Members of Bergen County’s Democratic Committee will vote on Monday night on which candidate to endorse in the New Jersey race for United States Senate — a key test of whether Rep. Andy Kim’s groundswell of support among rank-and-file Democrats can overcome the influence of party bosses who lined up to support First Lady Tammy Murphy.
Kim says he has felt stifled in his outreach to Bergen Democrats, blaming the influence of party chairman and Murphy supporter Paul Juliano. But county party spokesperson Adam Silverstein has denied that assertion and said the complaints are coming mainly from Kim and just a few of his supporters.
Bergen has the second-largest number of registered Democrats of any county in the state. It also has a larger population of Democrats than any other county where party members vote on their organizational endorsement, which comes with preferential treatment on primary ballots. That makes it the most important contest before the primary itself, in June.
In many other counties, party chairs decide who will get the organizational endorsement and, with it, placement on what’s called the “county line.” The line groups favored candidates as a slate in a single column or row, signaling legitimacy to voters.
The names of candidates vying for the same positions are put on other lines — sometimes alone — in what critics of the system call “ballot Siberia.” When Murphy announced her candidacy, she received personal endorsements from nine chairs, including Bergen’s and those of most of the other counties with the largest number of registered Democrats in the state.
Kim says he had wanted to attend a monthly meeting of Bergen Democrats, called “Saturday with Dems,” after Murphy was invited to the January session.
“I asked for the same opportunity to be afforded to me as someone who is a candidate, and I was given a date after the Bergen County convention,” he said. “That doesn't help at all if I'm not able to address the county Democrats prior to the convention.”
That monthly meeting is organized by committee member Todd Sherer, who declined to comment for this story. Silverstein, the party spokesperson, said the meeting was an “informal” get-together and not organized by party leadership.
“No one is blocking Andy Kim from anything,” he said.
Kim said he attended a separate event organized by his own supporters in Ridgewood — but the county party then set up a separate event on the other side of the county, competing for attendance from Bergen Democrats.
“Those types of action just continued to signal to me that, you know, I'm just not being given a fair shot here and that was really discouraging — this is my own party, the Democratic Party here in New Jersey,” Kim said. “I believe in a democracy where everyone has that same right to be able to participate. That there should be fairness and equality and I didn't feel like I was being given that chance.”
Chad Coleman, a committee member from Tenafly, helped organize a house party for Kim that was attended by about 200 voters.
“I do know that if we hadn't organized him coming here, then probably there would be much less awareness about him here,” Coleman said.
Silverstein argued that the focus should be on the endorsement process. He said Bergen’s process is fair because the county committee will hold a secret ballot vote, something none of the four other largest Democratic committees do.
“Shouldn’t we be celebrating that there’s at least a process, instead of ripping the whole thing down?” Silverstein said.
In Essex, Hudson and Camden counties, chairs decide who will get their committees’ endorsements. Middlesex County’s committee will hold an advisory vote.
In counties with fewer numbers of Democrats, the process also varies: Some hold votes among their members, and some don’t.
Committees in Monmouth, Burlington and Hunterdon and Warren each held secret ballots, and Kim has won all of them. He also won a convention in Sussex County, one of the only two counties in New Jersey that does not use the county line system.
About 800 delegates are expected to attend the Bergen convention, out of about 1,300 who are eligible to vote. But Coleman and several other party members said this year's convention will include “bonus” and alternate members chosen by party leaders — not elected by residents — under a rarely used feature of the committee’s bylaws. He and some other party members argue that it gives Murphy an unfair advantage.
County party committees are made up of smaller, municipal party committees. Coleman said the Tenafly Democratic Committee rarely meets but recently gathered over Zoom to pick its bonus and alternate delegates.
“The meeting took 8 minutes," he said. "It was a slate presented by our municipal chair, who's also our assemblywoman. It included, quite gallingly, the mayor's wife, as well as another councilperson's relative, and another gentleman."
“It was quickly decided upon by a show of hands over Zoom," he added. "And then they went on to do the same thing with a slate of alternates and the meeting was over.”
The Tenafly committee chair, Shama Haider, has endorsed Murphy.
Silverstein said the criticism is overblown because there are only 80 bonus delegates invited.
In his stump speech, Kim talks about a need to reform New Jersey politics and send representatives to Washington who have integrity. The theme is resonating with many party members in the wake of the October indictment of Sen. Bob Menendez, who is charged with bribery, corruption and unlawful lobbying on behalf of foreign governments. Menendez has not said if he will seek re-election and has resisted calls from party leaders to step down.
Also running are political activist Larry Hamm and labor rights advocate Patricia Campos-Medina, though both lag far behind frontrunners Kim and Murphy in fundraising and polling.
Meanwhile, Kim is seeking an injunction to stop New Jersey’s unique practice that allows county party organizations to group candidates on the ballot, and at the same time is vying for endorsements within the existing system. That has drawn criticism from the Murphy campaign, especially after he filed the lawsuit against the county line.
“This sad hypocritical stunt by D.C. politician Kim is just another attempt to advance his career in Washington,” Murphy campaign spokeswoman Alexandra Altman said.
Federal Judge Zahid Quraishi has set arguments in the case for March 18, months before the June 4 primary.
