The Line!

This picture is courtesy of Good Government Coalition NJ

Editorial note – Please share and cross post this to family, friends and neighbors If you wish to receive this as an email directly, please send an email to betterholmdel@yahoo.com.]

March 3, 2020 - On Friday, Feb, 21st, Holmdel residents were notified that the Township Committee was rescheduled for Thursday at 7:30 PM. Interestingly, subsequent to this notice, members of the Republican Municipal Committee (this is technically called the County Committee but it deals with Holmdel only) were notified by its Chairwoman on the following Monday that a Municipal Committee meeting will be held on that same night to vote on Republican candidates for the coming primary.

Why is this interesting or important?

To begin with, the design of New Jersey primary ballots is organized in vertical columns. One column, called the “The Line”, will have all party-endorsed candidates for the open positions. This is true for both Republicans and Democrats. Other candidates, including party candidates that run “off-line” and independent candidates, are often placed such that they are less visible or noticeable and, therefore, less viable, sometimes with several columns left empty for no apparent reasons. Political observers call this being sent to political Siberia. Not all states operate this way.

In practice, candidates placed on the Line have a placement advantage that allowed them to almost always win! In fact, advertising companies would be willing to pay millions for such advantageous placement! Because of this, it also means that candidates are beholden to party bosses and to powerful political machines rather than voters.

In Holmdel, the seats for Republican incumbent Mayor Greg Buontempo and fellow Republican Committeeman Rocco Pascucci are up for election this year. Pascucci is also a member of the Municipal Committee. With both meetings scheduled on the same night, the meeting was held without the incumbent candidate Buontempo appearing before the Municipal Committee to state his case as an incumbent Republican candidate for the primary and without Pascucci who is a member to cast his vote.

As a result, the two new candidates, chosen beforehand by the Chairwoman of the Municipal Committee, easily won the nomination and will be placed on the Line for June 2nd primary. This appears to be a deliberate move to nominate two primary candidates favored by Republican Party bosses and to give them the advantageous Line. How this will play out in the June primary and/or the general election remains to be seen.

In an op-ed piece published in The Star-Ledger in 2018, Yael Niv, a Princeton University Associate Professor of psychology and neuroscience and who studies decision making, views “this as a cynical co-opting of our basic mechanisms for making decisions. Research shows that when we have little information about the different options, we tend to fall back on heuristics —instinctual rules of thumb—that favor name familiarity (as would be the case for incumbents and party-funded campaigns) and to look to authority.”

She goes on to say: “The way this plays out in the primaries is simple: like most voters, I don’t know many of the candidates. Heck, I don’t even know what some of these positions are (County Freeholder?). This makes candidates in that one full column look like the “serious candidates” who have organized to run together (in reality, they may never have heard of each other). Yes, “I voted” – but was it really me deciding whom to vote for?”

There is an alternative to the Line!

Holmdel First, a new nonpartisan citizens group, will hold its first public meeting on March 18th at 7 PM at the Holmdel Library. A featured speaker will speak on nonpartisan elections for local government.

Nonpartisan elections are currently held in Asbury Park, Long Branch, Ocean Township and Tinton Falls. Many believe that at the local level, it is more important for voters to decide how they should vote based on the character and reputation of the candidates and what the candidates would do or the town than along party lines. Nonpartisan elections also allow candidates not to be beholden to party bosses or party machine.

This meeting is open to the general public, including residents outside of Holmdel. Come and meet your fellow residents and hear more about this important topic!

When: Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 7 PM

Where: Holmdel Library, Bell Works, 101 Crawfords Corner Road, Holmdel, NJ