Fulop wants to abolish organization lines

Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop says New Jersey’s county line system, where organization-backed candidates get a preferential position on the primary ballot, is “undemocratic” and that the process disenfranchises “a lot of people.”

“The line structure is not the best for engaging people,” he said.

Fulop made his comments on a podcast, In the Middle with Joey Bloch, this weekend.  POLITICO reported it first on Monday.

“I was asked a clear question, and I gave a clear answer.  I do believe the county line structure that is unique to New Jersey is wrong and that it serves to disenfranchise many potential voters/activists,” Fulop said on social media today.  “I believe it is in everyone’s best interest to change it and create a stronger party by doing that.  My goal is to work with all – including those who embrace the current system – to improve it.”

His position will not affect his plans to seek organization lines in his bid for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2025

“I’m going to compete in a system that exists in whatever form it is in 2025,” Fulop told the New Jersey Globe.  “However, I’m also clear that I intend to support improvements beyond that.”

Fulop is the second major statewide candidate to call for abolishing the line.  Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown), who is running for U.S. Senate next year, said last month that he wants to end the county line.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair), who is mulling a run for governor, sidestepped a question on her position on the county line system.  Gov. Phil Murphy, who ran on every line in 2017 and 2021, has repeatedly declined to state his position.

But a likely entrant into the 2025 governor’s race, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff), said he supports the county line system.

Fulop has never run on an organization line.  He ran as an insurgent against then-Rep. Bob Menendez (D-Union City) in the 2004 Democratic primary.  His elections as a city councilman and mayor in Jersey City, New Jersey’s second-largest state, were in non-partisan municipal elections.

A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll from November 2022 showed that 65% of New Jerseyans oppose the line. However, whether anyone will vote for or against a candidate based on that issue is unclear.

“For most of the country, the era of strong parties ended a long time ago,” said Dan Cassino, a professor of Government and Politics at FDU.  “But that  doesn’t mean that politics have gotten better since the parties in most places stopped being able to pick  candidates.”

Last year, U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi refused to dismiss a 2020 lawsuit filed by progressive Democrats challenging the constitutionality of the line system.  The New Jersey League of Women Voters and the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice filed amicus briefs supporting the lawsuit.

That lawsuit could go on for several more years.