First Lady Tammy Murphy has won the Union County Democratic organization line for the U.S. Senate in an anticipated result.
Murphy defeated Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) by a vote of 19-3; Kim’s votes came from Westfield, Clark and Garwood. No votes were cast for Larry Hamm or Patricia Campos-Medina.
Union County represented 7% of the statewide vote in the 2020 Democratic primary and is the sixth-largest county in the state for Democrats.
“Tammy is proud to receive the support of Union County Democrats, one of the New Jersey’s most culturally diverse counties. Tammy is also proud and grateful for the strong support she received in Sussex County today, and looks forward to continuing to build on her support there,” said Alex Altman, a spokesperson for the Murphy campaign. “Tammy moves forward continuing to gain momentum, and she respects the results when the county lines and endorsements don’t go her way, rather than make excuses and attack fellow Democrats. Tammy is excited to continue earning support from county delegates in the coming weeks, by sharing her vision for New Jersey.”
The Regular Democratic Organization – legally a separate entity from the Union County Democratic Committee — awards the line through a vote of a screening committee comprised of 21 municipal chairs. Each municipality has one vote, regardless of population: Elizabeth, with a population of 124,969 (23% of the entire county), has the same vote as Winfield, where 1,471 people live. The system favors smaller towns; ten municipalities have populations of less than 16,000 people, with 18% of the population holding 47.6% of the screening committee votes.
Senate President Nicholas Scutari, the Union County Democratic chairman and a Murphy supporter, is also the RDO chairman. Scutari voted for Murphy.
This is Murphy’s second victory: she won a screening committee vote two weeks ago in Passaic County.
Union County Democrats also awarded their organization line to Sue Altman, the presumptive Democratic nominee for Congress in New Jersey’s 7th district. She is expected to face Rep. Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) in one of the most competitive House races in the nation.
Altman has already captured lines in Hunterdon and Sussex – she is unopposed after vanquishing three men before convention season started – an impressive achievement for the person who drove the lawsuit to eliminate lines before announcing her run against Kean.
Two incumbents who represent parts of Union County, Robert J. Menendez (D-Jersey City), Donald Payne (D-Newark) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), also secured party support to run for re-election.
Kim has won organization lines after scoring secret ballot convention victories in Monmouth, Burlington and Hunterdon counties in February. He won the secret ballot Sussex County Democratic convention this morning, but with no county line, the contest was essentially a straw poll.
Murphy and Kim will face off tomorrow in Warren, and in Bergen on Monday. Click HERE to read Joey Fox’s breakdown of the Bergen convention.
One Man, One Vote: The Legend of Hugh Sinclair
When Hugh Sinclair walked into the Union County Democratic screening committee in March 2018, Tom Malinowski and Linda Weber each had six votes.
Sinclair, the 36-year-old Democratic chairman in Garwood (pop. 4,255) and the lone uncommitted voter in the room, was to be the decider.
At that moment, the race for the Democratic nomination for Congress in New Jersey’s 7th district was up in the air.
Malinowski had won organization lines after scoring convention wins in Hunterdon, Morris, and Warren counties. Webber had the line in Somerset and Essex.
Union County was a must-win for both candidates. The day before the vote, Emily’s List announced that it would endorse Weber if she won the Union County line.
Sinclair voted for Malinowski, giving the former assistant U.S. Secretary of State the Union line by a razor-thin 7-6 vote.
Webber dropped out after losing Union, and Malinowski picked up the lines in Somerset and Essex.
Union had 29% of the Democratic primary voters in the 7th, and Somerset was 25%. Hunterdon (19%), Morris (13%), Warren (9%) and Essex (5%) made up the rest.
Had Sinclair voted for Weber, it would have altered the entire landscape of the 2018 campaign.
Malinowski would have gone into the Democratic primary with his chief rival on the line in the counties that produced 54% of the vote.
He would have been forced to spend money on the primary, and even if he had won, he would have lost three months of fundraising as the presumed Democratic nominee.
It’s possible – no one will ever know – that a bitter, expensive Democratic primary would have helped Rep. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton Township) eke out a win in the general election.
Instead, Sinclair essentially cleared the field for Malinowski and set up a path that allowed the Democrat to beat Lance by 16,400 votes in November.
Sinclair is no longer the municipal chairman.
Click HERE to check the New Jersey Globe Endorsement Tracker.