Today was the New Jersey ballot draw, in which the state’s 21 county clerks determined via random drawings where candidates for office in the June 4 primary will appear on voters’ ballots. And on the Democratic side, it was a ballot draw unlike any other, thanks to U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi’s order nullifying the county organizational line.
Without the line in place, clerks conducted drawings for each Democratic primary separately, with no regard for who had the party endorsement or who bracketed with whom. For Republicans, though, most clerks drew standard party line-ballots, since Quraishi’s order let the GOP line stand.
Here are some of the key results from today’s draw.
3rd congressional district
With five Democrats running for Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown)’s open 3rd congressional district – none of them especially well known to voters yet – today’s ballot draw was potentially quite important. And Assemblywoman Carol Murphy (D-Mount Laurel) overall emerged as the winner thanks to the results of the draw in Burlington County, which accounts for around two-thirds of the 3rd district’s Democratic primary electorate.
The order of the five candidates in Burlington will be: Murphy, civil rights attorney Joe Cohn, teacher Brian Schkeeper, businesswoman Sarah Schoengood, and finally Assemblyman Herb Conaway (D-Delran). Schkeeper and Cohn will be listed first in Mercer and Monmouth Counties, respectively.
Conaway has the official party endorsement in all three counties, and under the county line system, he would have been the substantial favorite for the Democratic nomination. But since the line was nixed for this year, he and his four fellow candidates will be listed as equals, with ballot slogans being the only evidence of his party support.
Burlington County Clerk Joanne Schwartz, unlike every other county clerk in the state, chose to also cancel the county line for Republicans, meaning that the four Republican candidates seeking the nomination in the 3rd district will similarly run on office-block ballots in Burlington County.
Michael Faccone got the first ballot position, followed by Shirley Maia-Cusick, party-backed Rajesh Mohan, and Gregory Sobocinski. Mohan also has the party endorsement in the district’s other two counties which, unlike Burlington, will still use line-based ballots for Republicans.
8th congressional district
In a statistically improbable turn of events, all three counties in the 8th congressional district drew the exact same order of Democratic candidates – but given who drew first position, that’s likely not a sign of anything untoward.
Kyle Jasey, the least prominent of the district’s three candidates, will appear first on Essex, Hudson, and Union County ballots. Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla will be in second, and incumbent Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City), who has party support across the board, will be listed last.
Passaic County
The race between Democratic Party-backed sheriff candidate Thomas Adamo and former Sheriff Jerry Speziale is perhaps the most interesting county-level primary this year, especially now that the county line has been nullified.
Adamo drew first position over Speziale, though the importance of ballot order in a two-person race is probably less important than in crowded primaries. Each sheriff candidate also has a full slate of commissioner candidates, and Speziale’s team – Sean Duffy, Pedro Liranzo, and Derya Taskin – will appear first, above incumbent Commissioners Sandi Lazzara (D-Little Falls) and John Bartlett (D-Wayne) and their running mate, Rodney De Vore.
Unlike most other county clerks, Passaic County Clerk Danielle Ireland-Imhof didn’t conduct separate drawings for each county commissioner slot on the ballot; instead, she drew Duffy’s name first, and then automatically put his two running mates next.
That could run afoul of Quraishi’s order, which prohibits clerks from conducting drawings that “do not include a separate drawing for every office and candidate, and where every candidate running for the same office has an equal chance at the first ballot position.”
Camden County
Camden County Democrats are similarly hosting a multi-candidate primary for three county commissioner seats, but unlike in Passaic County, Camden County Clerk Joseph Ripa conducted a separate draw for each slot.
The resulting ballot order is a hodgepodge: progressive insurgent candidates Kyle Irwin, Susan Druckenbrōd, and Elton Custis will be in the 1st, 3rd, and 6th spots, respectively, while incumbent Commissioners Jeffrey Nash (D-Winslow), Al Dyer (D-Pennsauken), and Melinda Kane (D-Cherry Hill) will be in 2nd, 4th, and 5th. In the open-seat race for clerk, challenger Rebecca Holloway will be listed above Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt (D-Cherry Hill).
That will provide an interesting test for the South Jersey Democratic machine: does ballot order matter, or can they convince their voters to support their candidates even when they’re randomly scattered across the ballot?
Other races
In the Democratic primary for the 9th congressional district, Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed Khairullah drew first position over Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) in their shared home of Passaic County, but Pascrell got the top spot in Bergen and Hudson Counties.
Cumberland Democrats have splintered into two warring factions, each of which is running a county commissioner slate this year; former Sheriff Robert Austino and former Commissioner John Capizola (D-Vineland), who are affiliated with county Democratic Chair Kevin McCann, got the top two spots, while La Rae Smith and Joeigh Perella will be listed below them.
In the 2nd congressional district’s four-way Democratic primary to take on Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), Carolyn Rush will appear first in both Cumberland and Ocean Counties, Tim Alexander is first in Gloucester County, Joe Salerno is first in Cape May and Atlantic counties; and Rodney Dean is first in Salem.
Lastly, of course, both parties are hosting contested primaries for U.S. Senate, but the ballot draw may not matter too much on either side.
For Democrats, Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) is far and away the favorite for the nomination regardless of where he appears on the ballot. And for Republicans, Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner and developer Curtis Bashaw each have some county lines – and those lines should be visible on ballots regardless of what position the candidates drew.