Rep. Kim Rattles New Jersey's 'Political Machine'

Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., is the presumptive candidate for the Democrat nomination for the Senate in the state after New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy suspended her campaign over the weekend.

Politico reported that despite her connection to the state's current governor, Phil Murphy, Tammy Murphy was unable to match Kim's level of support in polls.

"I like to joke that if people have this perception in their mind of a so-called political machine, Andy looks and sounds like the exact opposite of that perception," Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., whose district borders Kim's, told The Hill. "Given the unique circumstances around this Senate seat, Andy looking and sounding like a nice, well-meaning guy who is honest and sincere — that contrast helps him a great deal."

Kim threatened of a lawsuit over the state's use of a "county line" ballot listing process, which lists candidates who are endorsed by county parties in a single row while unendorsed candidates are placed near the bottom of the ballot.

Tammy Murphy announced that she was suspending her campaign only a few days after the incumbent, Sen. Bob Menendez, announced that he would no longer seek the Democrat nomination and would instead run as an independent.

"It is clear to me that continuing in this race will involve waging a very divisive and negative campaign, which I am not willing to do," Murphy said in a video message. "With Donald Trump on the ballot and so much at stake for our nation, I will not in good conscience waste resources tearing down a fellow Democrat."

"That was the whole ballgame," said one source close to the Kim campaign. "The grassroots were the personification that was fed up with machine politics. You saw that in the county conventions, and you saw that with Andy's message. … His momentum was palpable.

"You see the culmination of a really bad idea coming to fruition: that [Gov. Murphy] could use the county line in the last two years of his administration to strong-arm all the most populous counties into putting Tammy in the Senate. And that was a massive political miscalculation."

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