Currie ignores spirit of Murphy executive order

The latest person to disobey one of Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive orders is his hand-picked Democratic State Chairman, John Currie.

Currie has called a state committee meeting for July 23 to fill five seats on the Democratic National Committee and fill at-large and PLEO delegates to the Democratic National Committee.

The meeting notice went out one day after Murphy signed an executive order requiring municipal and county parties to push their reorganization meetings to the week of July 27, after election officials certify the results of the July 7 primary.

“In light of the mostly VBM primary that was held due to the COVID-19 pandemic, postponing annual municipal and county party committee meetings is a necessary step to take, as some local elections have yet to be decided,” said Murphy, the titular head of the state Democrats.

While most of the state’s delegates will go to presumptive nominee Joe Biden, it’s still not clear how many delegates Bernie Sanders will receive from New Jersey.

Biden has 85.97% of the vote in New Jersey, with Sanders at 13.6%.  Sanders needs to hit 15% to qualify for at-large delegates.

There are some district delegate races where Sanders is on the cusp of winning delegates.

Spokesman Phil Swibinski said that the state party need to have their delegates in place before the first Democratic National Committee Platform Committee meeting on July 27.

“If the results of district delegate primary elections are altered due to vote by mail ballot defects being cured, we will make any necessary adjustments to delegate selections to reflect the certified results of the primary election,” Swibinski said.

Currie’s rush to hold a state committee meeting stands in sharp contrast to his role as chairman of the Passaic County Board of Elections, which took more than a week to count votes.