SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — Rep. Andy Kim secured a county convention win in the primary race against New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy to replace Sen. Bob Menendez.
Over the weekend, Kim won the support of the Democratic Party in Monmouth County, Murphy’s home county, by a margin of about 20 percentage points.
“Where the Murphys have called their home for 25 years — and that was a big part of the pitch that Tammy Murphy made to the committee people, ‘This is our home, this is where we live. We run in the 5Ks with you and we know you.’ And apparently, that did just not prevail,” said Micah Rasmussen, director of Rider University’s Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics. “It’s clear now that if you look at the results of the Monmouth Convention, Andy Kim has enormous grassroots support and advantages.”
He said one of Kim’s congressional colleagues, Rep. Frank Pallone, tried his best to drum up support for Murphy. “He was pushing very hard for her and they came up short.”
However, Rasmussen said Murphy received the support of Democratic leaders in Passaic County, and she will likely continue getting the county lines in places like Camden, Hudson and Essex counties, where there are no convention votes.
“This is anybody’s contest,” he added. “It doesn’t mean [Murphy] doesn’t have prohibitive advantages going into other counties.”
Burlington County’s convention vote is in two weeks — Kim’s home turf.
Kim and Murphy are running to replace Menendez, who is facing federal corruption charges and did not file to be on the Monmouth ballot. He hasn’t said if he will run for reelection.