Tammy Murphy

“It’s really difficult for state legislators to have any independence. If they don’t vote the way these folks want them to, they lose the Line, and then they lose their election,” Rubin said.
Kim’s campaign, and his push against the Line, had elevated the primary race from a typical political contest to a symbolic fight over the state’s murky political ethics.

Besides, she says, the notion that a small cabal of party elites gets to make this decision is offensive, even if they make good choices. “I don’t want a benevolent dictator telling me who the right candidates are for me,” Sass Rubin says.

“The Tammy Murphy-Andy Kim race has put (the issue) on steroids. It has really amplified general public awareness, which was building. But it was building among the aware, kind of progressive grassroots,” Rubin said. “This brought it into the mainstream in a big way.”

“You’re going to start seeing a lot more bravery by legislators and you’re going to see primary challengers that are more successful,” said Sass Rubin, the Rutgers professor. “So you’re going to have more accountability.”

Candidates not on the line “look illegitimate” when they are not grouped with other candidates, Rubin said in a recent phone interview. “They’re off in ballot Siberia.”

Ultimately, says Rubin, because party chairs and/or party insiders have the power to determine who goes on the county line, “Elected officials become beholden to a few party insiders, not to the voters.”

For example, Professor Julia Sass Rubin from Rutgers University has argued that the county line system impacts elections by “steering voters towards specific candidates” and “increases voter confusion, contributing to overvotes and undervotes” by as much as 50 percentage points in some races.

The defense cross-examined Sass Rubin, asking her whether she could specify whether the races she analyzed could have been affected by name recognition of the candidate, or the amount of money spent on the race.
“Potentially,” Sass Rubin said. “But you’re seeing the same pattern being on the county line and having the same results across 45 races.”

“We are the last of the [political] machine states, and the machine relies on the county line to stay in control,” Rubin told The Washington Post on Monday. “If you displease the people who decide who gets the line,” you could lose your office, she said.