OPINION
The November election marked turnover in seven out of nine seats in Hudson County’s state legislative delegation. New voices bring new opportunities for change. Maybe we have a chip on our shoulders because of all the colorful stories of corruption emanating from Hudson County over the decades. But any unbiased observer can see that the way in which primary candidates are bracketed on a party-column ballot in 19 of 21 counties in New Jersey – unique among the 50 states of our beloved union – confers a ludicrous advantage to the privileged recipients awarded favorable ballot positions by our county political parties. It’s unfair, it’s probably unconstitutional, and it’s time to abolish “the line.”
The issue has been spotlighted again by a federal lawsuit filed by U.S. Senate candidate Andy Kim. To be clear, all three of us have wholeheartedly endorsed his opponent Tammy Murphy’s candidacy, having worked closely with her over the years and witnessed firsthand her effectiveness and attention to detail as a de facto Cabinet member in her husband’s administration. Our views expressed here are unrelated to that election; rather, we are interested in correcting New Jersey’s historical role in disenfranchising voters.
Rutgers and Princeton Professor Julia Sass Rubin has studied the impact of the line on election outcomes and policy, most recently publishing reports in 2020 and 2023. One of her studies found that the line conferred an average 35 percentage point advantage in primaries. Further, from 2003-2023, out of over 1,000 times incumbent state legislators sought reelection (208 of which had contested primaries and were awarded the line in all counties in their districts), only three did not win their primaries. Two of the three successful challenges to the line were in 2003 in our own Hudson County, where the successful challengers enjoyed the support of rival urban political machines. Thus, in 20 years, less than 1.5% of challengers “beat the line.” While incumbents enjoy natural advantages everywhere due to increased name ID and voters’ familiarity with them, this practice is weird and uniquely New Jerseyan.
That’s not to say party endorsements shouldn’t be communicated to voters conspicuously on the ballot. By using the office block design common in other jurisdictions, similar offices (think candidates for Mayor and Council; State Senators and their Assembly running mates) could still be bracketed together and running mates could run on a “ticket.” County party endorsements could be communicated to voters through the taglines that already appear on ballots. But ballot design should have less to do with the outcome of an election than the candidates and the issues.
Diluting the influence of political bosses in favor of primary election winners would allow public servants, upon assuming office, to speak their minds more freely and vote their consciences. More importantly, it would shift the balance of power toward the electorate.
Make no mistake, two of the three of us (Raj and Angela) may owe our elected careers to political party support and the seemingly insurmountable advantage of getting the “line” in primary elections. On the flipside, those two of us – as candidates of color – are among the rare lucky ones, as women and minorities have been among the candidates (or would-be candidates) most historically disadvantaged by the line. So, for the sake of democracy, we’ll happily forego this advantage in future elections and run on our respective records if New Jersey charts a new course.
We do not suggest this reform is a panacea. But it does resist the trend of democracy backsliding in certain other states, and it would put our partisan elections on far firmer constitutional footing than the status quo.
Certainly, abolishing the line would make future elections tougher for all three of us. But if we aren’t willing to entrust our fates to the actual voters in a fair fight, perhaps we don’t belong in elected office.
Steven Fulop is serving his third term as the mayor of Jersey City and is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2025. Angela McKnight and Raj Mukherji represent Hudson County in the New Jersey Senate Senate.