NEW JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — This primary election, at least on the Democratic side, was thought by some to be a referendum on the much-maligned county line ballot structure.
A lot of the headlines leading up to this primary focused on Andy Kim’s legal battle against party organizations in the state, who were backing Tammy Murphy until she dropped out. There were many progressives who were thrilled about that federal ruling, but it didn’t translate to success at the polls for them against Democratic machine candidates.
Micah Rasmussen from Rider University’s Rebovich Institute said party-backed candidates won all over the state, including Herb Conaway in the 3rd Congressional District by a two to one margin.
Conaway, like other candidates in other parts of the state, had name recognition in his community along with the money and resources to win handily. Rasmussen said all three will continue to be big factors in determining who will win elections in the state with or without the county line.
“Parties want to win elections, and they’ve gotten good at figuring out, they know their districts best. They know their blocks by blocks best. And it turns out they have a pretty good idea of who’s going to sell and who’s not going to sell,” he said. “They didn’t miss a beat. They figured out what they had to do in place of the county line.”
Turnout for the primary was around 15% statewide, with about half of those votes coming from mail-in ballots and early in-person voting.