Delighting in the theater of CD-11 from afar, a Democratic Party source described the primary contest as a "progressive proxy war" between Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and U.S. Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ).

Baraka backs political organizer Analilia Mejia.

Kim supports former U.S. Rep. Tom Malinowski.

Both would-be kingmakers have a history of roughing up the party establishment.

Baraka last year won Essex County in the Democratic Primary for Governor against the party organization-picked Mikie Sherrill.

Sherrill, of course, won statewide.

Kim?

Kim in 2024 successfully won a lawsuit that challenged the constitutional fairness of the long-standing bracketing procedure of aligning candidates with the party slogan and consigning everyone else to ballot Siberia.

It made Kim the darling of the progressive movement in New Jersey.

Baraka took up that mantle a year later.

Now each is trying to pole vault over the other in a game of progressive leapfrog.