Memory is a funny thing.  When Congressman Andy Kim first ran for Congress, he often expressed support for Medicare for All.  However, once he became the nominee in one of the most competitive congressional districts in New Jersey, he completely forgot about this position and most of his progressive supporters did as well.

Historically, this has been one of the biggest problems with progressive activism in New Jersey.  We tend to lose elections so often that far too many of us are more than willing to be blatantly fibbed to by any politician who claims to be progressive.

The issue du jour for the progressive community about which politicians like Andy Kim are willing to twist the truth on is their opposition to the party line ballot.  Like many other politicians who have recently expressed this position, Kim has never had any problems benefiting from his position on the Democratic Party’s regular organization line and only now that he is running for United States Senate and is unlikely to receive the endorsement of any county party organization and a position on their line, has he suddenly found religion on this issue.

What Kim and so many other so-called progressives like Sue Altman, who has also been a vocal opponent of the party line ballot while at the same time pursuing the endorsement of county party organizations and a position on their line in CD-7 where she is running for the Democratic nomination against Jason Blazakis, who is not opposed to the party line ballot, fail to understand or are unwilling to accept is that the party line ballot only gives candidates who are on it an advantage if their opponents are either unwilling or unable to build an opposition line of their own.

When I worked on the late Governor Jim Florio’s Senate campaign in 2000, my job was to recruit candidates to build an opposition line for him in counties where he did not have the support of the county party organization.  One of the places where I did that was, interestingly enough, CD-7, where we were bracketed with Maryanne Connelly, who had been the organization’s candidate two years earlier and came closer to defeating Congressman Bob Franks than any Democrat had in that district in anybody’s memory.

Unfortunately, despite her previously strong performance, State Senator Ray Lesniak, the boss of the Union County political machine, did not care about winning congressional races and was only interested in opening up the County Manager position for his nephew, so he convinced the current County Manager, Mike LaPolla, to run for Congress, and conspired with his fellow political machine boss, State Senator John Lynch, to give him the line in Middlesex and Union Counties, which should have guaranteed him a win in the primary election.

However, Connelly, being the clever politician that she was, had other ideas.  She knew that she did not need to be on the regular organization line in Middlesex, Somerset, and Union Counties, because she was going to be bracketed with Governor Florio in those counties.  The only thing that she needed to do was prevent LaPolla from getting the line in Somerset County, which she did, by convincing her supporters to vote for the county’s favorite son candidate, Jeff Golkin, in the Somerset County Convention.

Golkin’s convention victory forced LaPolla to run off the line and unbracketed in Somerset County where he lost to Connelly by a large enough margin to overcome his much narrower margins of victory in Middlesex and Union Counties, giving her the primary election victory.  It was this experience that taught me that if progressive insurgents could ever get off their asses and out from behind their computers and smartphones, they could defeat establishment candidates by building their own opposition line.

This is exactly what Bernie Sanders supporters did in 2016 and even though the candidates who bracketed with Bernie Sanders did not win any elections, his performance in New Jersey was strong enough to win him a larger percentage of pledged delegates than his percentage of the popular vote.  Unfortunately, despite the fact that the Sanders campaign had someone from New Jersey working in his inner circle in 2000, that person worked against his most impassioned supporters in New Jersey who were prepared to build him an opposition line, once again, and agreed to open primary elections in most counties, which placed both Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders on their own lines, decapitating the other progressive insurgents who had built an opposition line for him.  As a result, he lost New Jersey by a far wider margin and was not nearly as well-represented at the Democratic National Convention that year as he was four years earlier.

As the 2024 election season grows near, the question that remains is whether or not Andy Kim will remain consistent to his opposition of the party line ballot or will he prove himself to be a hypocrite and build an opposition line against New Jersey’s First Lady, Tammy Murphy, who is likely to be on the regular organization line with President Joe Biden in every county organization.  If he chooses to build an opposition line, there will be no shortage of fellow insurgents with whom he can build alliances.

First and foremost, among these allies will be the aforementioned Sue Altman in CD-7.  She would most certainly be able to recruit her South Jersey fellow traveler, Kate Delany, to run against Congressman Donald Norcross in CD-1.

There are two candidates running for the Democratic nomination in CD-2; Tim Alexander and Carolyn Rush.  Whichever candidate does not get the support of the regular county party organizations in that district will be more than happy to run with Kim, Altman, and Delany.

At the moment, there are also two candidates running for the Democratic nomination in CD-3; LD-7 Assemblypersons Herb Conaway and Carol Murphy.  Would the candidate who doesn’t get organizational support drop out of the race or would s/he bracket with Kim?

Bracketing with Kim would be a risky move for either Assemblyperson, because if that person does not win the primary and the general election, it is possible that they could lose organizational support in 2025 when they run for re-election to their Assembly seat.  It might be a risk worth taking, however, because not being bracketed with former State Senator Steve Sweeney may not be that disadvantageous if they can simply bracket with Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop or another gubernatorial candidate instead.

Kim should not have a hard time finding allies with whom to bracket in CD-4, CD-5, and CD-6.  In CD-8, Congressman Rob Menendez, the son of the disgraced and twice-indicted Senator Robert Menendez, is being challenged by Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla.  Unless the Hudson County political machine reconsiders its support for the younger Menendez and gives it to Bhalla instead, there can be no doubt that Bhalla would jump at the opportunity to run with Kim.

In CD-9, there have been whispers about Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh challenging his former mentor, Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr. If Kim were to offer Sayegh a position on his line, it would be a huge acquisition for his team.

Former State Senator Nia Gill has run for Congress in CD-10 before.  There is no reason that she would not at the very least consider doing it again if asked by Kim.  Imani Oakley ran against Congressman Donald Payne Jr. in 2022.  She may do it again in 2024, especially if asked to run on Kim’s line.

Based on the belief that CD-11 Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill is very likely to run for Governor in 2025, which would require a special election to fill her vacant seat in 2026, an ambitious progressive insurgent in that district, who is unlikely to get organization support anyway, might see 2024 as an opportunity to pull off an upset by aligning themselves with Kim.

Or maybe Kim can convince the immensely popular Giants QB, Tommy “Cutlets” DeVito to give up football and run for Congress in this district.  That might be an even bigger get for Team Kim than Bhalla and Sayegh, especially if DeVito’s agent, Sean “The Italian Stallion” Stellato agrees to run Team Kim’s coordinated campaign.

CD-12 would probably be the toughest district for Kim to find someone to run on his line.  Because Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman is the only African-American woman in New Jersey’s congressional delegation and is perceived by most progressive insurgents to be one of them, they have always been reticent to run anyone against her.  Considering the fact that she is nearing the end of her career, is it possible that she could be convinced to run for re-election on Kim’s line instead of Murphy’s?

Likely not.

If Kim needs someone to run on his line in 2024, he could ask Ed “New Jersey Weedman” Forchion, who is even more anti-Israel than Watson Coleman.

The ultimate question that must be asked when discussing the possibility of Andy Kim building an opposition line in 2024 centers on the Presidential election.  At the moment, President Joe Biden is being challenged by Congressman Dean Phillips, who is running not as much to win the Democratic nomination, but more to try and force President Biden out of the race so that other, more established candidates like California Governor Gavin Newsom and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer can enter the race. It seems unlikely that Phillips will still be a challenger when New Jersey votes in one of the last primary election contests on the calendar in June.  However, would Andy Kim and his allies roll the dice on his Presidential candidacy anyway and bracket with him just to have someone at the top of their line?

Kim clearly has nothing to lose by building an opposition line against the county party organizations.  He probably won’t run for elected office in New Jersey again if he loses to Murphy next year.  But would he align himself with someone who running against an incumbent President, who could all but guarantee that he never works in government in any capacity again if he wins re-election?  That might be too big a risk for Kim or anyone aligned with him to take.

However, if Phillips were to succeed in pulling off a Eugene McCarthy and does well enough in early state contests to convince President Biden to end his re-election campaign and Governors Newsom and Whitmer emerge as the most likely Democratic nominees for President, all bets are off and anything becomes possible.  If Team Kim brackets with Newsom and Team Murphy brackets with Whitmer, it would most likely produce the most competitive primary election cycle in our state’s history, all made possible thanks to our good friend, the party line ballot.  Why would we ever want to get rid of it?

Jamesburg Borough Councilperson-Elect Bertin Lefkovic is also currently the Vice Chair of the Democratic Organization of Jamesburg, a Jamesburg/Middlesex County Committeeperson, and a Bernie Sanders delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention.