Altman v. Kean: A Very Sharp Study in Leadership Contrast
A classic study in political contrasts emerged this week, as a challenger in arguably New Jersey’s most competitive congressional contest displayed a more voracious, gritty, justice-minded, and effective under-the-hood public policy presence than the moribund incumbent she seeks to displace.
Former executive director of Working Families Sue Altman, running for the Democratic nomination in CD-7, spearheaded an unsettled 2021 civil rights lawsuit, Conforti v. Hanlon, which substantively mirrors the lawsuit filed this year by U.S. Senate candidate Andy Kim. Like Kim in his suit, the plaintiffs in Conforti v. Hanlon, including Altman, seek relief from what they see as an unfair ballot design in New Jersey.
From CLC:
“New Jersey is the only state in the nation that uses a bracketing system for its ballot design in primary elections: it organizes groupings of candidates in a column or row, rather than listing the office sought followed by a list of each candidate in that race. Candidates who are running for different offices that are in the same bracket are featured together, whereas unbracketed candidates are exiled to separate sections of the ballot.
“This bracketing system is flawed for several reasons. First, candidates who are bracketed are given access to more preferable ballot positions – for instance, further to the left or closer to the top. Research has shown that this leads to “position bias” that systematically advantages certain candidates over others. Candidates endorsed by county parties are also frequently bracketed together, disadvantaging other candidates who are either on their own or grouped with another unbracketed candidate. Finally, this design is confusing for voters and often obscures which candidate is running for which office – failing to meet a fundamental objective of good ballot design.”
That unsettled case now informs Judge Zahid Quraishi’s reasoning as this week he considers Kim’s case against the backdrop of the developing Democratic Primary for United States Senate. Quraishi basically said in Conforti v. Hanlon that he doesn’t need to deal with state court decisions. That’s significant because it is a state court case supplying the legal framework for New Jersey’s unique balloting structure. Quaremba v. Allan, settled before the New Jersey State Supreme Court in 1975, asserts that it is not “an abuse of discretion for a county clerk to accord affiliated candidates a line of their own. ‘On the contrary he should [place them on a line of their own] if that course is feasible and if in the context of the whole ballot it would afford all the voters a clearer opportunity to find the candidates of their choice.’”
Sources this week are preparing for Quraishi to rule against the line, signaled in part by a letter issued by state Attorney General Matt Platkin, which made Platkin appear to want to get out ahead of the judge.
As a party to Conforti, Altman will be able to argue that she was way ahead of the game: ahead of Kim, ahead of Platkin, ahead of a slow-footed and mostly dull-witted New Jersey political establishment that fell asleep at the switch years ago, relying on creaking laws to uphold their dangerously fragile – and arguably publicly disinterested – edifice.
Altman’s notoriously press evasive and publicly bashful opponent, U.S. Rep. Tom Kean (R-7), simultaneously has crinkled like wallpaper into a Donald Trump-dominated Republican Party, with nothing of penetrating significance to say amid the clash of these times, as issues of great weight soar like swinging guillotines in a Jan. 6, 20021-threatened democracy.
Starkly defined, it supplies a critical stage two to the story of Altman, who as leader of the Working Families Alliance fought South Jersey Democratic Party Powerbroker in Camden, going so far as to get the heave ho out of a Trenton hearing room, while, again, Kean lived in apparent symbiotic acquiescence to the system.
Most notably when it comes to Kean, Democrats will attack unrelentingly in a presidential election year with Trump on the ballot and Kean under him in a district whose signature county – Somerset – in 2020 went 111,000 to 72,000 for Joe Biden over Donald Trump.
From the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee earlier this month:
“Tom Kean Jr. has gone to great lengths to put off answering any and all questions about whether or not he will vote for criminally-indicted Donald Trump.
Now, Super Tuesday has come and gone, and the Republican Party has made Trump the presumptive nominee and backed his dangerous, extreme record of:
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Supporting plans to implement a national abortion ban.
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Facing 91 felony charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States for his efforts to overturn a free and fair election, including by directing a “violent” and “angry” mob to the Capitol on January 6th.
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Leading the MAGA movement to slash Social Security and Medicare.
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Actively instructing House Republicans to oppose any bipartisan solution to fix our border in order to gain political points during an election year.
“Tom Kean Jr. no longer has any wiggle room when it comes to whether or not he will support the leader of his MAGA party and presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump,” said DCCC Spokesperson Aidan Johnson. “New Jerseyans are done with Junior’s weak hedging around who he supports for president.”
Kean will likely follow his 2022 strategy, which frontend-loaded a schedule heavy on back door getaways and grinning press-averse galloping, trusting in the GOP-favoring dimensions of the district to carry him.
But it hardly looks like leadership, especially as his upstart opponent drives the biggest, potentially most significant political decision in recent New Jersey history – no hyperbole – not in the name of crude boss politics (the essence of the GOP’s Donald Trump problem) but in the face of it, making CD-7, to say the least, volatile.
I find it interesting how few articles mention that Sue Altman recently moved to the district, seemingly just to run for Congress (not unlike Tom Malinowski).
It is true Sue fought against the South Jersey Democratic Party Powerbrokers in Camden, but for the other extremely corrupt group that controls NJ Democratic politics, the NJEA. The NJEA funds the Work Families Alliance, which is interesting considering Sue Altman was never a public school teacher, or a member of the union. She taught at Blairs Academy an expensive boarding school, however she just presents herself as a “teacher”. And yes, this is significant because the Democratic Party is becoming increasing disconnected from the middle and working classes, who attend PUBLIC schools.
Additionally, she raised her salary at the Working Families Alliance from $75K when she started, to $103K in 3 years with no accomplishments to name. She is very generous to herself with teacher union money.
You mention her beginning to fight the county line in Conforti v. Hanlon, but what disturbs me is that she didn’t finish the fight or see it through. It seems like she ran away the minute a better opportunity presented itself, and I don’t why she would be different in Congress.
Finally, you called Sue a voracious, gritty, justice-minded presence but I think I have seen enough performers in Congress and the Senate to last a lifetime. No one is impressed with people that make it about themselves rather than their accomplishments and judging from Sue’s past with Norcross she seems to be this type. We do not need another Adam Schiff, AOC, Majorie Taylor, or Matt Gaetz coming from our district.
This article is very obviously a pro-Altman piece, not in any way balanced reporting. It completely neglects to mention all the years Tom Kean spent in the NJ Legislature, including in leadership positions there. His experience far exceeds anything Sue Altman has done. And he’s proven to be a reasonable legislator, not one of the crazies that seem to inhabit both sides of the aisle. It looks to me like Sue Altman would fall on the crazy progressive side, and it’s not what I want to see more of in Congress.
Does tom kean even cast a shadow? When he stands in front of a mirror, is there a reflection? Has someone checked to see if there a hand up his posterior which controls the nothing that he has said? I like to vote for people that sort of look like me; He stands no chance unfortunately, but Larry Hamm running for US senator looks like regular people-he remortgaged his house twice to send his kids to college. I don’t live in CD7 but if I did I would vote for Sue Altman, regardless of her involvement in the party line fiasco. There are limited places to find out about candidates, but I don’t recall the party line ever being a guide for me.
While clearly not straight-forward, unbiased reporting, the piece nonetheless is informative – and a necessary reminder of how Tom Kean, Jr. has evaded interaction with the press and the general republic. Had he a different last name, there can be little doubt his conduct would not have gained him his seat; his demonstrated lack of regard for public discourse since his election to Congress shows his election was undeserved and re-election unwarranted.