Accomplishing what his chief rival couldn’t do in her home county, Andy Kim this afternoon beat Tammy Murphy in his home county of Burlington to intensify his campaign’s momentum in the developing Democratic Primary for the United States Senate.

Many progressives and party players object to what they see as Governor Phil Murphy using his powerful perch to help springboard the First Lady into a Senate seat. Today’s win enabled Congressman Kim’s supporters to celebrate the facility with which their unlikely hero continues to kick sand in the face of a bully.

The party is already suffering the sulfuric aftermath of a federal indictment of sitting U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), dubbed “Gold Bar Bob,” for his alleged willingness to be a tool for Egypt and Qatar in exchange for lavish gifts.

While the Murphys appear to be in scummy New Jersey-politics-as-usual mode by seizing on the upper-hand of Phil Murphy’s governorship to double up on power with the First Lady, Kim – a former national security advisor in the Obama Administration – positions himself as an anti-corruption good guy.

When he announced his U.S. Senate candidacy before consulting with party organizations willing to keep Menendez afloat between indictments, many of which signaled an early comfort zone with Tammy Murphy, Kim turned into the progressives’ political folk hero of the year.

His embarrassment of Murphy in Monmouth two weeks ago amped his followers and made more than merely revolutionary lefties sit up and take notice.

Now, Murphy’s allies claim they aren’t yet in total freak-out mode, as they look to rely on big machine counties up north later in the convention process to offset Kim’s early suburban gains.

Essex and Hudson will be especially critical for the first lady if she intends to beat Kim in the June Primary. So will Middlesex County, where the front office enjoys a strong alliance with the Middlesex County Democratic Committee.

Murphy did land Passaic County on the same day she lost Monmouth, but insiders note that she racked her win on a hand vote by municipal chairs, not a secret ballot with all eligible county party committee members participating.  Bergen at this precise moment looks like the most massive question mark for March, very conceivably a Waterloo situation for Murphy if she strikes out against her surging nemesis in the behemothic North Jersey county.

In addition, Assemblyman Herb Conaway won the Burlington County Democratic Party endorsement for Kim’s 3rd District seat, defeating his legislative colleague, Assemblywoman Carol Murphy.

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross (D-1) also received support from the county party organization.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Top Photo of Kim and Company and of Tammy Murphy at the convention today by Jay Lassiter for InsiderNJ. 

More of Lassiter’s coverage of the BurlCo convention can be found HERE.