Fear and loathing in New Jersey. U.S. Senate race featuring governor’s wife at a boiling point.

On a chilly Saturday morning last month, a smiling First Lady Tammy Murphy walked into the wooden-floored Portuguese Club of Long Branch, just a few blocks off the beach, where hundreds of Monmouth County Democrats gathered to decide who they’d endorse for U.S. Senate.

As she glad-handed her way through the packed room, greeting rank-and-file voters, so did her husband, Gov. Phil Murphy, the most powerful politician in New Jersey.

Both the governor and his wife appeared in good spirits as they worked the room. And why not? She was considered the race’s favorite heading into the party’s first nominating convention in a state where such events can make or break candidates. And it was on her home turf. Even though chief opponent U.S. Rep. Andy Kim represents a third of the county, the Murphys have lived not far from the old hall for 25 years.

But a funny thing happened on Tammy Murphy’s way to her coronation as the Democrats’ replacement for indicted U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez in the June primary.

After a secret ballot, Monmouth voters went for Kim, and it wasn’t close. When the results were announced, the room was stunned. And just like that, the mood turned. Murphy walked over to the three-term congressman and shook his hand. Then she quickly left.

Since then, nothing has been the same in what is now considered one of the hottest primaries in the nation.

With a new narrative that the seemingly invincible first lady is in for a real race, there is real fear Gov. Murphy and party leaders could punish party members who openly support Kim over his wife, Democrats told NJ Advance Media, which interviewed more than three dozen local officials, delegates, political insiders, and experts over the past three frenetic weeks.

One Monmouth County Democratic official who backed Kim said it “feels like we’re talking about the mafia.”

Veteran environmentalist Jeff Tittel agrees.

“I’ve heard people say: This is like Tony Soprano having a sitdown. You don’t know if you’re be gonna hugged or shot,” joked Tittel, a one-time supporter turned critic of the Murphy administration. “Trenton is really like fear city.”

“But underneath, there is this anger and rebellion boiling more toward the surface.”

It could all come to a head Monday night, when another secret Democratic ballot is held, this time in Bergen County, New Jersey’s most populous county.

While nobody said they were directly threatened, many stress there is deep concern because Murphy holds so much power over state government jobs, appointments, and what dollars are doled out from the state budget. Several local officials and party delegates say the worry is their town could lose state aid or they could jeopardize their government job or business they do with the state if they don’t publicly back the first lady.

And the incentive also applies to the powerful: The Democratic chairs of five counties representing more than 1 million Democrats hold jobs linked to the state.

Kim’s campaign and other critics allege that county leaders have maneuvered to benefit Tammy Murphy, including making sure some county votes are not secret, so all can see who votes for whom. The interviews with Democrats also found the fear has fostered a level of loathing from some against the Murphy campaign.

Murphy’s campaign and her supporters have steadfastly pushed back, saying the governor has not strong-armed anyone, Tammy Murphy is working hard to reach voters on her own accord and with her own record, and the whole argument about nepotism in the race is colored by sexism. Some insiders say concerns of retribution are overblown and accuse Kim’s campaign of playing victim.

“I think the fact she’s married to the governor really has nothing to do with it,” former Flemington Mayor Betsy Driver said of Tammy Murphy, who is vying to become New Jersey’s first-ever female U.S. senator. “She’s a qualified candidate. When somebody said being a wife is not a qualification, I wonder if they would say the same if it was the husband of a female governor.”

‘The machine is very careful’

Other spouses of top elected officials have run for office before. See: Clinton, Hillary.

It’s even happened in New Jersey, where former First Lady Helen Stevenson Meyner served two terms in the U.S. House more than a decade after her husband, Robert Meyner, ended his years as governor in 1962.

What makes this different is Phil Murphy is a sitting governor and a powerful one at that, with the ability to appoint people to countless government posts and overseeing a $55.9 billion state budget. The primary election comes just before Murphy and lawmakers must finalize a new budget by July. He also has two years left in his term.

On top of that is the state’s long-debated “county line“ system, in which party leaders hold great influence over primaries. Under this only-in-Jersey setup, candidates backed by the county party are bracketed together on the primary ballot, while others are listed to the side. That, critics say, makes it easier for voters to simply vote down the line for the endorsed candidates and helps keep party bosses, machine politics, and incumbents in power.

The line is considered crucial to Murphy, a first-time candidate who quickly received the backing of many of the state’s top Democrats, including eight county party chairs who represent more than half of the state’s registered Democratic voters. It’s a big reason why Kim has been portrayed as an underdog despite registering a double-digit lead in a poll last month.

Whoever emerges from the primary as the Democratic nominee is favored in November’s general election, in large part because Republican hasn’t won a U.S. Senate seat in New Jersey in 52 years.

“Spouses of a governor would have advantages that exist in every state,” said Henal Patel, director of the Democracy and Justice Program at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. “In New Jersey, you have this additional, unique problem.”

Critics note many of the top county party leaders who help decide the line have extra reason to push for Murphy because they hold jobs connected to state or local government:

• LeRoy Jones, chair of both the state Democratic Party and the party in Essex County, home to the most Democratic voters in New Jersey, is a registered lobbyist.
• Paul Juliano, chair of the Bergen County party, was appointed by Murphy to a $280,000-a-year state job as chief executive of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority.
• Kevin McCabe, chair of the Middlesex County party, is also a lobbyist and was re-nominated by Murphy to the board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
• John Currie, chair of the Passaic County party, holds a $92,000-a-year job as a consultant to the county’s Board of Social Services.
• Peg Schaffer, chair of the Somerset County party, runs a politically connected law firm and in January benefitted from a law Murphy signed that could help her continue to represent clients in the cannabis industry despite holding a post on the Sports and Exposition Authority.

Julia Sass Rubin, a Rutgers University professor, found in a recent study the county line gave congressional candidates in New Jersey an advantage of up to 38 percentage points.

“When you give a small number of people with that amount of power, you’re opening up for corruption,” Rubin said.

Jones, Juliano, and Currie did not return messages seeking comment. McCabe declined comment.

George Norcross III, a veteran Democratic powerbroker from Camden, is not a county party chair but holds vast influence over South Jersey politics. An insurance executive, Norcross is chairman of the board of trustees of Cooper Health System and Cooper University Hospital, which has received millions in grants from the state. Camden County’s Democratic chairman endorsed Murphy the day after she announced her campaign, though Norcross — who has feuded with the governor in the past — has not publicly commented on the first lady’s candidacy.

Schaffer, who is also vice chair of the state party, said “while a part of my law practice may require some interaction with state agencies, it is at arm’s length and not impacted by my relationship with any office holder.”

“My endorsement, however, results from Tammy’s relationship to Somerset where she has been ubiquitous for the last decade, my belief that she will make the most difference in the Senate due to her many relationships with prominent members, and that it is high time we sent a woman to that chamber,” Schaffer said. “She is eminently qualified. Her path to this office is non-traditional, but so too was Bradley’s, Lautenberg’s, Corzine’s, and Hillary’s.”

Murphy’s office did not return messages seeking comment for this story. But shortly after his wife entered the race in November, Gov. Murphy rejected concerns about nepotism, saying he was “not making any deals” on her behalf and that she will “earn this on her own back and not on my back.”

Kim filed a federal lawsuit last week seeking to end the county line, claiming it leads to voters being “cynically manipulated“ and saying Murphy is “weaponizing“ the setup. Murphy’s campaign called the suit a “sad hypocritical stunt,“ noting Kim ran on the line in his three congressional campaigns and is seeking lines in this election, while Murphy herself has argued “we are all running in the same system” and she is “honored” to have the support of seasoned party leaders who have worked to improve the state.

After the first primary debate two weeks ago, Kim said the first lady and governor made phone calls putting a “tremendous amount of pressure” on delegates in Burlington County, his home turf, for the two candidates to share the line there.

”I thought he said she was gonna earn this on her own,” Kim said.

Alex Altman, a Murphy campaign spokeswoman, denied the accusation, saying Kim “wants his supporters seeing ghosts around every corner.”

Chad Coleman, a Bergen County Democratic committee member from Tenafly and a Kim supporter, said he has not felt personally pressured, noting he doesn’t hold public job and isn’t a candidate for elected office. But he agreed people are afraid to publicly support Kim.

“Why would they risk it? This is writ large,” Coleman said. “The machine is very careful. They’re doing things by the book, but the book is stacked.”

Patricia Campos-Medina, who along with Lawrence Hamm is a long-shot candidate in the primary, said she frequently hears the same thing when she tries to line up support.

“‘I like you, I think you have a great message. But we don’t want to upset the governor. We’re waiting for the next budget. We need to negotiate the next budget.’ ‘I am a lobbyist, I can’t put my access to the governor at risk.’ Those are real things I have heard,” Campos-Medina said.

The situation is heightened in Bergen, where many of the delegates hold public jobs, said James Janakat, who has served as chair of East Rutherford’s Democratic Party.

“At some point, everyone who has their jobs had to get their blessing from the party apparatus,” Janakat said. “Everyone wants to show how loyal they are and how appreciative they are.”

Several officials and party delegates declined to speak on the record, noting they were nervous the governor or party may find out.

In Monmouth County, Ocean Mayor John Napolitani said he received two phone calls from the governor seeking his support. He said he declined, noting he wanted to stay neutral in the race.

Napolitani was, however, surprised to see his name show up in a Murphy campaign press release listing endorsements from officials in Monmouth County.

“It’s no big deal,” the mayor said. “It is what it is.”

Murphy’s campaign said the list was triple-checked and he was entitled to a change of heart.

Privately, some top Democrats said they backed the first lady because they knew her better than Kim. Murphy is a prolific fundraiser and has pushed her own initiatives as first lady, including on maternal health and climate change. Six of Kim’s Democratic colleagues in New Jersey’s U.S. House delegation endorsed Murphy.

State Sen. Troy Singleton, D-Burlington, who has publicly endorsed Kim, recently called for an end to the county line but stressed the governor “has never threatened me one day in his life to do anything.”

Those who support Tammy Murphy say the criticism she faces is unfair, noting every statewide candidate tries to win support from county leaders. Clinton Mayor Janice Kovach also said the governor has “never shown, to me, that he is vindictive, that if you’re not on his side, you won’t get what you want.”

”If people are afraid, they should take a long, hard look,” Kovach added. “If you’re working hard for your community, they’re gonna work to help you. (The governor) was making phone calls on behalf of a candidate. He’s done that for all of us.”

Funny business?

Kim has pointed to a few cases in which he believes party leaders sought to undermine his candidacy.

He said Murphy appeared alongside the Bergen County chair to speak to voters in January, but when he asked for a similar courtesy, he was given a date of March 7 — three days after the county’s convention.

“What good is that?” Kim asked.

A Bergen County Democratic Party official said it was a local group that meets regularly but is not officially a part of the party. The official said the party’s goal is to make sure Monday’s convention is done “fairly and transparently and by the book.”

Kim hosted his own town hall in Ridgewood last month. Supporters noted party officials scheduled a fundraiser for a local official the same night, which diverted Democrats away from him.

In Hunterdon County, where Kim was expected to win, party chairwoman Arlene Quinones Perez proposed a last-minute rule change that would have allowed Kim and Murphy to share the line there. But angry delegates voted it down, with some cursing and charging it was a maneuver to help Murphy. (Perez argued that Kim was the one who suggested sharing lines in the race, though Kim said he would do it only in every county, not some). Kim won Hunterdon’s backing.

On Thursday, Schaffer sent a letter to Somerset delegates urging them to back Murphy because she would be “a force in the Senate,” saying the party has helped people get “responsible, rewarding government jobs, and rebutting the “anti-organization, anti-county line” sentiment in the race. Schaffer told Politico she rejected that this is political patronage and said the county party is “well equipped to suggest people for positions.”

The primary’s first three conventions — Monmouth, Burlington, and Hunterdon, all won by Kim — were conducted via secret ballot in which party leaders do not know which candidate members supported. But the process varies by county, and many of the upcoming decisions on the county line are either made privately by party municipal chairs, or, in the case of Middlesex and Somerset counties, with a raised-hand vote in front of party leaders.

In Somerset, some officials and delegates are openly pushing for a secret ballot.

In Bergen, the vote will be a secret but paper ballot rather than a machine vote. There, critics say, the fear is this could reveal Kim supporters because they might be more likely to shield their ballots.

Sources said many people told the Murphys at the Monmouth convention they would support the first lady but didn’t vote that way in the privacy of the booth. One Democratic official said the governor made dozens of phone calls to lobby delegates there and the Murphys were optimistic they would win easily. A Murphy source denied this, saying it was uncertain because Kim represented several large towns in the county.

Shortly after her Monmouth convention loss, Murphy held a meeting at her family’s home in Middletown with a handful of county party chairs to discuss the campaign. A few weeks later, Murphy parted ways with her campaign manager. This past week, she released her first television ad, targeting the National Rifle Association.

On Friday, Tammy Murphy adviser Daniel Bryan, who previously worked for the governor, announced the campaign’s account on social media site X had been suspended, citing “bullying and hostility” from the Kim campaign and its supporters. It came after a parody account criticizing Tammy Murphy took over a former campaign handle.

In response, Lizzie K. Foley, who helped found the progressive group NJ 11th For Change and is a vocal Murphy critic on social media, said calling out the first lady is “part of the democratic process.” (NJ 11th For Change notes it does not endorse any candidates before the primary.)

Kim’s campaign replied that one of its goals is “rebuilding trust“ and urged everyone to be “careful with fake accounts.”

For her part, Murphy has routinely downplayed concerns about nepotism and how her husband’s power helps her, citing her experience as a fundraiser and surrogate to the governor.

“I’ve been on the ground for the last eight years, literally building the party,” Murphy said. “I’ve showed up to all the red counties where they needed help. I showed up canvassing. I was knocking on doors. I was getting out the vote. I’m surrogating. I’m raising money. I’ve done it. All of these people, they’re in my rolodex. No one else is doing this for me.”

“Besides that, I would say to you: My husband has been my husband. He’s been my partner for over 30 years. He knows me better than anybody else. He’s doing probably less than he would be able to do if he were a normal spouse. So the whole nepotism piece is crazy to me.”

An uprising?

A former Goldman Sachs executive and diplomat who never held elected office, Phil Murphy was boosted by New Jersey’s party-line political system when he won the governorship in 2017, securing the support of county party leaders to jump over more seasoned politicians. Murphy had donated hundreds of thousands from his own fortune to local parties and officials in the run up to his campaign.

To many, it was natural his wife would use the same model when she launched her Senate bid in the wake of the charges against Menendez, who has not said if he will run for re-election despite his poll numbers plummeting.

Dan Cassino, a pollster at Fairleigh Dickinson University, said New Jersey doesn’t usually have competitive primaries because both parties have been “very good at maintaining discipline” by “picking candidates and presenting them to voters.” He argues that can be good because they “tend to get relatively moderate candidates ... the party believes are the most electable.”

But he said the fight over the line has blown up in this race because Kim and Tammy Murphy have similar policy stances. He said because Murphy is linked to the party establishment, Kim is perceived as the more liberal candidate — a perception he notes could be seen as “unfair” to the first lady.

“There’s been this anger boiling among progressives since 2018,” Cassino said. “It is boiling over at this point.”

Former U.S. Rep. Tom Malinowski, who has endorsed Kim, said the party changed “and the party leaders didn’t notice” after the blue wave of 2018, when he, Kim, and several other Democrats were swept into office in then-President Donald Trump’s midterms.

“Andy is appealing to the Democratic party as it currently exists in New Jersey,” Malinowski said. “The first lady is running a race designed to appeal to the party as it existed 10 years ago.”

Kim — who gained national attention for helping clean up the U.S. Capitol after the Jan. 6 riot — entered the race the day after Menendez was indicted in September. He said he was “so fed up with the broken politics and some of that manifested in Sen. Menendez, but it was also about the system that protected him so long.”

“The race took a turn, but it’s the same thing,” Kim said. “It should be about public service. But what I’ve experienced is: So much of it unfortunately is about control.”

Ross Baker, a former Rutgers professor, called this “a serious grassroots uprising in New Jersey that is potentially the greatest threat to county party leadership in recent state history.”

“But it might require a greater surge in the northern counties where party bosses are more entrenched to be a full-on tidal wave,” Baker said.

A few notable New Jersey candidates have beaten the line.

In 1978, Gov. Brendan Byrne helped his state treasurer, Richard Leone, get the endorsement for U.S. Senate in several counties. But former basketball star Bill Bradley won the nomination.

Former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler won the Republican nod over party-backed Robert Franks in the 2001 race for governor. Schundler said it helps that Kim has established relationships.

“Being on the line is better than not being on the line, but it doesn’t mean it’s prohibitively advantageous,” Schundler said. “It’s not something that can’t be overcome.”

Schundler had a strong core of backers who were able to find him on the ballot. Kim would have to accomplish that if Murphy wins the lion’s share of county endorsements.

One insider said he expects Murphy to “right the ship” and Kim’s momentum to stall in the coming weeks with the bigger counties doling out their lines, including Camden, Essex, and Middlesex.

Murphy on Saturday picked up the endorsement of Union County Democrats, who use a screening committee of municipal party chairs to bestow their line.

Altman, the campaign’s spokeswoman, said the first lady “moves forward continuing to gain momentum“ and “respects the results when the county lines and endorsements don’t go her way, rather than make excuses and attack fellow Democrats.”

Kim won Sussex on Saturday and Warren on Sunday. Both counties have a small number of Democrats.

The congressman said the Sussex victory was “another example of the energy we feel across the state when people get a real choice in their democracy” and “we need to have more open conventions with secret ballots where people are free to vote without pressure or intimidation.”

The biggest upcoming convention is Monday evening in Bergen County. Cassino said it will be a “test of the first lady’s strength.”

“She’s like Thanos. She is inevitable. ‘You can get on board or you can get run over.’ That traditionally has been the way New Jersey primaries go,” he said. “Whenever we see a loss in a contested convention, that does cut into that narrative.”

NJ Advance Media staff writer Ted Sherman and Research Editor Vinessa Erminio contributed to this report.

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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X at @johnsb01.