The Democratic primary in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District presents voters with a spectacle of political machinery, a contest where the appearance of choice masks a more stubborn reality.
While eleven names will appear on the ballot Feb. 5, the true struggle for the seat in Congress vacated by now-Gov. Mikie Sherrill has narrowed to a clash of three distinct political forces, each representing a deep-rooted faction of party power.
On one flank stands Brendan Gill, an Essex County commissioner whose campaign is less a movement than a ratification of the existing order.
His support is a directory of the region’s Democratic establishment: the governor, a phalanx of state legislators, the county executive, and a thicket of municipal chairs. His wife, a sitting assemblywoman, anchors his political lineage.
The endorsements from major trade unions, including the mob-connected International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), speak not to a platform but to a system of reciprocal loyalty.
The ILA has historically been controlled by La Cosa Nostra (LCN) crime families, and the union boss, Harold Daggett, has been accused of racketeering in concert with the Gambino and Genovese organized crime families.
Gill’s is the campaign of the machine, confident in its ability to turn out votes through structure and familiarity, an operation where support is measured in organizational charts.
Opposing him is former Rep. Tom Malinowski, who represents the reconstituted arm of the party’s Washington-aligned center.
If Malinowski is successful, he may have an outstanding ethics inquiry waiting for him, for failing to timely report hundreds of stock transactions, violating the STOCK Act and House rules.
The Campaign Legal Center filed the complaint in March 2021, leading to an investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics, which referred the matter to the House Ethics Committee, after he improperly disclosed trades or failed to file required reports.
Malinowski called it an oversight, but 7 in 10 Americans hold unfavorable views of Congress. Because of the inherent risk of self-dealing, congressional stock trading poses genuine ethical concerns that undermine public trust and accountability in the institution.
A majority of Americans in both parties say there should be more restrictions on members of Congress trading stocks.
Malinowski’s resurrection in this race is fueled significantly by the spending of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s affiliate, the United Democracy Project, which has injected over half a million dollars to ‘attack him’ in a way that may actually boost his chances.
Many Democratic commentators and activists, especially progressives, are calling on US politicians to condemn the genocidal slaughter of children in Gaza and take a more balanced stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Popular podcast hosts Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan panned Senator Cory Booker over his AIPAC support and pressed him to say whether he considered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal.
In the wake of the Israeli military offensive in response to the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, the percentage of Democrats who have negative opinions about AIPAChas skyrocketed in the last two years.
This massive outside intervention makes his campaign a paradox: a bid for local office bankrolled by a national foreign policy agenda, painting him as an instrument of distant priorities rather than local needs.
And then there is Analilia Mejia, the clear progressive challenger in the field.
Her coalition is built not of party chairmen, but of organized labor’s rank-and-file and the party’s activist left.
Backed by national figures like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and powered by unions representing healthcare workers, communication workers and service employees, her campaign is a direct ideological counter to the other two.
She is the candidate of the platform, championing policies like Medicare for All and rejecting the type of corporate and foreign policy lobbyist money flooding the race. For voters weary of insider politics, she offers a stark, unapologetic alternative.
The remaining eight candidates, including former Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way, despite benefiting from AIPAC spending and some institutional support, have been largely marginalized in this fierce triangular fight.
The considerable financial firefight between Gill’s county machine, Malinowski’s externally-funded resurgence, and Mejia’s grassroots mobilization has drowned out other voices.
This is the choice laid bare. One candidate offers the comfort and control of the county organization.
Another offers a return to Congress, financed by a single-issue Washington lobby. The third offers a progressive revolution.
The rest of the field provides background noise. In a district accustomed to competitive politics, the primary has become a stark referendum on what, and who, truly holds power.
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