Credit: (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

The New Jersey primary election is less than a month away, and while most of the races for the major parties’ legislative nominations are uncontested, some have begun to heat up.

But whether the rhetoric will make much difference is unclear, given the power that party endorsements wield over the choices made by the small number of voters who turn out in elections like this. The state Senate tops the ticket, along with the Assembly. The last time that happened, in 2011, just 363,000 people — 13% of all registered Democrats and Republicans — voted. And while unaffiliated registrants can vote in a primary by declaring for one of the major parties, very few do.

This year, roughly a third of the 40 legislative districts have a contest for at least one Democratic or Republican spot on the November ballot. In districts where candidates are doing little or no campaigning, voters may not know they have a choice until they look at the ballot. When they do see a choice, they are more likely to vote for candidates endorsed by county political parties and given a prime spot on the ballot. A federal lawsuit filed by several unsuccessful primary candidates is seeking to end the practice of bracketing candidates together in the same column or row.

“State legislative primaries are always low turnout affairs, which means that a small group of highly committed supporters can have an outsized impact in them. The name of the game for each candidate in a hotly contested primary will be to turn out their core group of supporters and hope it’s a bigger base than their opponent. That’s why having the support of a county party and its ballot position are so important,” said Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics.

Large number of open seats

Even in districts without primary contests, many voters are likely to see unfamiliar names on the ballot this year for two reasons. A bipartisan commission last year redrew the lines of legislative districts to roughly equalize the population in each district following the decennial census, which moved some towns, or in Newark and Jersey City, neighborhoods, into different districts. And there is an unusually large number of open seats on the ballot this year. The boundary changes moved some lawmakers into different districts and several of them chose not to seek reelection. Factoring in legislators who decided to retire for other reasons, the number of open seats adds up to 21, close to one-fifth of the 120 total seats in the Senate and Assembly.

Some of those open seats have brought the liveliest campaigning so far this season.

Gloves off in the 4th

In the race for the Republican Senate nomination in South Jersey’s 4th District, Gloucester County Commissioner Nick DeSilvio called his opponent Chris Del Borrello, a former Washington Township councilman, a “shady business owner with a history of renting out strippers and backed by Trenton political insiders.” Del Borrello said he had nothing to do with the business, called Tasty Temptations, which closed years ago. The two are also sparring over an endorsement Del Borrello received from a union that often backs Democrats.

Republicans think the GOP can take control of this district from the Democrats for the first time in more than two decades. Del Borello and his running mates Matthew Walker and Amanda Esposito have the backing of the county Republican organizations in Atlantic and Camden counties. The Gloucester GOP has endorsed DeSilvio and his Assembly slate of Denise Gonzalez and Michael Clark. A fifth candidate, John Keating, is also running for the Assembly. Del Borrello and DeSilvio are scheduled to debate May 8 at a forum sponsored by the New Jersey Globe and Save Jersey, a conservative website.

Tempest in the 3rd

Credit: (Screengrab from Facebook)

Both parties are mixing it up in the neighboring 3rd District, which Republican Sen. Edward Durr flipped to the GOP in 2021 in a stunning defeat of then-Senate President Steve Sweeney. Durr recently declined to debate Assemblywoman Beth Sawyer, who is challenging him for the Senate nomination in the district that stretches along the Delaware River from northern Cumberland County through Salem County to southern Gloucester. Durr and Sawyer ran together two years ago, but since have had a falling out. Durr is running with the party’s endorsement, along with the other sitting assemblywoman, Bethanne McCarthy Patrick, and Thomas Tedesco Jr. of Bridgeton. Joseph Collins Jr. of Mickleton is running with Sawyer.

Two full slates of Democrats are battling for the right to run in November and try to retake the district. John Burzichelli, the district’s former assemblyman who was ousted with Sweeney two years ago, is running for Senate on the party line with Gloucester County Commissioner Heather Simmons and Dave Bailey Jr. Opposing them, running under the slogan “The Good Democrats,” are Mario DeSantis for Senate and Tanzie Youngblood and Robert Fitzpatrick. DeSantis and Youngblood have both run for office unsuccessfully in the past.

The 24th gets ugly

In the northwesternmost 24th District, among the most conservative in the state, four Republicans vying for two open Assembly seats have been hurling attacks at one another for weeks. The contest is more contentious than most because in the majority of the district — all of Sussex County — the GOP does not award the party line so both teams are trying to woo these mostly conservative Republicans. Sussex County Commissioner Dawn Fantasia and Chester Township Mayor Mike Inganamort have been endorsed in Morris County, while Warren County Commissioner Jason Sarnoski and Josh Aikens, the school board president in Lafayette, got the line in Warren County. A fifth candidate, Robert Kovic of Sparta, is also running.

In the 26th District based in Morris County, former Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce is part of a team of upstart Republicans looking to unseat incumbent Sen. Joe Pennacchio, Assemblyman Jay Webber and Brian Bergen, an assemblyman in the current 25th District whose hometown was moved into the neighboring 26th. The incumbent team got the party line, but DeCroce, who lost her seat in 2021 after losing the endorsement of the Morris GOP, and running mates Tom Mastrangelo, a Morris County commissioner who has won off-the-line for Senate, and Robert Peluso for the other Assembly seat are campaigning fiercely.

Rasmussen said it has become a trend in New Jersey that the Republican primaries are more contentious than the Democrats’ and it seems to be a battle toward the right.

Big contest in 27th

“Yet again, we find the fireworks are on the Republican side,” he said. “Both parties have divides between their moderate and more extreme elements, but I’d say the Republicans are really the ones who seem to be perpetually fighting for the heart and soul of their party. Of course, there are healthy egos who want to jump into these races, but time and again, the rhetoric you hear is a race to the right — which candidate can lay claim to being more conservative.”

Credit: (NJ Senate Democrats)

The Democratic primary that should be drawing the most interest is in the 27th District, based in Essex County. Sen. Nia Gill’s hometown Montclair was moved from the 34th District she currently represents to the 27th. Rather than back out, Gill, who can be something of a rebel in the Democratic caucus, chose to run against incumbent Richard Codey, who served 14 months as governor and is the most senior member of the Legislature, currently in his 49th year in the State House. Codey and his team — Assemblyman John McKeon and Alixon Collazos-Gill, wife of Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill and no relation to Nia Gill — won the backing of the Essex and Passaic Democratic organizations. Gill is running with Eve Robinson, a member of the Montclair board of education.

For comprehensive election coverage, including information on candidates, voter registration, polling places and key dates, go to our NJ Decides 2023 elections page.