April 8, 2024 | In the News
The party line, a routine fixture of New Jersey primaries for nearly 80 years, appears to be doomed to the dustbin of Garden State political history. But major questions now loom: Will the demise of this quirky, only-in-New Jersey ballot feature truly drain the power...
April 5, 2024 | News
Report Release: Resilience Through Functionality: Outcome-Driven Quantification Approach with Stakeholders-Based Calibration Read Report By Michel C. Boufadel, Ph.D., P.E. (New Jersey Institute of Technology), Firas Gerges, Ph.D. (Princeton University), Hani Nassif,...
April 4, 2024 | In the News
New Jersey would spend $250 million in taxpayer funds for students to attend private schools under new legislation that public school advocates are bashing as an ill-disguised effort to create a voucher program here. The bill would give residents a tax break for...
April 4, 2024 | In the News
Mass layoffs — 4,621 positions — are in store for New Jersey so far in 2024, according to public filings. You can check the exact layoffs on our database, which is browsable by topic, location and keyword. The layoffs include 2,774 job cuts announced in 2023 for this...
April 4, 2024 | In the News
For decades, the ballot-line format has been a fundamental element of New Jersey’s primary elections across both parties. All of New Jersey, except for Sussex and Salem counties, currently use this format. Though there are slight variations by county, they’re best...
April 3, 2024 | In the News
As the court stood firm on its ruling to end the “county-line” ballot system for this year’s Democratic primary, one candidate for the party’s nomination in the House’s 8th District stepped up his arguments against the line. Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla was one of...
April 2, 2024 | News, Research, Publications, and Reports
The Heldrich Center is pleased to release “New Jersey’s Teacher Workforce Landscape: 2024 Annual Report,” the first in a series of annual reports examining the teacher workforce in New Jersey. This report uses data from the New Jersey Statewide Data...
April 2, 2024 | In the News
A political earthquake just took place in New Jersey. The state’s powerful political machines, which have dominated Garden State politics and dictated its policies for much of the last century, lost their most potent tool — the “county line” primary ballot....
April 1, 2024 | In the News
New Jersey moved a step closer last week toward overhauling its unique-in-the-nation election ballots, in a decision that could reshape party politics in the state for years to come. But not — at least not immediately — for both major parties. On Saturday, the federal...
April 1, 2024 | In the News
It’s called the “county line” — and it’s been the stuff of backroom Jersey politics that allowed party bosses to play an outsized role for decades in determining the winners and losers on election day. Now, a federal judge may have changed all of that with a 49-page...
April 1, 2024 | In the News
There was lots of celebrating in some circles of New Jersey politics this weekend, after a federal judge’s ruling on Friday ending the state’s “county line” voting system. It’s a ballot design system that has ruled New Jersey politics for generations, where...
March 31, 2024 | In the News
New Jersey politics will be turned on its head by Friday’s ruling from a federal judge that guts the power of the county bosses, all sides agree. But what exactly will the demolition of the infamous county line change? Let’s take a look. First, it will open the doors...
March 31, 2024 | In the News
When New Jersey received more than $6.2 billion in pandemic relief funding from the federal government three years ago, major projects like eviction and homelessness prevention programs and small-business grants topped the list of programs to receive benefits. But not...
March 30, 2024 | In the News
A lawyer representing county clerks in New Jersey has requested that a judge delay his landmark decision of scrapping the state’s county-line ballot design, a system that critics say has given tremendous weight to establishment candidates at the expense of outsiders....
March 30, 2024 | In the News
Princeton, NJ – Two Princeton residents and academicians – Julia Sass Rubin of Rutgers and Princeton University’s Sam Wang – were among the experts quoted in the landmark decision regarding the “county line” ballot design handed down March 29 by U.S. District Court...
March 30, 2024 | In the News
At the very end of his historic 49-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi acknowledged he was setting off a political bomb that would reverberate in New Jersey politics long after the June 4 primary. “The court wishes to make clear that it recognizes the...
March 29, 2024 | In the News
A federal judge has granted an emergency request to force New Jersey to redesign its election ballot before the June primary, upending a longstanding source of electoral power for the state’s Democratic and Republican parties. The ruling, issued on Friday, is expected...
March 29, 2024 | In the News
New Jersey’s unique way of displaying county-endorsed candidates on the ballot has been struck down by a federal judge, after a lawsuit by Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who is running for Senate, and two other Democrats running for Congress, who called the design unfair and...
March 29, 2024 | In the News
Last week, the two leaders in The House of Murphy offered a unified, macro-defense of New Jersey’s county line system, which gave us a two-term governor from Goldman Sachs. It is best summarized this way: Despite all the complaints from grassroots activists and...
March 29, 2024 | In the News
A long-simmering fight over New Jersey’s unique primary ballot design reached a federal courtroom Monday in a case that has the potential to upend not only the state’s tense U.S. Senate race but Garden State politics in general. A judge in U.S. District Court in...
