In a landslide, Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) tonight won the endorsement of the Princeton Community Democratic Organization, one of the state’s premier local progressive Democratic groups.
Kim defeated activist Patricia Campos-Medina, 85-6 (91.4 to 6.5%), with First Lady Tammy Murphy and former Newark school board member Lawrence Hamm each receiving one vote.
This was Campos-Medina’s best showing yet in her Senate bid.
The support from the Princeton group comes eight days before the Mercer County Democratic convention. The rules in Mercer allow any candidate who wins at least 40% of the vote to appear on the organization line – in the case of Mercer, in the organization column; the winner can use the organization ballot slogan.
Kim represents six municipalities in Mercer County – East Windsor, Hamilton, Hightstown, Lawrence, and Robbinsville – in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is the early favorite to finish first at next week’s convention but must win 60% of the vote plus one to occupy the line alone.
“What this effectively does is widen Kim’s Mercer base beyond the six towns he represents,” said Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University. “The portion of the county he doesn’t have directly covered is Trenton, Ewing, Pennington, and the Hopewells.”
Last year, Assemblyman Dan Benson (D-Hamilton) won the Mercer County Democratic convention with 78% of the vote in his bid for county executive, causing five-term incumbent Brian Hughes to drop out of the race a few days later.
Prior to the convention, Benson had won the PCDO endorsement with 77%.
The PCDO endorsement doesn’t always translate into a Democratic primary win in Princeton. In 2017, the group backed Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) for governor. Local voters went for Phil Murphy, the former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, by 54 votes, 1,202 to 1,148. 35.8% to 34.2%.
In October, Kim won the endorsement of another influential progressive group, the South Orange and Maplewood-based SOMA Action, with 81% of the vote.