Progressive activist Altman helping to organize 'Moderate Party' efforts
If the effort to create a "Moderate Party" in New Jersey succeeds, it will have been brought about, in part, by one of the state’s most high-profile progressive activists.
Sue Altman, executive director of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance, helped organize the effort to create the new party, which wants to allow “fusion voting” that would put Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) on the ballot twice in November — as a Democrat and as the Moderate Party-endorsed candidate. Altman also personally collected signatures to get Malinowski, who represents the 7th Congressional District, on the ballot under the Moderate Party.
Malinowski faces former Republican state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. in November. Malinowski defeated Kean by 1 percentage point in 2020.
“My goal is for all people across the political spectrum to have a political home. I think when you have simply a two-party system, things become a binary doom loop,” Altman said in a phone interview Monday.
The Moderate Party’s petitions were, as expected, rejected last week by the Secretary of State’s Office. New Jersey has banned fusion voting since 1921, and the fledgling party has vowed to take its fight to court to overturn that ban. For the last 100 years, candidates have only been allowed to appear on New Jersey’s ballots once.
If the group follows through on its promise to file a lawsuit, it will be one of two legal challenges that seek to drastically overhaul the way candidates are presented to voters on the ballot. Altman, as well as others, is deeply involved in both challenges.
Altman is a former Republican who rose to prominence in progressive circles by attacking the vaunted South Jersey Democratic political machine and its unofficial leader, George Norcross. She's also a leader in the effort to do away with the “county line” in New Jersey primary elections in which candidates backed by county political parties bracket together and get favorable ballot placement. Opponents of the “county line” got a major boost late last month when a judge ruled their lawsuit could move forward.
“For New Jersey, this is a one-two punch to make our democracy stronger,” said Altman, whose role with the Moderate Party has not previously been reported. “For our country, the Moderate Party is an example of the types of coalitions we need to build in this crisis.”
Altman in January moved to Lambertville, which is in Malinowski’s district and in her native Hunterdon County, after spending the past eight years in Camden, where she helped organize primary campaigns against its well-entrenched Democrats. She became a key ally of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy during his first term, much of which was spent fighting South Jersey Democrats, including an investigation that focused heavily on how Norcross and his allies used tax incentives two of his brothers helped draft and pass into law.
Two law firms involved in the county line challenge — Bromberg Law and Weissman & Mintz — are also involved in the Moderate Party effort.
The public face of the Moderate Party thus far has been Republican Rick Wolfe, a committee member and three-time former mayor of East Amwell Township in Hunterdon County.
“Rick Wolfe and I connected. We saw we had a lot in common in terms of an urgency to save democracy and an urgency to fix a national problem where there is a growing number of people without a political home,” Altman said. "I was happy to lend out some organizing prowess to help this dream become a reality.”
Altman said about half of the Moderate Party petition signers were Democrats, while the other half were Republicans and unaffiliated voters. She said there's nothing inconsistent about a progressive pushing for a party that brands itself as moderate because "there’s a lot of policy we disagree on and have spirited arguments about, but really when it comes down to it, we believe in democracy."
Altman’s organization, the New Jersey Working Families Alliance, could also benefit from the challenge. In New York and Connecticut, which allow fusion voting, the Working Families Party has a line on the general election ballot.
Altman declined to say whether she would also seek to put Working Families Party candidates on the ballot if the Moderate Party lawsuit succeeds.
“We’re believers in structural change that makes our democracy healthier,” she said. Of the current structure, she said, “there’s no motive to compromise, no motive to coalition build. One thing fusion does is allow people across the spectrum to express themselves through their vote.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misstated the name of one of the law firms involved in the two challenges. It is Bromberg Law.
