Malinowski wins Hunterdon Democratic chairman race in landslide – New Jersey Globe

Nearly twenty months after losing his seat in Congress, Tom Malinowski has returned to office as the new Hunterdon County Democratic chairman.

Malinowski defeated Karen Becker, a state committeewoman, by a more than 2-1 margin to secure the party leadership post in his home county.

The former two-term congressman and Assistant U.S. Secretary of State succeeds Arlene Quinones Perez, who did not seek re-election after eleven years as county chair.

Malinowski takes on the leadership of a small Democratic organization in a solidly red county where Republicans hold every county office and enjoy a voter registration edge of 12,391; 50.1%-28.5%.  Democrats have not won a freeholder/county commissioner race in Hunterdon since 1979.

Donald Trump won Hunterdon County by four points in 2020, and Republican Jack Ciattarelli outpolled Gov. Phil Murphy there by nearly nineteen points in 2021.

If county organization lines are indeed replaced by office block voting for good, Malinowski assumes a party post of diminished power and faces the challenge of guiding Hunterdon Democrats into a rebuilding phase.

But first, Malinowski faces a more immediate and achievable task: perhaps helping Biden carry Hunterdon and boosting the total number of votes Democrat Sue Altman receives in New Jersey’s 7th district, his old seat and one of the most politically competitive House races in the U.S.

Malinowski toyed with a rematch against the Republican who narrowly unseated him in 2022, Rep. Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield), and considered a primary challenge against U.S. Senator Bob Menendez.  He endorsed Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) in advance of a Hunterdon Democratic convention win against the First Lady of New Jersey, Tammy Murphy.

For a short time last year, even before Bob Menendez’ was indicted on federal corruption charges, Malinowski considered challenging Menendez in the Democratic U.S.  Senate primary

Malinowski was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018, unseating five-term Rep. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton Township) by 16,299 votes, 52%-47%, in Trump’s mid-term Democratic wave.  He beat Kean by one percentage point in 2020 and then lost a rematch two years ago by 8,691 votes, 51%-49%.  Malinowski lost Hunterdon three times, getting 44.3% of the county’s vote in 2018, 44.2% in 2020, and 45.8% in 2022.

Perez refused a bid by Malinowski’s team to cast one single vote for a slate of candidates.

Clinton Mayor Janice Kovach is running for vice chair with Malinowski; she had been considered a possible candidate to succeed Perez.   Now she faces a separate vote, with Becker being nominated to run against her.

Also on the Malinowski ticket: Michele Liebtag, the political director of CWA Local 1036, for secretary; and Michael Drulis, the New Brunswick city administrator and the husband of Assemblywoman Mitchelle Drulis (D-Raritan), for treasurer.

The last former congressman to run for county chairman was Kean’s grandfather, Robert W. Kean (R-Livingston).  Robert Kean had spent twenty years in the House and lost a bid for a U.S. Senate seat in 1958.  He became Essex County GOP Chairman in 1959 at a time when Essex was a swing county.

With Kean as county chairman, Republicans won seven of twelve Essex seats in the State Assembly, re-elected their sheriff, Neil Duffy, flipped the county surrogate post, and won three freeholder seats.   But State Sen. Donal Fox (D-South Orange) was re-elected to a second term against a strong Republican candidate, Alfred Clapp (R-Montclair), a former state senator and county court judge.  In 1960, with John F. Kennedy carrying Essex County by 50,000 votes, Democrats won three freeholder seats and the county clerk’s office.

In March, Malinowski wrote an Op-Ed for the New Jersey Globe outlining his views on the future of the Democratic Party in New Jersey.