Insider NJ Special Edition: Ranking The Top 25 County Party Chairs (PDF)
In a few days you will find in these pages an assessment of the critical battleground contests in this year’s 2023 legislative battleground season, and the implications of those races.
The political fortunes of the county party chairs considered below hinge somewhat on those contests, and in the blurbs accompanying the names of the party leaders you will find a size-up of precisely those dynamics.
Simultaneously, don’t discount 2024 as a major theater of power persuasion as, apparently, the parties will attempt the exorcism of incipient or actual octogenarians Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
But from now on in New Jersey, 2025 devours the political landscape of this state.
Certainly, what happens next year with incumbent U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) informs that discussion.
Finally, though, as sitting Governor Phil Murphy limps through the underbrush in his efforts to get noticed nationwide as an alternative to Biden, the party leaders have their eyes narrowed on the next version of statewide power.
We assume the deal gets cut at the same time for governor, senate president, and speaker.
A rough itemization of those most likely to fill those positions appears below.
More importantly, though, the following list contains a ranking of those county party chairs most relevant in the ongoing discussions about who will occupy those positions, presumably as part of a power-sharing agreement among those most relevant powers.
No list generates as a results of the strict application of the scientific method. Politics, after all, is a soft science. In New Jersey in particular, under the guise of tough guy posing, it seems squishier than elsewhere. But we have tried to juggle a cross-section of considerations, among them the size of the counties involved, the voter performance of said counties, the history and performance of the chairs under review, and the challenges on their plate in this specific election cycle.
Hopefully, an accurate depiction of political power results, which from the start remained the only aim of this exercise.
Download Insider NJ Special Edition: Ranking The Top 25 County Party Chairs or view it below:
Budget Special Edition
John Currie is No 1. (not 4) And Remember when he was State Party Chair the Democrats held both houses through the Republican Christie Administration. Will see after November’s Election if we still hold both houses. For the State Conference every year he would hold it down in Atlantic City and always had great speakers-his last one-Nanny Pelosi. And the Conference was all in AC not running all over the State.
He held fundraisers for candidates and even held State Dem Fundraisers at the Governor’s House. He made plenty of money for the party to help get Democrats elected!
He is my Number 1!
Your inclusion of Peter Murphy on the Top 25 County Party Chairs is right on the money.Yes,he does harken back to a time past by working out of his “Watering Hole”.But what’s wrong with that?You always know where you can find him to register a complaint or ask a question.He operates out of a saloon not a cocktail lounge and caters to the common man not PACs or special interest groups.
100% agree Al-Best way to get in touch with someone.