Montclair Republican: GOP Should Unite Against 'The County Line'
MONTCLAIR, NJ — Former state senate candidate Michael Byrne says his Republican peers and fellow Trump supporters should join a battle that many progressive Democrats have been waging in New Jersey: the fight against the so-called “county line.”
Byrne, who chairs the Montclair Republican County Committee, pointed out that he is a supporter of former president Donald Trump and his “America First agenda” – hardly a typical calling card for someone cheering on a Democrat-led legal campaign to kill a controversial balloting layout.
But powerbrokers on both sides of the aisle have been abusing ballot access laws for decades by “bullying their opposition, rigging ballot drawings and arranging primary ballots to prop-up weak candidates who can be controlled,” the former state senate candidate charged Monday.
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And enough is enough, he says.
What is the “party line,” and why do advocates say it’s unfair? Here’s how it works, a Rutgers University professor recently explained:
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“Primary ballots used by the majority of New Jersey voters are organized around a slate of candidates endorsed by either the Democratic or the Republican Party. These slates of candidates are known as the ‘county line’ or the ‘party line.’ Instead of organizing primary ballots around the office being sought and clearly indicating which candidates are running for each position, most counties in New Jersey organize the primary ballots around a slate of party-endorsed candidates. As a result, voters often have a hard time determining which candidates are running for each office, giving a huge advantage to those who land on the county line.”
According to Byrne, other Republican candidates for office should be fighting to get an outdated practice off the books – for their own good.
Byrne said the GOP in New Jersey has been clinging to “deep state anachronisms” that empower party bosses and suppress minority voices.
“It’s time for Republican leaders to unite in killing the county line, which has been the greatest threat to democracy in New Jersey,” he added.
New Jersey’s controversial primary election oddity faces a federal lawsuit that could mean a big change for ballots this year. At the helm of the effort are three Democratic Party candidates: U.S. Rep. Andy Kim, Carolyn Rush and Sarah Schoengood.
Kim is one of several candidates vying to replace embattled U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez in this year’s Senate race. He is competing for the Democratic Party nomination. Rush is running for a House seat in New Jersey’s 2nd District, and Schoengood is running to succeed Kim in the 3rd District.
Other New Jersey candidates currently seeking the Democratic nod for U.S. Senate include Tammy Murphy, Kevin Cupples, Patrick Merrill, Patricia Campos-Medina and Lawrence Hamm.
Kim isn’t the only Democratic candidate in this year’s Senate race to make a demand for “fair ballot design” in New Jersey. Earlier this month, he joined Campos-Medina and Hamm – a Montclair resident – to call for an end to the Party Line.
Candidates seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in New Jersey include Curtis Bashaw, Michael Estrada, Albert Harshaw, Justin Murphy, Christine Serrano-Glassner and Alex Zdan. Additional candidates include Christina Khalil (Green Party of NJ) and Nick Carducci (Independent).
Byrne accused one GOP hopeful – Bashaw – of trying to “benefit from the Trump name” in a hotly contested primary election against several “genuinely pro-Trump, America First candidates.”
And it’s a good example of why the county line needs to go, he added.
“Certain Republican leaders are trying to fool voters into thinking Bashaw is a pro-Trump candidate merely because he will be bracketed with Trump on the ballot,” Byrne said. “But the truth is, without Trump’s name and without the county line, Bashaw would have no chance of winning a Republican primary.”
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