My name is Jim Keady. I am running for Congress in NJ’s Fourth District. Our Primary Election is on June 5th and I think it is important for Democrats and unaffiliated voters in our district to know where to find me on the ballot and why the ballot is structured in the way that it is. I also would like to raise the issue with the broader Democratic community here on DailyKos about how our ballots are structured here in NJ and for all of us to consider the question — is it undemocratic?
(If after reading this diary, you would like to help us win on June 5th can you volunteer by clicking www.jimkeady.com/volunteer and/or by making a contribution at www.jimkeady.com/donate.)
NJ’s #FightingFourth is made up of towns from three NJ counties — Monmouth, Ocean, and Mercer. Each of the Democratic committees in these counties holds a convention or mini-convention PRIOR to the Democratic Primary and a relative handful (300 or so) party leaders handpick for the 132,000 Democrats and 232,000 unaffiliated voters who they believe should carry the Democratic banner against the Republican incumbent in November. These handpicked candidates are given the coveted “county line.”
As you can see from these sample ballots, I am “off the line” as they say in NJ politics.
Many times when people look at these ballots, their immediate reaction is… “Of course the Democratic Party should be able to have full line of Democratic candidates for voters.”
If we were/are talking about the GENERAL ELECTION, I would agree. We absolutely want our Democratic ticket in the same column. But this is the PRIMARY ELECTION. Can you see how having a “county line” like this can potentially misinform voters? It is set up in a way that a low-information voter may go into the booth and think that only the candidates in the county line column are the “real Democrats.” This is especially true here in NJ’s Fourth District where we have not had a contested Democratic primary in decades. Rank and file Democratic voters who exercise their civic duty every election go by the mantra “I always vote Democratic and I always vote the line.” Again, this not necessarily an issue in the general election, but it is a significant issue in the primary election. We have had to do a LOT of voter education on this and tell people, it isn’t about just “voting for the Democrat” in the election. In the Democratic primary, we are all Democrats. We need to ask who is the BEST Democrat to take on the Republican in the General Election.
You may now be asking, “How are these county lines determined?”
It is different for every county in NJ, but in this recent interview with Jimmy Dore, I walk through how the line was determined in one of the counties in our district.
Does it have to be like this?
No.
As I mentioned above, NJ is the ONLY state in the United States that has this county line ballot structure and this particular ballot design is a quirk of a decidedly local nature. I note this to be VERY clear for people reading this diary who might want to rail against the DNC and/or the DCCC about this ballot structure issue. The DNC and DCCC don’t have anything to do with it. The ballot structure and the “county line” in NJ is all in the hands of the local Democratic County Chairperson.
How could the ballot be structured differently in NJ so that every Democratic candidate running in the primary would have a fair playing field?
This is the arguably the best potential ballot structure to ensure fairness.
For those of you reading this diary who do not live in NJ, you may be saying, “Yes, that’s what our ballot looks like in my state.” Well, you’re lucky.
Given that the County Committees held their conventions/mini-conventions and it was clear that party leadership was not going to discount those votes, here was a potential compromise ballot that a coalition of Democratic activists and longtime party faithful asked for this year from the Monmouth County Chairman.
As you can see with this ballot, the county party still would note their endorsement with the endorsed candidate(s) getting some sort of designation, like an asterisk, or first spot on the list, or some other sort of preferential notation. As noted above, this was presented to the County Chairman by a group of dedicated Democrats — it was rejected.
I would argue that it is because of this kind of heavy-handed influence that connected party people have over this ballot process that voter turnout is so abysmal in NJ and why we are considered the most politically corrupt state in the union. Registered rank and file voters simply don’t trust NJ’s political machines and the politicians they churn out. As Democrats, we can and should be demanding better within our party in terms of this process. We must lead on this issue and we must walk our talk on truly valuing a democratic voting process.
If you are interested, I walk through some of these ideas on how we can do this as Democrats in my interview last week with Sam Seder from Ring of Fire radio.
Part 1 with Sam Seder:
Part 2 with Sam Seder:
I look forward to reading your questions and comments.
Peace, JWK
Jim Keady, Candidate, United States House of Representatives, NJ04
#Keady4Congress
jimkeady.com