While the top of the June 10 primary ballot is often the most discussed, all 80 seats in the New Jersey General Assembly are also up for reelection and there are more candidates in this year’s primary than there have been in decades.
Antoinette Miles, state director for New Jersey Working Families, said she attributes this year’s Assembly races to the end of the county line system.
“We’ve been in a reform wave in New Jersey buoyed by the candidacy of now Sen. Andy Kim and continues to be buoyed throughout this election and I don’t think you get that without the end of the county line,” she said. “Even if you look back to two years ago, 2023, we saw a number of legislators leave the state Legislature either due to retirement or similar turnover in that effect, yet we know it was only 11% of legislative seats actually contested.”
The rotunda in the newly-renovated New Jersey Statehouse in Trenton on Wednesday, March 22, 2023.
Miles said that it’s exciting the state is “no longer in era of choiceless primaries” and that “voters actually get to choose.”
She also said that the end of the line will impact incumbents as well because they may use it as an opportunity to “find their independent footing” because there are some that “do want to be independent from the political machine or their party boss but haven’t had the opportunity to do that.”
Ben Dworkin, founding director of the Rowan Institute for Public Policy & Citizenship, agreed that the elimination of the line has made it easier to run.
“Every county of New Jersey’s 21 counties had their own way of determining who was on the line,” he said. “Some were more democratic than others, but with its elimination, it just made it easier for people to run.”
This is the first primary in which all 21 counties will use the block ballot design as opposed to the county line design.
The line traditionally gave candidates endorsed by the county party preferred ballot placement, and an edge in their efforts, but it was dismantled by a federal judge last year.
There are 24 competitive districts on the Democratic side of the aisle while Republicans will see contested races in seven.
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The Fulop factor: Will it be a force?
Dworkin also said there is the Fulop factor, referring to the slate of candidates that have joined with Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop under his “Democrats for Change” effort.
He said Fulop entered the gubernatorial primary trying to take the progressive lane but after Newark Mayor Ras Baraka jumped in and “took that lane away,” Fulop pivoted to a more reform focused candidacy, which Dworkin said has helped him in terms of finding support.
“He’s trying to capture the lightning in a bottle that Andy Kim caught last year. He’s trying to duplicate that,” Dworkin said. “Part of his strategy has been to try and take advantage of the fact that there is no line, no ballot geography that automatically hampers one candidate in their effort to take on another and because they’re all going to be grouped together he’s running his own candidates as the Fulop political reform team.”
Miles said there’s a “lot of weight in New Jersey politically that’s put in a six-word slogan” but that at the end of the day that’s not how voters choose candidates and that in cases of a “slate effect,” voters will choose who is best for their district.
Dworkin said it’s still the beginning of this new era so it will take time to see how elections post-line will play out, but candidates that are ambitious or inspired by a local issue may be more inclined to jump into the fray.
That doesn’t mean actual organization and support with a base willing to do campaign legwork like door knocking and cold calls isn’t important.
Not every race is contested
The members in District 15, Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson and Assemblyman Anthony Verrelli aren’t facing any challenges during the primary and the district hasn’t had any Republicans file to run in the fall.
There are also four members of the Assembly who are not seeking reelection: Assemblymen Reginald Atkins, John Allen, Julio Marenco and Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter.
Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ primary election Assembly races