Some New Jersey Democrats throw cold water on Tammy Murphy’s Senate bid

Just as first lady Tammy Murphy formally kicked off her Democratic U.S. Senate campaign Wednesday morning, rival Andy Kim’s campaign and progressives sought to dispel any potential aura of inevitability that she’ll be the party’s nominee.

And the incumbent but indicted Democrat they are both seeking to replace, Sen. Bob Menendez, immediately attacked her and Gov. Phil Murphy while stopping short of saying he'll run again in 2024.

A little over an hour after Tammy Murphy’s announcement, the Kim campaign released a poll conducted on its behalf showing him with a 2-to-1 lead over Murphy in the Senate primary. And about two dozen progressive activists in an organization called the Fair Vote Alliance released a letter decrying Murphy’s early support in the Democratic Party as nepotism and asking Democratic leaders to discard the state’s “county line” system that’s expected to give Murphy favorable ballot placement.

“Let’s be clear, if her name was Tammy Johnson, we would not be having this conversation. It is because Tammy Murphy is married to the Governor,” read the Fair Vote Alliance’s letter.

Context: Tammy Murphy and Kim are the most high-profile candidates running to replace Menendez (D-N.J.), who’s been indicted on federal charges of bribery, conspiracy and acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the Egyptian government. Menendez has yet to say if he’ll run for reelection, though he’d be a long shot as most Democratic Party leaders have called for his resignation and his popularity in a recent poll plummeted to the single digits.

Tammy Murphy, 58, has been first lady since 2018 and has taken a more active role in her husband’s administration than previous first spouses. In her campaign announcement, she emphasized her role in combating maternal mortality and inserting climate change lessons into school curriculum.

Kim, a 41-year-old former diplomat and Rhodes scholar who returned to his home county of Burlington in 2018 to flip a Republican House seat in an anti-Trump wave, has appealed to progressives and developed a reputation as a relatively low-key but canny politician. A photo of him helping to clean up the U.S. Capitol after the Jan. 6 riots became an iconic image.

Due to her husband’s position and the contacts she’s made as a Democratic fundraiser, Tammy Murphy is expected to have the support of most of the state’s Democratic establishment. Outgoing state Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex) endorsed her before she formally began running, while South Jersey Democratic power broker George Norcross suggested she’d have party support in most of the southern half of the state.

The poll: In the Kim campaign-commissioned survey of 560 likely Democratic primary voters, the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling found Kim with 40 percent support, Murphy with 21 percent and Menendez with 5 percent.

The poll, which was conducted in the two days leading up to Murphy’s announcement, found Democratic voters have similar views of Kim and Murphy, with Murphy slightly more well-known. Forty-five percent had a favorable view of Kim while 5 percent had an unfavorable one; 50 percent were not sure. Tammy Murphy was seen favorably by 50 percent, unfavorably by 9 percent and 42 percent weren’t sure. By contrast, just 10 percent had a positive view of Menendez. (POLITICO has requested the poll’s crosstabs and more details on its methodology.)

The line: Most New Jersey county Democratic and Republican parties award candidates the “county line,” which places chosen candidates on the primary ballot with every other party-backed candidate from president to town council. A study by a Rutgers professor Julia Sass Rubin found that the ballot structure gave substantial advantage to party-backed candidates.

“We stand against anti-democratic actions that dampen voter turnout and lead to noncompetitive and unfair primary elections,” the Fair Vote Alliance wrote. “Above all, we ask for Democratic leaders and county clerks to provide us with a fair ballot, giving no candidate preferential position on the ballot.

Menendez's response: New Jersey's senior senator issued a statement that all but declared war on the Murphys, who had been strong backers of his until his indictment. The governor was among the chorus of Democrats calling on him to resign, and Menendez on Wednesday suggested it was for other reasons than his alleged crimes.

"When Phil Murphy rushed to judgement and called on me to resign, it was clear he had a personal, vested interest in doing so at the expense of core democratic principles — the presumption of innocence and due process. Governor Murphy has said he won’t appoint his wife to the seat, but why would he since there was never a need to?" Menendez said in a statement. "They believe they have to answer to nobody, but I am confident that the people of New Jersey will push back against this blatant maneuver at disenfranchisement."

Menendez then called into question the Democratic credentials of Tammy Murphy, a longtime former Republican. He also criticized the governor's past comment on taxes and his administration's poor handling of Covid-19 in state-run veterans homes, according to the Justice Department.

"While Tammy Murphy was a card-carrying Republican for years, I was working to elect Democrats up and down the ballot and fighting in Washington to deliver for hardworking families in New Jersey. Mrs. Murphy will need to explain why she and the Governor believe that if taxes are your issue, New Jersey is not your state. Doesn't every family and small business owner deserve tax relief and the ability to afford the state they call home?" he said.

"She will need to finally address why so many veterans died in state-run nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic and why the state hasn't fully implemented a tutoring program to address learning losses with federal funding I brought back to New Jersey."

A spokesperson for Tammy Murphy did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.