A new ballot design for Democrats shakes up a unique system that gives county parties large influence
A New Jersey primary ballot has an "office-block ballot" design in Rutherford, New Jersey, on Friday, May 10, 2024. | Ted Shaffrey/APNew Jerseyans are about to find out whether the Democratic political machines that have dominated the state’s politics for decades are truly powerful operations or just paper tigers.
“I was never intimidated by the loss of the line. I stand behind the belief that organization and good candidates is what gets you victories,” said Democratic State Chair LeRoy Jones Jr., who also chairs the Democratic Party in Essex County — long one of the premier Democratic machines in the state. But Jerry Speziale, the Paterson public safety director and a former Democratic sheriff, is also seeking the office. He previouslyby leaving during an election season to take a job at the Port Authority when Republican Gov. Chris Christie had sway over it.
“If Speziale wins and he’s back there, it’s going to be a huge change for Passaic County,” said Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, a Democratic candidate for governor in 2025 who’s backing Speziale. “And if he wins any of those commissioner seats because he’s running three candidates, it’s going to be a clear indication the power structure in New Jersey is extremely vulnerable if you have a well-funded and organized candidate in opposition.
And Democrats won’t have the line to help fend off a challenge to President Joe Biden’s delegate slate. An effort spearheaded by the Democratic Socialists of America got an alternative slate of “uncommitted” delegates on the ballot in most New Jersey counties with the slogan “Justice for Palestine, permanent ceasefire now.”
Turnout in the 2023 primaries, which featured state legislative races at the top of the ticket, was just 15 percent.
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