It’s Tammy Day in New Jersey’s sleazy politics today. The governor’s wife decided to make the word “nepotism” widely known— after an unreported dinner in Atlantic City last night where the deal was finalized between Tammy and Mikie Sherrill that gives Tammy the Essex County line in return for Mikie getting the Middlesex line for governor next year. That’s what I meant when I put “sleazy politics” in the first line.
The for mass consumption news: New Jersey’s wonderful First Lady has announced she’s running for the soon-to-be-open Bob Menendez Senate seat. Take the Washington Post. “Without naming Menendez— who faces federal charges of taking bribes and conspiring to work as an illegal agent of the Egyptian government while serving in the Senate— Murphy said in a video Wednesday that New Jersey’s families ‘deserve better.’”
Is the wealthier-than-shit former Goldman Sachs bankster and ex-Republican maxed out donor to George W Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney “better?” Well… better than Menendez—or not worse— sure. But Congressman Andy Kim is running as a reformer ands sure isn’t better than him.
“Tammy Murphy has never held elected office,” wrote Mariana Alfaro, “but has maintained a portfolio as first lady since 2018. According to a statement from her campaign, she has worked to ‘dramatically lower New Jersey’s maternal and infant mortality rate and to make New Jersey the first and only state in the nation to incorporate climate change education in the K-12 curriculum. These weren’t small fights or simple problems to solve, but nothing worth doing ever is,’ Murphy said in a statement. ‘As I look around the country, there’s so much more to do, and we need a Senator who will work every single day to lower the cost of living, protect abortion rights, end the gun violence epidemic, and defend our democracy.’”
Tammy and Phil Murphy have been married since 1993 and have four children. The couple co-owns the women’s soccer team NJ/NY Gotham FC.
Tom Moran, suggested to Star-Ledger readers that New Jersey voters can do better than Tammy. “[D]espite her weak qualifications, she’s widely expected to win the Democratic nomination thanks to her husband, the governor, who has about 100 levers he can pull to give her an unfair advantage. ‘This is nepotism on stilts,’ says Rutgers Professor Ross Baker, who’s made a career of studying the Senate… There is no way on God’s Earth she would be the candidate if her husband were not governor. Rep. Andy Kim is running, and he’s a Rhodes Scholar who spent seven years at the State Department, including a stint in Afghanistan advising Gen. David Petraeus, before beating a Republican incumbent to take a seat in Congress in 2018. He’s on the Armed Services Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee, which could come in handy these days. By any measure, he’s far more qualified than the First Lady.”
But this isn’t a fair fight. Murphy has the advantage, not just because of the name, but because the governor can rig the game in her favor by lining up support from party organizations at the county level.
The endorsed candidates in New Jersey win almost every primary, mainly because our unique ballot design places favored candidates in a single column, as a team, with familiar names at the top, like Joe Biden and Cory Booker. The endorsed candidates in New Jersey primaries win by an average of 35 points, according to a 2020 federal lawsuit from progressives who want to smash this system to pieces.
So, the governor’s game now is to ensure that county organizations endorse his wife, qualified or not. That’s not going to be difficult. The governor controls appointments of judges and prosecutors, funding for roads and schools, and an abundance of jobs for friends and allies.
That’s what that dinner Atlantic City I mentioned above was all about. “It is depressing to think that there are women who have worked their fingers to the bone, taken hard votes and truly sacrificed to serve, only to be jumped over for someone who married into a Senate seat,” Julie Roginsky, a prominent Democratic strategist wrote in the weekly Star-Ledger column, Friendly Fire. “I have spoken to several party leaders who fear that Gov. Murphy will use next year’s budget or other levers at his disposal to retaliate if they don’t throw their support behind his wife. Everything about this is so gross that it’s no wonder voters increasingly tune out.”
Nepotism is a big thing in New Jersey politics— big and disgusting. Menendez’s son Rob is a congressman (more on that soon) and Reps Donald Payne, Donald Norcross and Tom Kean sure aren’t in Congress because they earned it. “But this one, “as Baker puts it, is nepotism on stilts, wrote Moran. “None of the others had sitting governors pulling levers for them. And this is a Senate seat, so it reaches a new height. The governor says he will not appoint his wife, if Menendez should resign before his term is over. That would be too obvious. And it’s not necessary, given the machine support in a primary.”
The column inspired a letter-to-the-editor from a Maplewood Andy Kim fan who noted that Moran raised “many upsetting points about her impending bid for public office as a Democrat. One area that was not addressed is that for much of her adult life she was a Republican. It’s an insult to voters in the 2024 Democratic primary that we’re expected to accept Murphy’s self-proclaimed Democratic values-- despite being a registered, active, voting Republican until at least 2010, if not longer. Why are Democratic Party leaders putting her forward as their pick for U.S. senator when she seems to have had no track record defending Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare, and other vital programs middle class New Jersey voters depend on? Now, as the wife of Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy, we’re supposed to believe she’ll champion traditional Democratic priorities? It defies logic and is politically dangerous… New Jersey deserves better than an unqualified former Republican with no record on the Democratic policies she now claims to embrace.”
Kim is organizing his own line statewide, and filling it with plausible local candidates. This promises to get very interesting if it really turns into a fight to break the corrupt New Jersey machine system. And, yes, Norcross is backing Tammy of course. First poll of New Jersey Democrats (PPP):
It’s just disgusting. Obviously too many democrats are “characterless” just like 100 percent of republicans. I fear we are doomed. It’s causing me way too much agita to cope with lately. Fascism is taking over just like 1930s Germany.
Well, all I can say is that "experience" and "qualifications" mean a total of dick because your useless feckless corrupt democrap party loves neoliberal fascist pussies and loathes anyone with a single progressive impulse.
The lady's "platform" statements, taken at face value (which means almost reflexive disbelief... cuz she's a neoliberal fascist pussy democrap on purpose too), seem pretty good. Most of the top priorities, leading with climate, are there.
But this also illustrates just how reflexive and post-hypnotic you dumber than shit democrap voters are. You, what, vote for whomever is FIRST on the ballot rather than who is best?
well, that's one sure way to a shithole! Trying to elect democraps is another!