U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi struck down the ballot design system that invested New Jersey’s political establishment with the power to unfairly influence primary election results.
Unless a group of county clerks and power brokers successfully appeal the decision, this year’s elections will be the end of the line for the vaunted “organization line” that has contributed to keeping the state’s corrupt political establishment in control.
In his preliminary injunction, Quraishi said that ballots used for the June 4 primary must use a ballot design that groups candidates by office instead of stacked up with candidates for other positions, an arraignment that would create large separations from competing candidates seeking the same office, putting those contenders at a disadvantage.
“As I said many times, I believe bracketing in primary elections is nothing less than ballot rigging or cheating,” said Lisa McCormick, who is among the legion of critics who have been demanding a stop to the practice. “This is a tremendous victory for the democratic process and the Democratic Party establishment should abandon efforts to fight for the status quo.”
“New Jersey owes a debt of gratitude to Yael Bromberg, Brett M. Pugach, and Flavio Komuves, the trio of attorneys who won a critically important case that restores a degree of fairness into New Jersey’s primary elections, which are often the only consequential voting,” said McCormick.
“May this be a rebirth for democracy in NJ. It is a GOOD Friday!,” said Bromberg, in a social media post. “Let’s be clear. Should a 3rd Circuit appeal be filed, the Defendant Clerks, nonpartisan election administrators – will be using taxpayer $$$ to prevent a fair election.”
New Jersey’s ‘county line’ ballot system lets candidates be grouped on the ballot by party endorsement rather than by office — in what is clearly an anti-democratic tool.
“When people talk about ‘machine politics’ in New Jersey, this ability to control ballot structure that billionaire party bosses exploited was at the root of it,” said McCormick. “The candidates became indebted to the party bosses, instead of owing allegiance to the people.”
“The integrity of the democratic process for a primary election is at stake and the remedy Plaintiffs are seeking is extraordinary,” Quraishi wrote in his 49-page opinion. “Mandatory injunctive relief is reserved only for the most unusual cases. Plaintiffs’ burden on this Motion is therefore particularly heavy. Nevertheless, the Court finds, based on this record, that Plaintiffs have met their burden and that this is the rare instance when mandatory relief is warranted.”
Rep. Andy Kim filed the lawsuit last month when New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy appeared likely to gain the upper hand in the race for the Democratic Senate nomination, but he quickly accepted placement on county lines as soon as his chief rival dropped out of the race last Sunday.
He was joined by two plaintiffs who are Democrats running for the US House of Representatives, Sarah Schoengood in the 3rd District, and Carolyn Rush, who is running for the 2nd District seat currently held by GOP Rep. Jeff Van Drew.
Kim will not have to work to win the nomination in the June 4 primary, a contest that includes two more progressive Democrats, labor advocate Patricia Campos-Medina and civil rights champion Lawrence Hamm, a former Newark Board of Education member.
They are vying for the nomination to replace Kim’s 2018 running mate, Sen. Bob Menendez, who currently holds the seat and was indicted in September on federal bribery charges and was accused of acting as a foreign agent.
Menendez is under federal indictment along with his wife and three New Jersey businessmen. He recently said that he wouldn’t run in the Democratic primary, but he left open the possibility of running as an independent in the general election.
Menendez’s son, freshman Rep. Rob Menendez, faces a primary challenge from Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, who had more cash on hand than the younger Menendez in his House campaign account at the end of December, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
The younger Menendez had the backing of Democratic organizations in three counties for the 8th District. If Friday’s ruling stands, that primary could be more competitive.
“All the years we spent fighting with the political establishment is worth it when we have days like today… Now if we can make elections less like auctions,” said McCormick. “Andy Kim is arguably the big loser because he wasn’t fighting for any principle except if there’s going to be an unfair advantage then he wants to benefit from it.”
As part of her 2018 challenge to incumbent U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, McCormick made a frontal assault on “bracketing” by offering to share her line with any Democratic candidate who wanted to secure a better ballot position.
McCormick said her candidacy was a chance for citizens to eliminate corruption that has pervaded government in New Jersey. She stunned observers by garnering 159,998 votes, or almost 40 percent, without spending more than $5,000 on her all-volunteer, ‘people-powered’ campaign.
Over the 230-year history of the U.S. judicial system, more than 4,200 people had served as Article III judges on the U.S. District Courts, Appeals Courts, and the Supreme Court but Quraishi is the first Muslim-American to serve as an Article III judge in the United States.
He was the first Asian-American to serve on the federal court in New Jersey when he was appointed as a magistrate judge in 2019.
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