Tammy Murphy wins in a blowout in crucial Senate Democratic convention in NJ

PARAMUS, New Jersey — First lady Tammy Murphy on Monday won in a blowout victory against top rival Rep. Andy Kim for the Senate endorsement of Democrats in the state’s largest county.

Murphy’s wide margin of victory at the Bergen County Democratic convention blunts Kim’s momentum in the race to replace indicted Sen. Bob Menendez. With Monday night’s win, she made up significant ground lost early in the county convention season to Kim since Bergen County delivers more Democratic votes than nearly anywhere else in New Jersey.

Murphy won with 738 votes to Kim’s 419, or 63.7 percent to 36.2 percent. Menendez, who has not said whether he will seek reelection, did not compete at the convention.

Monday’s endorsement was awarded by a secret ballot vote and marks the first county convention that Murphy has won where rank-and-file Democrats — not party leaders — decide who the county will support. And it means that she will appear more prominently on primary ballots in a large majority of the state — a significant statistical hurdle for Kim to overcome.

“I think things are going as I had hoped,” Murphy told reporters after the results were announced. “Obviously it's great to have this incredible win and I just feel really good.”

Murphy entered the Senate race in November the presumed front-runner because of the backing of many influential Democratic party leaders, who hold inordinate sway in New Jersey primaries. But Kim leads in public polling and has won five prior Democratic county conventions in Monmouth, Burlington, Hunterdon, Warren and Sussex counties, where the endorsement was awarded by a secret ballot vote.

But those counties combined count for around 14 percent of the total Democratic electorate, whereas Bergen County alone amounts to about 10 percent of Democrats statewide. And Murphy has the support of party leaders in other counties that are more top-down in their endorsement process, guaranteeing Murphy a favorable position on the primary ballot in much of the state against Kim.

Despite Kim’s winning streak, Murphy entered Monday’s contest as the favorite in Bergen. She had the endorsement of the influential Bergen County Democratic Chair, Paul Juliano, and touted a list of 100 Bergen County Democrats endorsing her candidacy. Juliano was an early backer of Murphy and currently has a $280,000 job leading the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority — which he got with Gov. Phil Murphy’s backing. The governor previously nominated Juliano to the board of the state’s largest health insurance company, a part-time position that paid $82,000.

“It was never a fair fight,” Kim told reporters after results were announced.

When reporters asked about Juliano’s support for her headed into the convention, Murphy shrugged.

“I am really excited speaking to people up and down the state,” Murphy said. “If you have been standing next to me, if you have heard all the conversations that I'm having, people are genuinely enthusiastic.”

Before results were announced, Juliano said turnout was the highest he’d seen in “decades.”

“I have never seen 1,157 delegates and that is a tribute to the people in this room and the organization we have in Bergen County,” Juliano said.

Bergen County was a critical contest between Murphy and Kim. It is the state’s largest county and is behind only Essex County for Democratic primary voters, according to state data.

Kim remained confident about the state of the race, even in Bergen County, and said that he was very happy with his campaign’s performance. “We knew this was going to be a challenge,” he said. “But the fact that over 400 people were willing to stand up against the county chair, willing to stand up against the governor and the governor's family, I think this was closer than I thought it was going to be.”

“I think I’m going to take Bergen in June,” he added.

Winning the party endorsement here means that Murphy will have the so-called county line in Bergen County, the controversial ballot design that places county party-backed candidates together in a single column on primary ballots. Winning the “line” has shown to give candidates a significant advantage since they appear more prominently to voters on the primary ballot.

Only two counties in the state — Sussex and Salem — do not group candidates together in the “line,” instead using an office block ballot where candidates are grouped together by the office they are running for. All other states use that design.

Each county party in the state has different ways of awarding the line, with some awarding it by a secret ballot vote of hundreds of low-level party officials. In other counties, a single party boss can bestow favorable ballot placement. Murphy has the support of party leaders in counties that are top-down in their endorsement processes, which includes Democratic strongholds like Middlesex, Camden, Essex and Hudson Counties.

Over the weekend Murphy won the endorsement of Union County Democrats, which awards the favorable ballot positioning by a vote of 22 Union County party leaders. She has also won the endorsement of the Passaic County Democrats, where only a handful of party leaders decide who will get the favored ballot positioning.

Kim has filed a lawsuit in federal court trying to eliminate the county line system for the June primary.

Monday’s contest was closely watched by Democratic party leaders across the state. Passaic County Democratic Chair John Currie, a Murphy supporter, said that “it would concern me” if she didn’t win the Bergen County convention.