Today Is Primary Day In New Jersey

New Jersey has 12 congressional districts but, unfortunately, not all of them have primary battles. Primaries are healthy and in many districts the only way to hold entrenched incumbents even vaguely accountable. The only New Jersey incumbents with ProgressivePunch "A" scores are Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12) and Donald Payne (NJ-10). Bill Pascrell, Albio Sires-- each in a super-safe district-- have "D" scores while Donald Norcross, Tom Malinowski, Andy Kim, Mikey Sherrill and Josh Gottheimer, one of the most odious Democrats in the House, all have "F" grades. These are the districts where the incumbent has no primary today:

• NJ-01- Donald Norcross, (New Dem) from the corrupt South Jersey Machine family
• NJ-03- Andy Kim (D)
• NJ-07- Tom Malinowski (New Dem)
• NJ-11- Mike Sherrill (Blue Dog)

Blue America looked at the candidates running-- seriously considered several-- and only endorsed one: Hector Oseguera who is running in the 8th. Please, if you have family or friends in Hudson, Essex and Union counties and in Hoboken, Elizabeth, Weehauken, West New York, Newark, Jersey City, Kearny, Harrison, Belleville and Bayonne call them and ask them to consider voting for Hector today. The other candidate we came closest to endorsing was Will Cunningham in South Jersey. He's in a multi-candidate primary to see which Democrat will take on a Machine/DCCC right-wing sleaze bag, Jeff Van Drew, who has jumped the fence and is now running as a Republican. The would-be Machine/DCCC replacement is another moderate, Brigid Harrison, although Amy Kennedy of the famous political dynasty is said to be ahead. In endorsing Cunningham Sunday, South Jersey's most-read newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer said they " like Cunningham’s support for bold criminal justice reform. Cunningham’s is an inspiring life story-- homeless while a Vineland High School student, he earned a Brown University scholarship. His is a generation whose time has come." He's probably the best-prepared to take on Van Drew and pointed out that "Now is not the time for family dynasties or political machines that disrupt the will of the people."

That's today's biggest media race, although if any of the conservative incumbent Dems lose, it will be a big story. At HuffPo, Daniel Marans picked 3 races to watch today. NJ-02 was first, of course, noting that "Harrison has the backing of some of the same influential Garden State players who anointed Van Drew in 2018. Norcross has not officially endorsed her, but state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a childhood friend and staunch political ally of Norcross’, has given Harrison his blessing. And a super PAC tied to Norcross has spent more than $270,000 on Harrison’s behalf. The support of machine-backed county parties helped secure Harrison preferential real estate at the top of the ballot alongside party incumbents." She's been endorsed by Machine shills Cory Booker and Bob Menendez and most of the state’s Norcross Machine-controlled labor unions.

Marans added that "for the coalition of progressives backing Harrison’s well-funded rival, Amy Kennedy-- a schoolteacher married to former Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D)-- the election is primarily about crippling the South Jersey machine. The ways in which Kennedy is to Harrison’s left on policy are hard to spot, but Kennedy is more critical of the state’s corporate tax break program, which gave more than $1 billion in incentives to Norcross’ businesses, charities and allies. That point of contrast is a key reason why the progressive New Jersey Working Families Alliance, Murphy and two left-leaning labor unions-- the New Jersey Education Association and the Communication Workers of America-- have gotten behind Kennedy’s bid. Norcross’ network has bitterly fought Murphy’s effort to raise taxes on the state’s millionaires, as well as a task force Murphy convened to review the state’s corruption-ridden corporate tax incentive program."

So what about Cunningham? Marans mostly summed it up like this: "Given the criticism of both Kennedy and Harrison-- who are also both white-- there could be a natural opening for Will Cunningham, an openly gay, Black attorney, to emerge as the alternative. Cunningham, who rose from poverty to work as an aide to Booker and as a senior investigator for the late-Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), is running as an unabashed progressive in the mold of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). He supports Medicare for All, tuition-free college and divestment of police budgets in favor of greater social spending. But... he has failed to attract the attention of major progressive groups or the Congressional Black Caucus. That’s partly because of Cunningham’s weak showing in the 2018 primary election, as well as his apparent failure to adequately court progressive stakeholders. Altman of New Jersey Working Families Alliance could not recall hearing from him prior to the group’s endorsement of Kennedy. Kennedy is 'more progressive than Brigid Harrison and she can win,' Altman said."

There is also some residual feeling-- and mistrust-- in the district that Cunningham wasn't a "real" candidate in 2018 and muddied the water so badly for progressive challenger Tanzie Youngblood that she never had a real shot against Van Drew.

Josh Gottheimer and friend

Marans then skipped over to NJ-05 to write about "one of the left's favorite villains," Josh Gottheimer, a Trump-friendly Blue Dog pile of shit. Arati Kreibich is challenging him from the left. As of the June 17 FEC filing deadline he had $8,478,312 in his campaign war chest and she had just $144,562. Indivisible has spent $126,356 trying to bolster Kreibich, while a grifter/scammy conservative operation, Patriot Majority, spent $175,092 trying to help Gottheimer. Kreibich, as well as several other progressive candidates, don't seem capable of putting together winning coalitions or doing what it takes to win other than backing progressive platform ideas. If I lived in the district I would certainly vote for her without hesitation but I wouldn't bet a nickel on her being able to win.

If I were to bet on a long-shot candidate, it would be on Hector Oseguera-- and I did-- and Marans wrote about his race, briefly, to close out his story yesterday.

NJ-8: A New Generation Challenges The Old Guard

It is hard to get worked up one way or another about Rep. Albio Sires, who has represented racially diverse and working-class urban parts of northeast New Jersey since 2006. Sires, a mainstream Democrat, is not a member of any ideological caucus, choosing not to challenge party leadership either from the right or the left.

But Sires, an immigrant from Cuba and former mayor of West New York, is part of a local political machine that local progressives believe has stymied bolder policy changes, as well as the growth of younger leadership more in line with the district’s changing demographic makeup. New Jersey’s 8th Congressional District, which includes the historically heavily Cuban American hub of Union City, is increasingly populated by immigrants from Caribbean and Central American countries.

Hector Oseguera, an attorney and anti-money laundering specialist descended from the latter group of immigrants, is challenging Sires. Oseguera, who volunteered for Sanders in 2016 and Ocasio-Cortez in 2018, is running as a progressive populist committed to eradicating “the injustices imposed by an economy rigged against working-class people.” Unlike Sires, Oseguera would fit in more with the “Squad,” the nickname for the group of outspoken progressive freshman lawmakers that includes Ocasio-Cortez and Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

Oseguera is also part of a slate of progressive local candidates running against a particularly entrenched corner of New Jersey’s famously clannish machine politics. Through a combination of energetic organizing and a bit of luck, Oseguera’s slate will occupy the coveted Column A spot on the ballot in Hudson and Union counties, where most of the district’s residents live, The Intercept reported in May. Many voters instinctively vote Column A, since it is normally real estate reserved for machine candidates.

Oseguera’s odds of victory appear slim. The Intercept’s look at the race is one of the rare bits of national coverage of the primary in New Jersey’s 8th District. And Sires, himself not a prodigious fundraiser, has outspent the challenger by a 10-to-1 margin.

In late June, though, Oseguera picked up the influential endorsement of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance. (In addition to Kennedy, Kreibich and Oseguera, the group is backing the reelection of Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman in New Jersey’s 12th District.)

“In a deep-blue district like the 8th, you have a guy assuming that he was going to be able to sit in that seat for as long as he wants it,” Altman said. “But times are changing in the country. Times are changing in New Jersey.”