As he fights against much of New Jersey’s Democratic Party leadership to win a seat in the U.S. Senate, Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) filed a federal lawsuit today that aims to do away with the county line, a cornerstone of the state’s political power structure.
Alongside underdog congressional candidates Sarah Schoengood and Carolyn Rush, Kim is arguing that the line – which groups party-endorsed candidates together on primary ballots, and excludes those not endorsed by the party – confers an unfair and unconstitutional advantage. The lawsuit, brought against county clerks in the 19 counties that use the line system, asks the U.S. District Court to mandate line-free ballots in this year’s primary and in future elections.
“Since candidates featured on the county line stand to obtain a significant advantage due to their preferential ballot placement and discriminatory ballot design, Plaintiffs and various other off-line and unbracketed or less-bracketed candidates across the state will be constitutionally harmed … absent emergent relief by this Court,” the lawsuit reads. “New Jerseyans deserve a fair election, untainted by the way in which New Jersey law authorizes Defendants to design primary ballots.”
If the lawsuit is successful, it would redesign New Jersey’s ballots to the “office block” style, in which candidates are grouped by the office they are seeking rather than by party or endorsement, just as exists in most other states.
That would likely provide a major boost to Kim’s campaign against First Lady Tammy Murphy, his main opponent for indicted Senator Bob Menendez’s seat. Murphy entered the race as the preferred candidate of much of New Jersey’s Democratic establishment, and she already has the line in most of the state’s largest, most vote-rich counties.
Kim, by contrast, declared his support for ending the county line even before he launched his Senate campaign, and has only increased his anti-line advocacy since then. He and two other longer-shot Senate candidates, Patricia Campos-Medina and Larry Hamm, have called for the primary to be held under an office block system.
Murphy specifically declined to join that call, saying that she is content with running under the system New Jersey currently has; at a press gaggle today, Kim called her stance “disappointing.”
“What is the point of being a senator then?” Kim said. “The whole point of this is to be in a position to try to change laws and make reforms in this country for the better… I don’t understand why someone would want to become a senator if they’re just going to accept things as it is.”
But Kim’s advocacy against the line has not prevented him from seeking them in counties with small-d democratic endorsement votes; in fact, Kim has won all three open Democratic county conventions held so far. According to the Murphy campaign, that’s evidence of Kim’s hypocrisy.
“Andy Kim doesn’t have a problem with the county line system, he has a problem with the idea of losing county lines – as he is perfectly happy to participate in the process when he wins, and he has benefited from the lines in every other election he’s run,” Murphy spokesperson Alex Altman said. “This sad hypocritical stunt by DC politician Kim is just another attempt to advance his career in Washington.”
As for Schoengood and Rush, the other two plaintiffs, both are waging uphill battles in multi-candidates Democratic House primaries: Schoengood has lost two county convention votes in Kim’s open 3rd district, while Rush was an off-the-line candidate for Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis)’s 2nd district seat in 2022 and is likely to be shunted off-the-line once again for a second time this year.
District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi is already hearing a separate anti-line case filed in 2020 by a group of former candidates and activist groups, but that case has dawdled for years with no resolution on the horizon. (Notably, the attorneys on that case, Brett Pugach and Yael Bromberg, are also the lead attorneys on Kim’s suit.)
The suit brought today, which was first reported by the New York Times, aims to have a more immediate impact. It specifically alleges that the line system violates the 14th Amendment’s voting rights, equal protection, and freedom of association protections, and the Constitution’s Elections Clause, and requires rectification in time for this year’s primary.
“No state interest in New Jersey’s bracketing and ballot placement system can justify the burdens it places on Plaintiffs’ rights,” the lawsuit states. “[New Jersey ballots] are radically different and affect candidates like Plaintiffs in a way that is above and beyond what the other states allow on their ballots.”
It’s impossible to say how long the legal process will take, though in order for the suit to be successful, a decision would have to come by early to mid-April, when county clerks complete their ballot designs and begin printing ballots. In the meantime, Kim and Murphy will continue fighting it out at a variety of upcoming county conventions, where they’ll compete for the very thing Kim wants to eliminate.
“Politics in New Jersey – it should be about public service,” Kim said today. “It should be about focusing on all those issues that we’re trying to deal with. But what I’ve experienced is that so much of it, unfortunately, is about political control… This is the moment to press on this and try to have the change that we need, not just for 2024, but going forward.”
This story was updated at 2:50 p.m. with comment from Murphy’s campaign, and again at 4:47 p.m. with additional comment from Kim.
Kim anti-line suit