Supporting Realtor® Champions BY CATHERINE BEST
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n 2021, the entire state legislature and the governor are up for re-election. The winners of the primaries in June will go on to run in the general election in November. This makes the primaries very important for the Democrat and Republican parties. In New Jersey, there is what is known as the “party line”— typically there is an office at the top of the ticket (for example, in 2020 the Presidential Candidate was at the top, and in 2021 it will be the governor) and then the other offices are listed “down ballot.” Getting the “party line” is vital for candidates as generally, on election day, voters vote “down the line.” This year, there were several races that had contested primaries from strong “off the line” candidates.
that would allow LLCs to accept payments. Polling in this district indicated that while Senator Diegnan would likely be safe, the Assembly candidates were in danger of losing their seats. NJ CORE focused its efforts on their work during the COVID-19 pandemic, which included their work on environmental issues and school funding. NJ CORE NJ CORE did three mail pieces, digital ads, text messaging and emails to Realtors® who are registered Democrats. The Senator and two Assemblymen were re-elected by a large margin.
As you may know, NJ CORE is New Jersey Realtors® Super PAC. Super PACs run independent expenditures, which are campaigns in support of a candidate, but run “independently” without the candidate’s knowledge. NJ CORE supports candidates who are proven Realtor® champions. Two of the hotly contested primaries were against Realtor® champions and NJ CORE decided to run campaigns in support of their re-elections. In Legislative District 18, which encompasses parts of Middlesex County, Senator Pat Diegnan and his running mates Assemblyman Rob Karabinchak and Assemblyman Sterley Stanley, were facing a primary challenge from a slate of candidates who were upset with the party line system. Senator Diegnan has been a long time Realtor® champion, having recently introduced, at our request, legislation
24 | NEW JERSEY REALTOR® | July/August 2021
In Legislative District 26, which has towns in Passaic, Morris and Essex Counties, Assemblywoman and Realtor® BettyLou DeCroce was facing a primary challenge after losing the party line in Morris County. As Morris County is 78 percent of that district, she was in for a real fight. Polling indicated she was in second place but only by a very close margin. In this race, NJ CORE did mail pieces, phone calls, digital ads, online “pre-roll” video, text messaging, emails and another round of emails to Realtors® who are registered Republicans. All our messaging was based around her work on making New Jersey a more affordable place to live and pointing out where Assemblywoman DeCroce was listed on the ballot. Unfortunately, the combination of her placement on the ballot, a fourth candidate entering the race who pulled votes away from her, and a focus on attack ads from the leading candidate proved to be an insurmountable task. Assemblywoman DeCroce came in third place, trailing the second-place candidate by less than 500 votes.
