NYC NOW - February 12, 2024 Evening Roundup

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

The National Weather Service is warning New Yorkers to brace for significant snowfall and gusty winds as a nor-easter moves in early Tuesday. Plus, we head to New Jersey where WNYC’s Nancy Solomon spotlights key endorsements for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Bob Menendez.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jene Pierre. Here comes some snow. The National Weather Service is warning New Yorkers to brace for significant snowfall and gusty winds. As a nor'easter moves in early Tuesday, the storm could bring five to eight inches of snow to the city and surrounding areas. Meteorologist Brian Ramsey says the heaviest snowfall is expected during your morning commute. Much of the morning on Tuesday is the time to avoid for the heaviest snow. Once you get into the afternoon, hopefully the plows are out and doing good and the roads are salt as well.

The city has issued a travel advisory from Monday night into Tuesday. Winds are expected to gust up to 25 to 40 miles per hour with minor to moderate coastal flooding possible on Long Island. Current forecast called for the storm to taper off around 6 in the evening, though the snow could stay on the ground until later in the week. with overnight temperatures expected to hover around freezing. New Jersey Representative Andy Kim's U.S. Senate campaign got a boost over the weekend when he beat First Lady Tammy Murphy at a party convention in Monmouth County.

After the break, we'll take a look at the importance of endorsements from county chairs. It's something that happens only in New Jersey. Stay close. The New Jersey Democratic primary to fill Bob Menendez's Senate seat is shaping up to be a pitched battle between establishment Democrats and progressives. First Lady Tammy Murphy and Congressmember Andy Kim are the frontrunners in the race. Kim won over rank and file members of the Mamath County Democratic Committee at their convention on Saturday, winning their endorsement and giving him a significant advantage on primary ballots

in that county. Kim says the vote shows he has popular support that's being undermined by early decisions by the party bosses to support the governor's wife. I want to be given a fair chance at this, and that's something that I didn't get in a lot of other counties, especially some of those up north. So I hope this sends a very clear signal to those counties that, again, everything's in play. But in many counties, Tammy Murphy will give favorite placement on ballots, with a decision made by just a few party bosses. And as WMYC's Nancy Solomon reports, that's calling attention to an issue with democracy.

in the Garden State. In the beginning, it took six days to create heaven and earth, and on the seventh, God rested. Tammy Murphy did God one better. She only needed five days after her announcement to run for the U.S. Senate to rack up eight endorsements from the all-important party bosses

who chair county political committees. Those eight represent two-thirds of all Democratic voters in the state. All the county chairs, you know, tripped over themselves to endorse Tammy Murph. Robert Holsappell is a plumber from Highland Park and an elected member of the Middlesex County Democratic Organization. I feel like the governor put our chair in a difficult position where, you know, he relies on the governor, you know, for funding and support in elections here at the county level. So, of course, he has to endorse his wife. County machine endorsements play an outsized role in New Jersey politics.

It's the only state in the country that groups candidates on the primary ballot. into slates based on those endorsements. This year, President Biden will most likely be at the top. It's called the county line, and research shows it gives candidates a huge advantage, dozens of percentage points in some cases. Hulseappel says most voters are unaware that the primary choice is, effectively, being made for them. They just think they're being loyal Democrats. You know, this isn't a, you know, a football game.

This is our democracy. You know, people understand rules of football better than they understand election law. Defenders of the endorsements and the county line, including Governor Phil Murphy, say party leaders are best positioned to choose candidates. First of all, bosses, I hate that word. That's just not, that's not the reality. These folks who are chairs have had decades of experience, and why you would ignore that experience is beyond me.

The governor also says the process is democratic because many county party organizations hold conventions that vote on the endorsements. But that isn't true in most of the counties, including some of the most powerful ones with the largest number of Democrats that can sway a statewide primary. To understand the power of the county line,

look no further than Nicholas Charvelotti of Bayonne. He was elected to the state assembly three times, but in 2021, he found himself facing re-election without the Hudson County endorsement. I had first-hand experience of the advantages of being on the line, and, you know, it would have been an uphill battle. It was a long shot. The three-term assemblymen had the power of incumbency, name recognition, and relationships across the district. But Char Vallotti knew it wasn't enough to beat the line, and he dropped out. I've never thought that the way we conduct primary elections is good for the overall democracy in the state.

In Bergen County, a Tenafly City Councilwoman, Lauren Dayton, wanted to run for an open seat in the State Assembly in 2021. She told her county chair, Paul Giuliano, and even though the seat had just opened up, she says he told her no, even after she pushed back. I'm sorry, I'm very confused here. Isn't there a process? And he said, well, we have our candidate picked. And I said, but you don't know what I stand for, and you don't know my qualifications. And he said, well, there's only going to be one seat. Bergen County does hold a convention.

But Dayton says by the time it's held, the choices are made and committee members are afraid to go against the party boss. The party chairman, Giuliano, declined to be interviewed, but provided a written statement. He says the members vote and the county line is awarded based on that vote, not his personal endorsement. In Essex County, I asked Elizabeth Redwine, a member of the Democratic Committee there, how the endorsement decision would be made now that her county chair had publicly endorsed Tammy Murphy. None of this is transparent. I haven't been able to find out. And I'm afraid, honestly, that I'll wake up in this committee that I'm nominally a member of will have endorsed Tammy and that we won't have had a meeting.

We won't have had a vote. I asked Leroy Jones, chairman of the Essex County Democratic Committee, what would happen now that he had made his endorsement public? Jones says he consulted with party leaders in the county. Our senators, our congressmen, our assembly members, our commissioners, and our members. mayors and I stopped there along with the municipal chairs. And it ends there. I mean, now Essex County Democratic Committee is endorsing Tammy Murphy? Well, I just explained to you. I'm not sure what else you're looking for. Well, I just want to be clear that I understand it properly that that... I've talked to everybody. There's, you know, there's been no tremendous pushback and the county

will be endorsing and supporting Tammy Murphy. Jones says that makes the process democratic. But rank and file members from the big five Democratic counties tell me they have no say. I was surprised that one of the first headlines I saw was the Camden County Democratic Committee had endorsed Tammy Murphy. Joe Bouvier is an elected member of that committee. And I thought, wait a minute, I wasn't invited to a vote. I was not invited to a meeting. I wasn't aware that there had been a meeting of the Camden County Democratic Committee. That's because there was no meeting. Bouvier isn't happy about the endorsement of the governor's wife, but he's not surprised either.

In New Jersey, the governor has a lot of say over what state funds trickle down to towns and counties. They rely on money. They rely on projects from the state of New Jersey. And the governor has so much influence. But the county line does have its defenders. Mike Erasmussen, director of the Revevovich Institute for New Jersey. politics at Ryder University says having strong parties can help democracy. We have to have institutions that are places where our conflict can go and get sorted out. And you have a choice between not 300 million voices, but the Republican choice and the Democratic

choice. So parties serve that function in a democracy. They don't always serve it well, but that's what parties are supposed to do. Rasmussen says that's the argument on paper. But he also agrees with critics that they, there's an abuse of the line and a lack of democracy in the largest party organizations. Several former candidates and good government groups have filed a federal lawsuit to end the county line. But that case isn't expected to be resolved before this June's primary in the Senate race,

between Tammy Murphy and Andy Kim. That's WMYC's Nancy Solomon. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.