COLLEEN O’DEA reports for NJ Spotlight
This year’s primary election for seats representing New Jersey in Congress will feature contests that involve either one or both of the major parties in nearly all districts as well as the battle for Democratic U.S. Sen. Cory Booker’s seat.
This year’s primary election for seats representing New Jersey in Congress will feature contests that involve either one or both of the major parties in nearly all districts as well as the battle for Democratic U.S. Sen. Cory Booker’s seat.
What isn’t known now is how and when the primary, typically held on the first Tuesday in June, will take place. State officials are evaluating the situation, given the current state of emergency due to the spread of COVID-19, and are expected to make a decision soon. So far, Gov. Phil Murphy has declined to change the date of the primary, now scheduled for June 2, but he could choose to delay the vote or have it conducted entirely by mail if he thinks the disease will still be a threat in two months.
Murphy already postponed some local and school board elections until May 12 and ordered that all elections by that date be conducted completely by mail-in balloting. Some states, including Pennsylvania and Connecticut, have postponed their primaries until June 2. That traditionally had been the last primary date for the presidential election, which is also this year. But other states have pushed their voting even further back — Louisiana until June 20, for instance, and New York and Kentucky until June 23.
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It is unclear whether New Jersey’s vote will matter in this year’s presidential nominating process. President Donald Trump is unopposed on the Republican side and while both former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are on the Democratic ballot, it would be difficult for Sanders to overcome Biden’s delegate lead. New Jerseyans seeking to go to the parties’ conventions, currently scheduled for over the summer, also filed yesterday.
Booker is back
Regardless of when the election is held, Monday was the deadline to file to run as a Democrat or Republican in the primary. As of 8:45 p.m., the state Division of Elections reported that 55 candidates had filed for the state’s dozen seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and seven are running for Senate, with Cory Booker pivoting back to seeking re-election to a second term after dropping out of the Democratic presidential contest in mid-January.
This year’s filings were complicated by COVID-19. It prompted some county parties to cancel their conventions and vote virtually to endorse candidates. Murphy had changed the filing
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