Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: New Jersey sees the good guys win, and so do NBC journalists

Abbreviated Pundit Roundup is a long-running series published every morning that collects essential political discussion and analysis around the internet.

David Dayen/The American Prospect:

The Machine Crumbles

Andy Kim has not only pulled off a major upset. He may have transformed the political culture of an entire state.

But it’s not a stretch to suggest that polling was available to [rival Tammy] Murphy showing that she could not succeed. In her farewell speech, she admitted that she would have to go negative to win, something you do when you’re losing. The edge in ballot position—a more modest edge than at first suspected because Kim won so many of the contested conventions­—would not survive voter opinions on Murphy, a first-time candidate who was a Republican for much of her adult life with little to recommend but her family name and the support of political bigwigs trying to win whatever favor they could out of Trenton.

There was probably an element of “lose the battle, win the war” here. Lurking in the background of this race was a lawsuit to end the county line, which gives party bosses their power. Kim, while trying to win the Senate race despite the built-in disadvantages, had launched the lawsuit and sought an injunction against the county line, arguing that the ballot system is “fundamentally unjust and undemocratic.” The party bosses might have figured that, if Murphy were to drop out and they all endorsed Kim (which is what appears to have happened), Kim would drop the lawsuit, and they would retain the ballot weapon for future use.

The modern Tammany Hall lost.