FLEMINGTON – More than 100 people showed up at a county commission meeting here the other night to oppose the forcible removal of illegal immigrants.

Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, was one of them. His comments included the following:

“We can disagree on policy, but we cannot disagree on supporting the Constitution.”

The mayor’s journey west on I-78 seems to have paid off.

Baraka forced a runoff and finished second at Sunday’s Hunterdon County Democratic convention when it came to endorsing a gubernatorial candidate.

Mikie Sherrill won the endorsement with 89 votes compared to 68 for Baraka.

Winning is what counts – naturally. And Sherrill, who many observers see as the frontrunner, won.

But to Team Baraka, that wasn’t the real story.

Here is how the mayor put it in a post-convention statement:

“Today, in Hunterdon County, we took the machine favorite to a runoff. For too long, we’ve been told that our movement only resonates with urban voters – that our fight for equity, justice, and real progress is confined to city streets. But today, we proved what I’ve always known: our divisions are manufactured.

“This is not about city versus suburb, north versus south, east versus west. This is about one New Jersey. From Newark to Flemington, from Teaneck to Cape May, we are building a coalition that defies expectations, that transcends zip codes and county lines.”

One has to take campaign statements with the proverbial grain of salt. But there is some truth here.

To many observers looking at this race, Baraka was the candidate of Newark – of urban New Jersey. And not a bucolic place like Hunterdon County.

But from what we can tell, Baraka spent some time in Hunterdon, talking to local Dems. In other words, he did not limit his visit to speaking at the county commission meeting, although that seems to have been important.

For her part, Sherrill said:
“I want to thank Chairman (Tom) Malinowski and all of the committee members who made this convention a success. Hunterdon Democrats are dedicated folks who are on the ground in their communities –  listening to their neighbors about the issues they care about and then working to build coalitions to deliver and win in some of the toughest areas of our state. Hunterdon County started something special today, and I’m so honored to have their support in bringing a different kind of leadership to Trenton.”

There are Democratic conventions upcoming later this month in Mercer and Monmouth counties.

It is true that without a “line,” party support doesn’t mean as much as it once did. But still, these conventions do represent the feelings of active Democrats.

And with those gatherings in mind, a Baraka spokesman summed things up thusly:

“People really underestimate his broad appeal.”