th District, which has a large Arab-American population — including Little Ramallah in Paterson — Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. defeated . easily Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed T. Khairullah, who challenged Pascrell largely because of his support for Israel and his early reluctance. to call for a ceasefire.
