County Conventions Were All The Rage In Nj. Now Candidates Are Skipping Out.

This time last year, New Jersey’s county conventions were must-watch affairs like Iowa and New Hampshire are in presidential elections.

Then-Rep. Andy Kim was battling first lady Tammy Murphy for Bob Menendez’s Senate seat following his corruption indictment. It was a bruising contest pitting New Jersey’s political machinery against grassroots Democrats — and ultimately led to the collapse of the state’s unique “county line” ballot design, which gave party-backed candidates a better spot on the ballot.

Now many of the candidates running in one of the nation’s premier races for governor are ditching conventions and making direct appeals to primary voters, leaving party bosses on the sidelines.

That isn’t sitting well with some county leaders.

Skipping conventions is a “slap in the organization’s face,” said Union County Republican Chair Carlos Santos, whose county’s convention is next week.

“I know what they're trying to do. They're trying to tear down the party and say, ‘The county party has been corrupt.’ And you know what, some of them have,” Santos said. “I'm going to run a clean, fair convention, and if you're so kind to come participate, it's open to everybody who submitted a letter of intent.”

In past elections, those endorsements at the county level would all but guarantee that a party-blessed candidate would prevail in the primary, causing hopefuls to invest hefty resources for courting party insiders. This time around, many of the gubernatorial candidates are eschewing the events, arguing that their time is better spent on the trail in this new post-line political environment.

There are undoubtedly some benefits to having the backing of a county party. Some of the counties provide valuable resources, like on-the-ground organizing. A win can also establish momentum for the candidates — though conventions are likely not top of mind for voters at this point months before the June primary.

County endorsements also come with the party’s slogan on the ballot, which can indicate to voters who has the party’s support. Still, it’s unclear how influential that is without the so-called line that was in place for a century until now.

The county endorsements do not have the same draw as previous years, given the office block layout of the ballot for the June election, like many other states use. Most counties have already agreed to use that design, though legislation that puts it into law is headed to the governor.

“The fact that so many people are choosing not to go through the process really highlights just how powerful the county line itself is in determining who wins the primary, putting aside all that other stuff,” said Julia Sass Rubin, a Rutgers professor whose research was cited in overturning the line. “The candidates feel like they can afford to do this now. They don't have to drop out if they're not the favorite daughter or son, and they don't have to go through the process of getting endorsed.”

County conventions in this year’s race for governor have been devoid of major surprises: Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli are dominating their respective party’s processes. Many of those wins have come with minimal competition — and in some cases, none at all.

Some candidates are abandoning conventions altogether, like Democratic Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and Republicans Bill Spadea (with the exception of Ocean County, where the chair endorsed him), former state Sen. Ed Durr and state Sen. Jon Bramnick.

Others say they will not partake in conventions that they allege have predetermined outcomes. Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s campaign said he’s “not walking into any diners where I know I’m going to get whacked.” Former Republican Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac asserted he “won't participate in any convention that doesn't use hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots” and urged his opponents to do the same (although most of them have already said they’re not engaging.)

So far, Sherrill has won three conventions: Hunterdon, Mercer (where the chair had endorsed her prior to the convention) and Monmouth. That first convention in Hunterdon had five contenders and ended in a tight race between Sherrill and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, which went to a run-off vote. Her other victories — where only she, Baraka and New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller competed out of the field of six Democratic contenders — had larger margins, particularly in Monmouth, with Baraka coming in second and Spiller in last.

Baraka told POLITICO prior to the conventions that it is important to engage in the events despite other candidates shunning them.

“I think talking to the voters is important, and you can't write the convention, the committee people, off,” Baraka said. “I think they're community folks. They're voters. You know they’re going to vote in the primary, and you can pick some of them off.”

Similarly, Spiller said prior to the conventions that he understands “how frustrating it is” going “into a quote unquote ‘open convention,’ where all of the leaders there have already told you who they're gonna vote for and support.”

“I'm sick and tired of it,” he said. “But that said, I still am going to go into spaces and talk to people.”

Even Fulop, who was the first candidate to say he was not competing at these conventions, hasn’t fully stayed away. The vehemently anti-machine candidate has shown up to the events to hand out letters explaining his rationale for not taking part.

It’s to be seen if Sherrill can continue her streak into this weekend’s conventions in Atlantic and Burlington, as those South Jersey counties could end up backing former state Senate President Steve Sweeney. Sweeney skipped out on Mercer and Monmouth.

Ciattarelli’s convention season has been even more uncompetitive. He has been the only major GOP candidate to commit to compete in every convention, and has notched wins in Atlantic, Cape May, Monmouth and Passaic without any opposition. Ciattarelli has only had one loss, to Spadea in Ocean County — also unsurprising, given the GOP chair’s endorsement of Spadea last year. Ciattarelli got more than one-third of the vote in Ocean.

A dozen Republican county chairs issued a statement on Wednesday expressing “disappointment in certain gubernatorial candidates” for skipping the conventions, saying it signals that “candidates do not take county committee member's jobs seriously.” They argued that participating in conventions even if candidates anticipate a loss is “what leadership, respect, and coalition-building looks like.”

“As Chairs, we will not stand by as candidates publicly dismiss those who embody volunteerism, party activism, and informed perspective as ‘political insiders’ that are part of an ‘inefficient and outdated process,’” the GOP chairs from Atlantic, Burlington, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Monmouth, Salem, Somerset, Sussex and Union counties wrote.

Without the line, a candidate’s success in county conventions does not necessarily correlate with their showing in the primary. Although Spiller has been coming in last in these conventions, for instance, the sparse polls in the race have shown him as a runner-up — due in part to the high-dollar and aggressive advertising campaign from an outside group supporting him that has boosted his name ID. Many voters are still undecided months out from the June primary.

Atlantic County Democratic Chair Michael Suleiman, who in his personal capacity endorsed Sweeney in late 2023, said it isn’t surprising that candidates are picking and choosing where they compete this year, because “winning the slogan doesn't mean as much as winning the line.”

“We have the longest running convention in the state,” Suleiman said ahead of this weekend’s gathering. “We're proud of that tradition. But even I would concede that our convention doesn't mean as much without the party line.”