Fulop will skip Democratic county conventions in ’25

Steve Fulop said today that he won’t compete in any of the county Democratic conventions and instead will take his campaign for governor directly to primary voters.

With the likely elimination of county lines and an office ballot, Fulop’s announcement isn’t surprising. County organizations will only award the use of their slogan, which they will share with legislative and county candidates who frequently have low name recognition among rank-and-file Democrats.

“We saw firsthand how corrupt that county convention process is with Andy Kim.  We saw appointed super delegates to stack the deck, proposed rule changes the day of, we saw forced public votes, we saw counties with no process,” said Fulop, the three-term mayor of Jersey City.  “We have already have the establishment of Essex, Middlesex, (and) Mercer counties lining up to a handpicked candidate they can control before a vote is cast or a debate happens.”

Fulop has already recruited Assembly candidates in nineteen legislative districts across the state, and “more to come.”

“I won’t leave any of the assembly candidates we are running with behind,” said Fulop.  “We committed to share slogans and resources to change New Jersey. Many of the districts straddle multiple counties.”

Fulop was the first gubernatorial candidate to call for abolishing the county line.  He did that in October 2023, about four months before now-U.S. Senator Andy Kim filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of preferential ballot positions.