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GOP Candidate Nick Cuozzo (MPP’14) wins Primary for Somerset County Commissioner

“I am looking forward to building on the momentum and great enthusiasm our campaign generated this past year,” Cuozzo said. “I will continue to make the case for a more affordable Somerset County, to fight overdevelopment that harms our communities and our environment, and to prioritize public safety and security for all residents.”

NJ primary 2025: Results highlight weaker party machines

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.

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.”

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.

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