How centrist Josh Gottheimer helped NJ Democrats hire Neal Katyal in controversial ballot case

A prominent New Jersey Democrat who wants to be governor quietly helped enlist Neal Katyal, the former acting solicitor general in the Obama administration, to defend a controversial state balloting system that gives outsized control of elections to powerful party bosses.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a leading centrist in Congress, is maneuvering to defend what’s known as the “county line” system, which is being challenged in court as unconstitutional and undemocratic by plaintiffs that include Rep. Andy Kim, the leading Democratic candidate for Senate.

Gottheimer helped recruit Katyal to represent the Middlesex County Democratic Organization, one of the state’s most influential parties, according to three Democrats familiar with the discussions granted anonymity to discuss backroom political maneuvering.

The aid of Gottheimer, a North Jersey Democrat who does not represent any towns in Middlesex County or anywhere near it, is seen by fellow Democrats as a strategic play for governor in 2025 — an office for which Gottheimer is considered an all-but-declared candidate.

The moderate Gottheimer, who defeated conservative Republican Scott Garrett in 2016 and has comfortably won reelection in his North Jersey swing district ever since, has a political interest in the survival of the county line system. Gottheimer is viewed with disdain by much of the progressive wing of his party, whose influence the county line system has, for decades, been blunted by giving Democratic organization-backed candidates favorable ballot placement, putting them together in a row or column and sometimes pushing challengers into harder-to-find spots known as “ballot Siberia.”

The help for Middlesex County also could put Gottheimer, known for his fundraising prowess, in good graces with one of the most powerful Democratic organizations in the state as he positions himself to run in the crowded 2025 Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Gottheimer did not respond to a call and text message asking about his role in hiring Katyal, nor did Middlesex County Democratic Chair Kevin McCabe.

The line, a unique system that has been used in most of New Jersey’s counties for decades, was struck down for the 2024 Democratic primary by U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi in a stunning decision earlier this month. On Wednesday, a federal appeals panel upheld that decision.

First lady Tammy Murphy had been seeking the Democratic nomination on the strength of the line in key counties, and her top challenger, Kim, sued, claiming the system is unconstitutional. Murphy dropped her candidacy shortly before Quraishi’s decision, making Kim the heavy favorite to win the June primary and the November general election. Instead of the county line, candidates will be arranged on the ballot in the “office block” design used virtually everywhere else.

The larger case over the system’s constitutionality will continue to play out in court, but it could be resolved ahead of the 2025 gubernatorial primary, and many New Jersey political insiders give the system little chance of long-term survival.

Katyal, who was acting solicitor general under former President Barack Obama, frustrated progressives who admired his previous work by taking the side of Democratic machine politics, POLITICO reported last week.

“In New Jersey, bracketing has served as an effective means of communicating a party organization’s endorsements to organization loyalists. Through the county line, party organizations can efficiently signal to their members which primary candidates have received the organization’s endorsement, and organization members can efficiently vote for the endorsed candidates,” Katyal wrote in his amicus brief. “The office-block format ballot commanded by the District Court a few months before the primary election leaves too little time for primary voters — who for decades have grown accustomed to voting on a party-line basis—to adjust their patterns.”

Already, three high-profile Democrats have declared their candidacies: Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and former Senate President Steve Sweeney.

Gottheimer and Rep. Mikie Sherrill are also considered likely candidates. Gottheimer late last year began using his $18 million congressional campaign fund to run a “Jumpstart Jersey” campaign with big ad buys to “collect, highlight, and organize some of the best ideas in action across the state.” Through the ads, Gottheimer can use some of his congressional campaign money, which he cannot transfer directly to a gubernatorial account, to build statewide name recognition ahead of an official launch.

Fulop and Baraka have both said they oppose the county line system, while Sweeney was expected to bank on unified support from South Jersey Democrats. Gottheimer has issued statements in favor of the county line system, while Sherrill — herself a more moderate Democrat who has better relations with progressives — has issued more equivocal, carefully-worded statements.

After Fulop offered to give up the line in his home county of Hudson if other candidates pledged to also forgo running on county lines, Gottheimer tweeted “If I’m ever offered the Hudson County line, I’d be honored to take it and any support from chairs and municipal committee members.”

Though Fulop had sought county party support around the state in an aborted, unofficial campaign for governor in 2017, he’s now running a renegade gubernatorial campaign with echoes of his time as a city councilmember, when he was a constant thorn in the side of the powerful Hudson County Democratic Organization. He's been mayor of Jersey City since 2013.

“Josh and Mikie are both betting their potential gubernatorial candidacies on the same exact lane of county boss support so the maneuvering there is important. Josh is a more savvy and aggressive elected official for sure, so we keep an eye there,” Fulop said in a statement. “The rumors in the progressive and activist world right now is that Josh is funding directly or indirectly the Katyal Middlesex case, which would make sense for both Middlesex, Josh, and answer lots of questions. I don’t know if true yet but in the next quarterly filing when we look at donors it will be obvious whether that is accurate.”

It’s not yet clear whether Middlesex Democrats, who as of April 1 reported $275,000 in cash, will be the only party paying Katyal, whose services will almost certainly be expensive at a reported hourly rate of about $2,500.

Staci Berger, a progressive activist and candidate for mayor in the Middlesex County town of Piscataway who signed on to an amicus brief backing Kim’s lawsuit against the line, said she heard the rumors about Gottheimer’s involvement in Katyal’s hiring but did not know for certain.

“It’s a strange choice for a congressman from that far away to be that interested in what the outcome of the political situation is going to be in those counties,” Berger said in a phone interview. “It sends a signal that he’s interested in something bigger. A different office, perhaps.”