There’s another political powerbroker in New Jersey named “Murphy,” Save Jerseyans, but he’s a Republican and far less well-known outside of insider circles than the governor.
Peter Murphy is a classic Jersey politics character. He returned to the Passaic County GOP chairmanship in 2018 after having left the post years before following a criminal conviction (which was later overturned, and then he plead to a single count of mail fraud in lieu of a new trial).
He also owns a bar – Murphy’s Tavern on Union Boulevard in Totowa – and it’s not unusual to see a North Jersey politician drop by for a drink or an event – or both – and post a phot on social media with the politically-powerful owner.
What makes Murphy so potent is the most fundamental political boss quality of all:
The ability to produce votes.
Take a look at the recent House primary results:
In NJ-11, Paul DeGroot (who received the Passaic GOP endorsement) defeated the Morris-backed candidate Tayfun Selen for the nomination. The margin is currently 1,299 votes. Morris’s NJ-11 vote share is a lot larger than Passaic’s and Selen narrowly won in his home county, but DeGroot’s margin in the Passaic portion of the district was 2,345 votes as of Friday.
2,494 to 149.
That’s staggering, folks.
It’s a similar story over in NJ-05 where two-time GOP nominee Frank Pallotta leads Nick De Gregorio 1,903 to 956. De Gregorio had the line in populous Bergen which is supposed to be better than 80% of the electorate, but the monster margin in Passaic’s NJ-05 towns plus help from Sussex made the difference and Pallotta’s victory margin is currently 1,475 votes.
If Pallotta and DeGroot make it to Congress in November which isn’t impossible given how things are shaping up, they’ll owe their seats in large part to Murphy. That’s an obviously advantageous position for a party chairman to occupy.
With George Gilmore gone (for now) and Bill Layton out of active electoral politics, there simply isn’t another GOP boss in the state who can produce these percentages on a consistent basis.
Granted, Murphy’s strength is obviously at least in part his adversary’s weaknesses. The relatively brand new Morris County line and Bergen County’s notoriously fractious party organization failed to produce significant margins of victory for their respective endorsed candidates. The failings of larger counties’ party lines still won’t matter if “Murph” didn’t perform at such a high level.
