Julia Sass Rubin noted that for decades, the county line had been the key tool enabling political machines to dominate elections, but this year’s results—where party-endorsed candidates lost in multiple counties and Assembly races—demonstrated that voter choice was no longer being structurally constrained.
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If the primary election was an ‘earthquake’ for New Jersey, the epicenter was in Camden County
Julia Sass Rubin described the June 2025 New Jersey primary as a historic turning point in state politics, signaling the erosion of long-entrenched county party control following the elimination of the controversial county line system.
Katie Brennan (MCRP ’12) Wins LD-32 Primary Election for Jersey City
Katie Brennan (MCRP ’12) Wins LD-32 Primary Election for Jersey City
NJ Democrats hold their breath as the primary unfolds without the county line | Opinion
“If they can demonstrate that they still wield a lot of power, that will potentially ricochet to fewer candidates running in the future, and we’ll be back to largely where we were before,” Sass Rubin said.
The Political Machine Won’t Decide NJ’s Next Governor
“The political machines adapt. They’re about surviving. If this is all very effective for them, they will do the same thing again,” Rubin said. “If it doesn’t work, if their preferred candidates don’t win, I fully expect them to change the rules again to make it even easier for them to control the outcome.”
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Could absence of party line lead to primary election surprises?
“I would say the two most notable impacts so far are that so many Democrats and Republican candidates, including pretty legitimate candidates with a shot at winning, [are] choosing not to go for an endorsement. That would have been unheard of before,” said Rubin, an associate dean at Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.