WEST ORANGE, NJ — Andy Kim stood between French doors in a cozy suburban home here outside New York, telling several dozen Democrats crammed into the living room that it’s time to defy their party’s leaders.
“We have to make a real choice here, of what kind of face we put forward,” said Kim, a congressman from the opposite end of the state, near Philadelphia. New Jersey needs new leadership, not “some musical chairs of powerful families.”
The message was only partly about New Jersey’s senior Senator, Bob Menendez, a Democrat facing a salacious indictment involving gold bars and alleged influence trading. As Kim runs to replace Menendez, it was also aimed at his main rival in the Democratic primary: New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy.
Murphy has racked up critical support from the state’s dominant political insiders while her husband, Phil Murphy, wields the power of the governor’s office. Kim’s chances may now hinge on turning that strength against her, and harnessing a grassroots revolt against the state’s vaunted Democratic power structure.
“We need to step up and show that the people are in the driver’s seat of our democracy in New Jersey,” Kim told supporters.
Menendez, who has proclaimed his innocence and declined to step aside, has not said if he will run for re-election, but his support has cratered.
Though Murphy has never run for office, Democratic operatives say she’s the early favorite in the June 4 primary, thanks to the unique power of New Jersey’s county party machinery. She’s hoping to become the state’s first female senator, campaigning as a mother who worries about her children’s future and is appalled by the erosion of abortion rights. She says she’s earned party support by working with leaders and civic groups across the state during her six years as first lady.
“I’m a good bridge builder, I’m a convener, and I get shit done,” Murphy said in an interview.
But amid the rush to endorse her, a backlash has also been building, according to interviews with rank-and-file Democrats and more than a half-dozen party operatives and officials.
Progressives and grassroots activists, and even some party insiders, have recoiled against the sight of the governor’s wife sweeping up endorsements from party leaders whose political careers — and sometimes professional and financial success — can hinge on winning the governor’s favor.
“I feel like our voice is being hijacked,” said Rebecca Scheer, a Democratic committeewoman from Maplewood who attended Kim’s event in West Orange.
The endorsements from Democratic county chairs, many delivered within days of Murphy’s campaign launch, carry significant weight. They give Murphy the inside track to winning “The Line” — favorable ballot placement that holds almost mythical status in New Jersey politics.
Even leaders in Kim’s South Jersey backyard endorsed Murphy, as did six of the eight other New Jersey Democrats in the House. (And one of the hold-outs is Menendez’s son).
The Line “is undefeated,” said one longtime Democratic operative, in only a slight exaggeration. But he added that if there’s ever a moment for an upset, “it’s this year.”
The Line, decided by county party leaders, determines how candidates appear on the primary ballot and has the power to elevate contenders by placing them alongside proven incumbents. This year, for example, the winner of the endorsements will be grouped with President Joe Biden, while other candidates will be stuck in a separate row or column. The visual message: this candidate is with the Democrats you already know.
But weighing against its history, Democratic insiders privately characterize Murphy’s endorsements as transactional, a way for powerful figures to stay on governor’s good side, but with little enthusiasm. One prominent Democrat who publicly supports Murphy privately disparaged her candidacy in an interview. Like other party insiders, this Democrat asked for anonymity out of fear of crossing the governor and potentially the state’s next senator.
Voters, some said, may be especially sensitive to appearances of inside dealing this year against the backdrop of the allegations against Menendez.
Heir Apparent
“Rightly or wrongly, there are people who think people are trying to anoint the governor’s wife as the heir apparent,” said state Sen. Troy Singleton, a Democrat whose district overlaps with Kim’s and is supporting the congressman, “and I think that turns people off, frankly.”
Kim, 41, is a former national security aide who has won three terms in a battleground House district and would be the state’s first Asian-American senator. He drew national attention after being photographed sweeping up debris in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 US Capitol riot. But critics question whether he’s built the key political relationships necessary for a statewide run, and he faces a geographic disadvantage, hailing from the less populated southern part of the state in the Philadelphia, not New York, media market. New Jersey hasn’t elected a South Jerseyan statewide since the late Gov. Jim Florio in 1989.
Murphy, 58, has used her platform as first lady to bring state services to needy cities and wage high profile campaigns tackling maternal health and climate change. She boasts of building connections in all 21 counties in the state.
Also running are Patricia Campos-Medina, a labor policy expert and Latina activist who leads The Worker Institute at Cornell University, and Lawrence Hamm, a former Newark school board member.
Operatives close to Kim and Murphy both predicted a close race to the finish. The outcome of the Democratic primary will almost certainly decide who replaces Menendez, since New Jersey hasn’t elected a Republican senator since 1972.
It’s also shaping up as a test of the state’s political power structure.
‘Very Active’
On a frigid Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Murphy arrived at a vacant lot in the long-struggling city of Camden, joining local college students to pick up trash at a site where a museum dedicated to King is being planned.
Amir Khan, a longtime pastor who organized the event, said he’d seen her help before. He recounted giving out $1,000 checks to undocumented immigrants during the early stages of the global pandemic. They weren’t eligible for federal aid, so the money came from a pandemic relief effort Murphy led and which raised $88.1 million.
“I’ve watched her since Governor Murphy stepped into in office,” Khan said. “I’ve watched how she has been instrumental in helping the disenfranchised.”
He’s an example of why Murphy and her supporters argue that she won the big endorsements: her work across the state raising money for fellow Democrats, tackling maternal health and climate change, and connecting with both party leaders and civic groups.
She said her endorsements came from her work, not the governor’s clout.
“I called them. They were all on my phone, every single one of them,” Murphy said. She and the governor have accused people questioning her support of sexism.
Her campaign also pointed to her robust fundraising — $3.2 million in her first six weeks in the race — as a sign of energy behind her. (Kim raised $2.75 million in 14 weeks, according to his campaign).
Murphy began her career in finance at Goldman Sachs, where she met Phil, and worked for several more years before leaving professional life to raise the couple’s four children, a family she emphasized in her launch video.
She was a registered Republican for much of that time. She said in the interview she was a moderate but that the GOP left her behind. She changed her registration in 2014, two years before her husband ran for governor.
In Camden, after working at the King site Murphy zipped to other events in the city, making sandwiches with students at a local high school and handing out apple juice and pinto beans for people in need. At each stop local officials said they’d seen her around even before she began campaigning.
“I’ve been on the ground,” Murphy said in the interview. “My advantage is that I have been a very active First Lady, and I have been in rooms, heard needs, and I’ve responded to them.”
The Line
Critics, however, have fumed about Murphy’s insider support while her husband retains significant say — including line-item veto power — over how state dollars flow to counties, towns, and lawmakers’ pet projects.
“The appearance of impropriety is out of control here,” said Lizzie Foley, of Montclair, who attended the Kim event in West Orange, part of Essex County.
Essex’s Democratic chair, LeRoy Jones, for example, endorsed Murphy while also working as a lobbyist who has business before the state. He’s also the Democratic state chairman, and his county accounts for around 25% of the vote in a statewide Democratic primary.
It’s a similar story in Middlesex County, where the party chair is also a lobbyist. Several other key county leaders have business interests that intersect with local or county governments, which often rely on state funding that the governor oversees.
“In New Jersey we have a sort of fundamentally unlevel playing field in the way that our politics are structured and that really benefits, in this case, Tammy Murphy,” said Debbie Walsh, director of Rutgers University’s Center for Women and American Politics.
The irony, she added, is that for years the state’s closed and usually male-dominated power structure kept women from climbing the political ladder.
Murphy isn’t the first person to benefit from the system Walsh said, “this one has become so stark just because she is the wife of the governor.”
While most lines are still to be finalized, her support from county chairs is a major factor. National Democrats are remaining neutral, as is the state’s junior Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.). And some Democrats argued that The Line can be overstated, especially in a race in which both candidates will likely advertise heavily.
Battle Tested
Kim didn’t rise up in Jersey politics.
He grew up in South Jersey, the son of Korean immigrants, became a Rhodes scholar and built his career in Washington, working on international affairs at the Department of State and at the Pentagon. He served on the National Security Council during the Obama administration before running for Congress, flipping a longtime Republican district in 2018.
His critics have painted him as a figure more comfortable in lofty foreign affairs debates than New Jersey’s gritty political world.
Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.), whose South Jersey district is next to Kim’s, said only Murphy asked him for an endorsement, which he gave. When a reporter noted surprise that he hadn’t heard from his neighboring congressman, Norcross said, “you and me both.”
Said Murphy, “The last thing right now that Washington needs is more of Washington.”
Kim has run on the party line before, and is still seeking official endorsements this election, but he’s brandished the widespread establishment opposition as an asset in a state familiar with scandal.
Speaking to supporters in West Orange, Kim talked about missing his young boys, ages six and eight, and stressed his experience winning competitive House races in a district that backed former President Donald Trump.
“I can win this race. The first lady, she’s never run for office before,” Kim said in an interview. “I’m someone who’s been tested.”
Kim has tried to expand his profile with a flurry of early events, including many far from his South Jersey base. After hearing him in West Orange, Cindy Matute-Brown sent Kim a $550 donation.
“I like Governor Murphy. I like Tammy Murphy,” she said. “However, I don’t like the system.”
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