Primary Day

The primary election in New Jersey for Democrats and Republicans to choose their gubernatorial nominees for the general election in November is today.  Usually, it's on the first Tuesday after June 1 but Governor Phil Murphy, who is term-limited and cannot run again, signed a bill moving it back one week this year because June 3 coincided with the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, a holiday Gentiles usually don't know exists and one even Governor Murphy himself hadn't heard of before.  Shavuot doesn't allow Jews to go out and vote or do anything else.  If a similarly restrictive obscure holiday that was celebrated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or the Nation of Islam, or the Rastafarians, coincided with primary day, Governor Murphy would have moved the election back a week for that too.  He's that kind of guy.

Be that as it may, no one knows who's going to win the Democratic primary for governor of New Jersey.  There are six candidates, each one getting about 17 percent, of one-sixth, of the vote in various polls - with no clear front-runner - while 2021 Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli should win the 2025 GOP gubernatorial nomination going away against two token opponents.    

What? Jack Ciattarelli is getting a second bite at the apple after having lost the governorship in an election as close as the 2024 presidential election, yet Kamala Harris is persona non grata now?  How is that possible?  Because Ciattarelli is a Republican.  It's Republicans who get to try again after losing a close election.  Democrats get sent off to internal exile.  Also, Ciattarelli is Italian, and, well, it is New Jersey. Yo! 

I am torn about the candidacy of Democrat Mikie Sherrill, because while I think she would be a good governor, I want her to remain my congresswoman.  I have no opinion of the other candidates, except that all of them would make a better governor than Ciattarelli, who has the support of Donald Trump.  However, I am not voting for anyone today, because . . . I don't vote in primaries. New Jersey has a closed primary that does not allow independents like myself to vote as an independent. I refuse to register as a Republican because they are the party of fascism. But I also refuse to register as a Democrat because I am one of the overwhelming majority of voters who have a low opinion of the party, and also because, as Groucho Marx once said, I would not like to join any club that would have me as a member!

Let's see what happens.