NYC NOW - March 22, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: March 22, 2024

It won’t just be candidates on the ballot this November. WNYC’s Brigid Bergin reports on growing support for a new ballot initiative called the New York Equal Rights Amendment. Meanwhile, it’s expected to be windy and rainy on Saturday, but the MTA says they’re ready to address all transit issues. Also, attorneys from LatinoJustice, a nonprofit civil rights law firm, are asking the state’s highest court to weigh in on New York City’s non-citizen voting law. Finally, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez has once again been charged with federal corruption. The primary election to replace him is the first competitive senate race the state has seen in decades. Governor Phil Murphy's wife, Tammy Murphy, is running for the seat. However, the central issue in Murphy’s race against Congress member Andy Kim is not nepotism; instead, it’s focused on an obscure feature of New Jersey’s election ballots. WNYC’s Michael Hill speaks with reporter Nancy Solomon for the latest.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, March 22nd. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. It won't just be candidates on the ballot this November. WNYC's Bridget Bergen reports on growing support for a new ballot initiative called the New York Equal Rights Amendment. The state's current equal protection guidelines date back to the 1930s and only banned discrimination for, quote, race, color, creed, or religion. Under the New York ERA, that language is updated explicitly adding protections for reproductive

rights, immigrants, sexual orientation, and more. Ny Whitaker is co-chair of Vote Mama, a PAC focused on bringing Democratic moms into the political process. Personally, I'm going to be working to use it as a tool to register voters. A new poll from the Global Strategy Group, a left-leaning, polling organization found 71% of likely voters polled supported the New York Equal Rights Amendment. It's expected to be a windy and rainy spring Saturday, but the MTA says they're ready to address any issues in transit. Vice President of Subways Demetrius Critchlow says the subway should be

fine as we're anticipating long periods of rain, but not too too heavy. They're getting ready just in case. We have pump trains ready. We're prepared for down trees because sometimes we get that with the rain, the soaking rain, but we'll have folks out there as well. The National Weather Service says flash flooding is possible tomorrow. Meanwhile, the New York City Department of Buildings is issuing a weather advisory for the weekend. The agency is reminding all property owners, contractors, and crane operators to take precautionary measures with winds up to 40 miles an hour on the horizon. A 50-year-old nonprofit civil rights law firm is asking the state's highest court to weigh in on New York City's non-citizens.

in voting law. Attorneys from Latino justice filed a notice of appeal today. After last month's three to one ruling against the local law, the law would grant certain non-citizens the right to cast a ballot in elections for mayor, public advocate, controller, city council, and borough president. Green card holders, legal permanent residents, and those with work authorizations would all be eligible to register as municipal voters under the law. It's unclear if the city will also appeal the lower court ruling. Officials have until Monday to make that decision. Third, night with sunshine now, sunny and 45 for a high today.

The wind chill, though, would make it feel a little bit colder than that. And then tomorrow, heavy rain and a lot of it may be late afternoon thunderstorms, maybe too warm for some snow at 52 with a flood watch that has been issued. Stay close. There's more after the break. It's an extraordinary political moment in New Jersey. Senator Bob Menendez is once again charged with federal corruption and says he's innocent. The primary election to replace him is the first competitive Senate race. The state is seen in decades, and the governor's wife, Tammy Murphy, is running for the seat.

But the central issue in Murphy's race against Congress member Andy Kim and others is not nepotism. Instead, it's focused around an obscure feature of New Jersey's election ballots. W&MIC's Nancy Solomon joins us to catch us up on the race. Nancy, everyone is talking about the county line. Remind us about what is this? In New Jersey, almost every county party organization endorses candidates, and the ballot is arranged, so all the endorsed candidates are grouped together on one line, like from the president on down to mayors and what have you.

It gives the candidates on the line an advantage because it signals to voters that, like, these are the legit people who are running. How did it become such a central issue in the campaign and in New Jersey? Well, I think there are three things going on. First, when Tammy Murphy announced her candidacy, eight powerful county party bosses immediately endorsed her. And that, combined with being the governor's wife, gave an appearance of the system being rigged. Second, Andy Kim started talking about it on the campaign. And third, there's now a much.

stronger, better organized grassroots movement in New Jersey. Ever since the Trump election, that prompted organizing, and it really, really involved the politicization of suburban women that happened in 2017. So after the Tammy endorsements, they immediately mobilized about the line. So it just kind of blew up. That's set the stage for contentious Democratic Party county conventions. Now, usually media, we don't really pay attention to these, but what happened there? Yeah, this has really been a wild ride, and I don't have time here to go into everyone. I wish I did, but suffice to say that when the power of the political bosses is challenged, it gets messy. These conventions are where delegates decide who's going to get the county line, and in Hunterden,

the boss who's an ally of Tammy Murphy got up after folks had submitted their paper ballots and said that she and the feeling in the room was that Kim was going to win and she tried to give the line to both Murphy and Kim saying no matter you know anybody over 30% of the vote will share the vote will share the line the rank and file members just mutinied and basically stopped her. And then we had in Camden County, no candidate who wasn't named Tammy Murphy got to attend the convention and address the delegates. Kim didn't even try. He says he couldn't get an answer about getting allowed in, so he didn't go down there. But another candidate, Patricia Campos Medina, did try. A video of her arguing with a barricade of burly men hit social media. And it ultimately really hurt

the first lady because, you know, what a lot of folks told me is that they think it's hypocritical that her stump speech is about how important it is to have a woman at the table. And yet, she didn't stand up for Patricia Campos Medina, who runs an organization that trains Latinas to get involved in politics. Kim is challenging the county line in federal court seeking to block it from being used before the June primary. And now even the state attorney general has come out against the line. How might that affect this race? For the attorney general to say the line is unconstitutional and refuse to defend it is a major blow to bossism in New Jersey. If the federal judge rules against the line, then this really

levels the playing field. Kim is less known than Tammy Murphy around the state, but he's already led in one poll that's been taken so far. And his experience campaigning really does show. I've watched crowds just respond to him in a very different way than the crowds respond to Tammy. Governor Phil Murphy says the power he holds doesn't taint the process, but not a lot of the people that I speak to believe that there's any way for that to be true. If the federal judge allows the county line to be used in June, then Murphy would have an advantage from those relationships with the party bosses because she'll be on the line in counties

that make up 67% of all registered Democrats in the state. Two-thirds. Yeah. Yeah. And candidates on the line usually win by an average of 35% according to the research. When do you expect the judge to rule, Nancy? The clerks really want a decision as soon as possible so they can get the ballots ready. So I'm going to guess next week. Certainly it won't be any more than two weeks. And here's one more element as we start at this segment. Here comes Bob Menendez. He says he might run as an independent. Yeah. He lost the support of the party bosses, so he has no chance of winning the Democratic primary. New Jersey has a sore loser's law. So if he lost the primary, he wouldn't be allowed on the ballot in the general as an independent, but he can run as an independent if he doesn't

run in the primary. He certainly won't draw many Republican voters to his cause. So all I can figure is that he just wants to stick it to the Democrats for deserting him, because any votes he gets are likely to be Democratic votes and pull away from the Democratic candidate. The last poll had him at 9%. And then, you know, there's another interesting tidbit. Let me just throw this out for your Michael in Hudson County. Jersey City Mayor Stephen Fullop, who's running for governor, changed his endorsement from Tammy Murphy to Andy Kim.

And he's also come out against the county line. For a major political figure to change their endorsement, it's just unheard of. Even for Hudson County. Yes. I covered politics in Louisiana, and I thought I'll leave it there. WNYC's Nancy Solomon. Thank you, Nancy. Thanks, Michael. Thanks for listening.

This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. Also subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.