Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) defeated First Lady Tammy Murphy at today’s Atlantic County Democratic convention, giving him yet another open convention win in the race for indicted Senator Bob Menendez’s Senate seat.
Kim received 156 votes to Murphy’s 54, a margin of 74%-26%. No other candidates participated in the convention in Egg Harbor City.
“I’ve got a big smile on my face,” Kim said after the results were announced. “We’re winning in every corner of New Jersey. It’s really exciting. And not just winning – the margins are out of control. I think it really just shows what we’re bringing… If we can win here, I think we’re going to be able to blow it out of the water when it comes to the general public and other registered Democrats.”
Murphy, meanwhile, said she was looking forward to moving on from county convention season and taking her case directly to voters.
“I am really focused on the policy, and I’m looking forward to have everybody focus on policy and not on process,” Murphy said. “I’m talking about what I’m going to do, how I’m going to do it, and that part is really what excites me.”
The result is something of a rebuke to South Jersey Democratic power broker George Norcross, who endorsed Murphy months ago and has been pushing for her candidacy since. Norcross and his operation have significant sway across most of South Jersey, including in Atlantic County, but Atlantic Democrats are a fairly independent-minded group, and Kim was able to exploit that today.
Yesterday’s county committee meeting in Norcross’s home base of Camden County was a bit different. There, local Democrats gathered simply to ratify Norcross’s choice of Murphy, and Kim was not given an opportunity to attend or speak before the decision was made. (Murphy was.)
A third Senate candidate, Patricia Campos-Medina, tried to enter the Camden meeting, but was prevented from doing so. Camden Democrats’ tactics drew sharp criticism both from Campos-Medina and from Kim, her ostensible opponent.
“This is not what democracy looks like,” Kim said yesterday on Twitter. “It’s plain wrong to deny [Patricia] from entering a Camden Dem committee meeting to determine Senate endorsements. She’s been a leader on vital issues and deserves to have her voice heard. I also asked to join the meeting and was denied. Making endorsements without a fair process undermines our democracy. Democrats need to do better.”
Today’s convention in Atlantic, on the other hand, was conducted openly and by secret paper ballot. Unlike some of his South Jersey counterparts, Atlantic Democratic Chair Michael Suleiman remained resolutely neutral in the race between Kim and Murphy.
The convention also marks one of the last county Democratic gatherings of the cycle; with his win today, Kim has prevailed in eight conventions, and will likely pick up a ninth tomorrow when Morris Democrats release their results. Murphy has won seven county party endorsements of her own, but only two of those wins came at open conventions, with the rest being decided by party leaders.
Because many of Murphy’s counties are among the largest counties in the state, though, she will appear on the line – the New Jersey system that groups party-endorsed candidates together on primary ballots – for a substantial majority of the state’s Democratic voters.
But it’s possible that the line won’t be around for much longer, depending on a pending federal lawsuit Kim filed to abolish the county line. Tomorrow, U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi will hear Kim’s lawsuit, which argues that the advantages conferred by the line are unconstitutional.
The New Jersey Globe reported today that New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin agrees with Kim that the line is unconstitutional, a major blow for the line’s backers.
In the meantime, though, both candidates are competing as hard as they can for every county line – and county party endorsements can be meaningful even when they don’t come with favorable ballot positioning. If nothing else, Kim’s win today strikes an important symbolic blow against the South Jersey Democratic machine that supported him in his three runs for Congress but spurned him for Senate this year.
Today’s result also indicates that former State Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) should not be considered a lock for the Atlantic Democratic endorsement in his 2025 gubernatorial campaign.
Sweeney has the support of Suleiman and Norcross, but another candidate, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, has Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small and County Commissioner Ernest Coursey (D-Atlantic City) on his side. It’s impossible to prognosticate how that convention will go in a year’s time, but Kim’s win is at least evidence that Norcross doesn’t have total power in Atlantic.
This story was updated at 6:22 p.m. with comment from Kim.