First Lady Tammy Murphy says she is “proud of the overwhelming support” she received from Camden County Democrats at last weekend’s convention.
And that, in a nutshell, tells you why she is unfit to a U.S. Senator. Because the bullies in Camden set up a fake election to hand her the win, one that only Vladimir Putin could love.
And this time, there’s video. It shows five burly white men standing shoulder to shoulder to physically block a determined Latina woman running against Murphy, Patricia Campos-Medina, who wanted only a chance to speak for a few moments, to make her case to the delegates before they voted.
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I bounced this off Julia Sass Rubin, the Rutgers professor who is a leader in the drive to kill the line and has done the definitive research showing that it’s usually decisive in primary campaigns. Is the real problem the line, or the rot in the party that we saw in Camden?
“It’s all of the above, not just the line,” she says.
But the line is at the root of it, she argues. It gives party bosses the power to be dictatorial, should they choose. It puts that temptation within reach.
“As long as the county line exists, it’s not realistic to expect reform,” she says. “It gives them the ability to control outcomes. So, there’s a huge incentive for a few people to take that power.”
Besides, she says, the notion that a small cabal of party elites gets to make this decision is offensive, even if they make good choices. “I don’t want a benevolent dictator telling me who the right candidates are for me,” Sass Rubin says.
This attempt to force Tammy Murphy down voters’ throats reminds us that the leaders of the Democratic Party have lost their way, that their dominance of state politics has corrupted them. And that goes beyond this race. We saw it when they tried to gut the state’s public records law earlier this month, bringing huge crowds to the Statehouse in protest, from lefty activists to the state Chamber of Commerce.
I keep thinking about the Roman dictator, Caligula. He lasted only four years before he was assassinated. This story is in dispute, but some historians say that came soon after he appointed his horse to the Roman Senate.
His arrogance hastened his downfall. Perhaps the bosses of the Democratic Party in New Jersey should give that history a fresh read.