The top two candidates in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate took part in a first debate Sunday. U.S. Rep. Andy Kim of the 3rd Congressional District and first Lady Tammy Murphy spent much of the 90-minute virtual face-off politely skewering each other over political procedures and past Republican connections — each insisting it disqualified the other from properly representing New Jersey Democrats in the Senate.
“I worry about the record of the first lady. Not only was she a registered Republican voter in every single primary through the Obama administration, but she donated six figures to Republican candidates,” Kim said. “I don’t feel confident in terms of what her positions are.”
“With respect to the Republican party — the Republican party left me. There was no road left,” Murphy replied. “My opponent has sided with the Trump administration and the Republicans so many times. Please check his record, if you don’t believe me.”
Murphy said she’s donated a lot more money to Democrats and called out Kim’s procedural vote on a Republican border bill. But the congressman said he voted to impeach Donald Trump twice.
Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, served as a debate panelist. He said both candidates back basic Democratic values like gun control and abortion rights.
“I think the differences in this race are fundamentally political, they are fundamentally questions of difference in personality, differences of approach,” Rasmussen said.
The debate was sponsored by the New Jersey Globe, On New Jersey and the Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics.
Nowhere is the battle more fierce than over the question of Tammy Murphy’s benefiting from the political influence of her husband, Gov. Phil Murphy, to gain access to the advantageous county line set by party bosses on primary ballots in 19 of New Jersey’s 21 counties. Kim called it unfair, and asked Murphy if she would share the line in all 19 counties where it’s baked into the ballot. But Murphy said they are all working within the current system.
The issue flared again post-debate, when Kim said the governor is trying to help his wife by leaning on Burlington County Democrats — who are likely to give favorite-son Kim that coveted county line during their upcoming convention.
“The governor’s making phone calls to people in my county trying to pressure people into having a shared line at the convention. And I find that ridiculous and frankly repulsive,” Kim said.
Murphy’s campaign retorted that that was not true. “In his desperate attempt to secure the same county lines he endlessly fundraises off of abolishing, Congressman Kim is seeing ghosts around every corner.”
Two progressive candidates — Larry Hamm and Patricia Campos-Medina — failed to qualify for the debate. The incumbent — indicted Sen Bob Menendez — didn’t reply to the debate invitation.
