New Jersey a non-factor in presidential politics

In 2008, New Jersey fought to move up their state primary date from June to February when Super Tuesday was occurring. New Jersey was part of at least one-third of the states casting votes that day. By days end, not much had changed on the Democratic side between then-SenatorBarack Obama and then-Senator Hillary Clinton while Senator John McCain (R-AZ) had positioned himself to lock up the Republican nomination about a month later. As New Jersey and the country began to prepare for the 2012 primary cycle, each state began to assess their positioning on the primary calendar. The traditional stalwarts of Iowa and New Hampshire would obviously start the cycle and after some threats from Florida, again; the cycle was moved up about a month to keep the first month of primaries and caucuses locked in from previous cycles. However, there were discussions of subduing another Super Tuesday. The Republican field that was building to face President Obama about a year ago seemed fairly wide open despite featuring an early front runner in former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Some states decided to not move their primary or caucus and others thought it might be better to move their primary or caucus back.

New Jersey was one of those to move their primary back. Since the state was going to be holding primaries for members of Congress, senatorial races, and a few local elections; the state felt it mostly cost effective to hold only one primary date. Also, at the time, there was thinking and potentially hoping that by the time June 5th rolled around; the Republicans would be in the middle of their own version of an Obama-Clinton nomination battle. But, that was not the case. The race was surely competitive and it took into April before Romney began to pull away and about a month later with his victory in the Texas primary before he locked up the required number of delegates to garner the party's nomination. That fact left New Jersey voters in a familiar situation: casting votes that might be meaningful in one sense, but empty in a greater sense. Even if they were to vote for someone other than Obama or Romney, the vote would essentially not really matter. It is a bleak cycle that the state is stuck in and likely there will not be a lot of attention on the Garden State even with Governor Chris Christie campaigning for Romney.

That lackluster feeling was seen around the state from people who can recall back to just four years ago when there was a bit more excitement connecting to casting a ballot. For Chan Leung, a Hunterdon County Democrat; for instance;


"It was more exciting last time for sure. The last time, I was a (Hillary) Clinton delegate and she was the first woman candidate. Obama was the first African-American candidate. We were breaking new ground."

The man behind moving the state's primary up, then-Governor and state Senator Richard Codey (D-27), would also express; 

"New Jersey voted on 'Super Tuesday' along with 21 other states, choosing Clinton over Obama. It didn’t change the course of history, but at least the state mattered. You had Clinton and Obama calling people in New Jersey to line up support until the last day. We were in the game. Now we’re about as relevant as Lindsay Lohan at an AA meeting."

While Tom Wilson, former chairman of the state Republican Party, voiced; 

 

"We still get plenty of attention, because there’s a lot of money in the state. Once again we still didn’t really matter. It’s hard to justify the extra $10 million cost of speeding up the calendar to February."

To elaborate Wilson's point a bit, four years ago the state was the eighth largest contributor to presidential campaigns. At the moment, both Obama and Romney have raised at least $3 million in the state. Adding to the conversation was John Currie, the chairman of the Passaic County Democratic Organization. As Currie would exclaim, 

"The 2008 presidential primary was historic for state Democrats and deserved a special date. But this year it’s congressional races such as the one between Democratic Reps. Bill Pascrell and Steve Rothman that’s getting local voters pumped up, not the presidential race."

Currie, like Wilson, prefers the primary date in June. Even though voters might feel a bit ignored when it comes to the Republican nomination process and the presidential election, there will still be 153 Democratic delegates down in Charlotte, North Carolina and 50 Republican delegates down in Tampa, FL later this year at the respective party's nomination conventions. While not being a deciding factor in whom got the party nomination, they still are part of the symbolic process of confirming a state's delegates for their party's chosen candidate. Even with that role, Wilson downplays the significance of that vote and such proceedings for him and others. As he expressed, 

"It’s a made-for-TV production (talking about the "drama" leading to the nominations at conventions). I would kill to have been a delegate in 1930-whatever, when we were really hashing it out."

What Wilson is eluding to is the fact that presidential races and conventions were much more unpredictable up to the late 1960s and early 1970s when today's primary and caucus cycles were beginning to become the norm. Conventions in previous years when there were no primaries and delegates at conventions had to decide the nominee; wildcards and dark horses like Franklin Pierce, Abraham Lincoln, and James Garfield emerged with their party's nomination. 

As the calendar and slate begins to clear from primary contests to the general election, New Jersey is left scrabbling for a place on the main stage with Iowa or New Hampshire during the primaries or Ohio, Florida, or Pennsylvania during the general cycle.