What's Tammy Murphy's flex? Bergen County's Democratic machine delivered a win | Stile

It took one of Gov. Phil Murphy’s top $280,000-a-year patronage hires to save his wife’s bid for the U.S. Senate on Monday night.

Paul Juliano steered the wobbly Tammy Murphy campaign away from a political abyss with a show of force at the Bergen County Democratic convention, with 738 votes, or 64% of the vote, to 419 votes, or 36%, for her chief rival, Rep. Andy Kim, D-Burlington, who has waged a surprising, buck-the-machine campaign.

A loss for Murphy on Monday night would have crippled her campaign after a string of losses — although she was awarded the line in Union and Passaic counties through closed-door meetings among top party leaders.

But the victory now means Murphy will be granted the coveted line, or preferred ballot position with other county-organization-blessed candidates, in the June 4 primary. With some rare exceptions, the candidates who win the line coast to victory.

What does this mean for Tammy Murphy?

The outcome has much bigger implications for Murphy, whose campaign has been battered by accusations of nepotism and shadowed by her long service to the Republican Party as a donor before she formally became a Democrat in 2014.

She suffered a string of losses in recent weeks at county conventions where committee members could cast ballots in secret, including a humiliating loss in Monmouth County, where the Murphys have lived for 25 years. The rap on Tammy Murphy was that she could win endorsements only in closed-door counties, where the vote was preordained by the powerful chairman and the rank and file did not cast their votes.

But now Murphy can now claim that she defeated her chief rival, the upstart Kim, in a secret ballot race in Bergen fair and square. Still, to many of Kim’s supporters, it had the feel of a banana republic election, padded with “replacement” votes, “bonus” votes allotted to each town based on past performance, and county committee members afraid to risk their county jobs.

Murphy was undeterred by the criticism.

“We're all dealing with the same rules," she said. “I think that if the rules change and we have reform, that's one thing, but for right now, we're on the same together.”

How did Andy Kim react?

Kim, for his part, said the Bergen contest was not a “fair fight” and accused Juliano of putting his political muscle behind the first lady’s effort. He noted how Juliano swiftly endorsed Murphy within days of her announcement. He also said Juliano never gave him an audience but held “multiple events” on Murphy's behalf.

“But, look, I wanted to show and come here say ‘Look, I'm not scared. I'm not scared of the machine,'" he said to reporters inside the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 164 hall in Paramus. “And over 400 people also said that they're not scared of the machine.”

How the vote split: Tammy Murphy beats Andy Kim for the Bergen County Democratic Party line

And yet, the machine flexed its muscle, which was always central to the Tammy Murphy strategy, and on Monday, the Bergen machine operated with more efficiency than an NJ Transit train at rush hour. The machine gave her the institutional advantages that compensate for her shortcomings as a candidate.

Now the victory will most likely calm the nerves of other county bosses, who are facing an organic, angry backlash at New Jersey’s archaic line system, a vestige of Tammany Hall-style politics in the only state in the country that uses such ballot designs.

Will the fight against the line succeed?

The Kim insurgency is being fueled by a long-festering anger among the party’s grassroots about the power — and undemocratic role — of the line.

Grassroots groups and good government activists have been crusading against the system, a tool that powerful county bosses wield to protect incumbents and scare away challengers.

But the county line balloting extends its influence to Trenton, where the Legislature is packed with county-machine-groomed candidates, and to the workplace at the county offices, where many owe their allegiance to the local party and are loath to put their jobs at risk by defying the wishes of the county chairman come endorsement time. Public employees wearing jackets bearing their police and fire union logos also milled through the crowd of delegates wearing "Tammy" stickers, a show of Bergen governmental force.

More Charlie Stile: Can Tammy Murphy shut down Kim-mentum with Bergen Democrats' blessing?

Kim has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to abolish the line, and a hearing is scheduled for March 18. The suit poses a wild card for the election — a ruling that strikes down the system as unconstitutional could completely upend it before the primary.

Kim, buoyed by one independent poll giving him a 12-point lead over Murphy, wants to replace the line with a block ballot system in which candidates for each office are grouped together.

Some of Kim's supporters said they didn’t know much about the power of the line until this year. The education by campaign has been eye-opening. And they find the system appalling and anti-democratic.

“The voters should have the votes, and it shouldn’t be determined by the New Jersey ballot line system, which the Murphy’s are taking advantage of, by funneling enormous money into this campaign," said Lauren Dayton, a Kim supporter and a delegate from Tenafly.

“Just look at that truck," she said, pointing to a nearby vehicle with an electronic panel display of Tammy Murphy.

Anger with Juliano

Other Kim allies vented their fury at Juliano, the executive director of the New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority, who was hired with Murphy’s blessing. Many saw Juliano as doing the bidding of Team Murphy. His endorsement and the pressure he brought to bear on municipal chairs was an expression of loyalty to the boss, not to the democratic process, they argued.

“He's being paid, and so he's gonna bow and scrape to Murphy," said Sharon Mosenkis, 78, a longtime Fair Lawn resident who stood at the driveway entrance to the union hall with a Kim sign.

Juliano denied that he put his thumb on the scale for Tammy Murphy. He acknowledged reaching out to the municipal chairmen to tell them where he stood and why, but he said he did not pressure them to vote for the first lady.

Charlie Stile is a veteran New Jersey political columnist. For unlimited access to his unique insights into New Jersey’s political power structure and his powerful watchdog work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: stile@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Tammy Murphy Bergen County Democratic convention win a major flex