Kim says he wants to end the county line

In a wide-ranging interview with the New Jersey Globe last week, Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) said that he’d support ending the county organizational line system, which gives county political parties in New Jersey tremendous power through the design of primary ballots.

“I’m really in favor of as many measures as we can to make sure that power resides with the voters,” Kim said. “Other people have different opinions. Other people believe that the party structures need to have greater control and whatnot, and that certainly was a huge part of this country for most of its existence… But I, for one, am a believer that we can have a lot more of that power reside with the citizens.”

As a member of Congress, Kim doesn’t have much personal power to change the county line system; that authority largely lies with the state legislature and with the federal judiciary, which is currently hearing a challenge to the system’s constitutionality. But Kim’s declaration still makes him the highest-ranking and most prominent New Jersey Democrat to explicitly support bringing down a key component of political power in the state.

That’s especially true now that Kim has announced a Democratic primary campaign against Senator Bob Menendez, who was indicted on federal bribery charges last Friday. Kim’s initial call for ending the county line came before his Senate campaign launch, but he reiterated to the New Jersey Globe last night that he stands by his position.

“We need to restore trust in government to strengthen our democracy,” Kim said. “That includes rooting out corruption through major ethics reform, getting dark money out of politics through campaign finance reform, and empowering voters to elect the candidate of their choice through ballot reform.”

Kim added, though, that he does intend to seek county lines for his Senate bid.

“I’ll work within the system we have, seek county endorsements, and respect the contribution structures and limits that are currently in place,” he said.

In the event that the 2024 Democratic primary comes down to Kim against Menendez, it’s likely that the county line system would help Kim rather than hurt him. Menendez has publicly lost the support of 13 of New Jersey’s 21 county chairs, and it’s possible that if he ran for re-election, he wouldn’t even get the line in his longtime political base of Hudson County.

A number of other candidates, though, are also looking at the race, potentially creating a multi-candidate campaign where the county parties split their support among several challengers. Progressive activist Larry Hamm is already running, and Reps. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair), Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff), and Donald Norcross (D-Camden) and First Lady Tammy Murphy are all considered possible candidates as well.

Gottheimer, for his part, has said that he firmly supports the county line system; Sherrill was more ambivalent when asked the same question.