How the death of 'The Line' is reshaping NJ township councils and county boards

Shantell Cherry’s race for a New Jersey township council seat did not make major headlines last week as voters cast their primary ballots.

The single mom of six, Piscataway school board vice president and Girl Scout troop leader was overshadowed by bigger congressional contests that could determine which party controls the House of Representatives next year.

But the little-known Democratic candidate caused a minor upset when she defeated incumbent Frank Uhrin, who had the backing of the powerful Middlesex County Democrats.

In a town that Kamala Harris carried by 50 points in the last presidential race, Cherry looks well-positioned to win in November’s general election and become the latest anti-establishment candidate to take a seat on Piscataway’s Township Council, which, along with the mayor, controls a town budget of more than $98 million.

“ This race here was living proof that if you stick to your guns, you have an action plan and you execute it, you can take down the well-oiled machine. The well-oiled machine is breakable,” Cherry told Gothamist.

She’s one of more than a dozen progressive New Jersey Democrats who have ousted old-guard party leaders for lower-profile, but still powerful positions in local government since the fall of “The Line” – a process that allowed county political organizations to place their endorsed candidates in a neat vertical fashion under other prominent candidates. The state Legislature outlawed the line in 2025 after a federal court deemed it unconstitutional.

“The end of the county line has delivered the kinds of results that we wanted, which means that we can be competitive in elections,” said Staci Berger, president of the Piscataway Progressive Democratic Organization, which backed Cherry and three other candidates for township council.

Unlike high-profile outsider candidates running for Congress on far-left positions like Medicare for all and abolishing ICE, more local progressives are calling for good government reforms in how counties and municipalities spend taxpayer money and more communication with residents.

“ I'm [running for council] so that the community itself understands and knows what's going on,” Cherry told Gothamist.

It’s been just a year since the line’s demise. But Antoinette Miles, state political director for New Jersey’s Working Families Party, said the change in how the state organizes and designs its ballots is not only reshaping the makeup of township councils and county boards, but also weakening local political organizations that were once all-powerful in their ability to choose winning candidates.

“Without [county organizations] being able to put the thumb on the scale and predetermine who the election winner is, there is an ability for those who are either anti-establishment or reformers or progressive types of candidates to win,” she said.

‘We beat the machine’

When the first vote counts were announced on the night of June 2, Deborah Engel, candidate for Essex County Commissioner, was in fifth out of six places.

It was her first time running for the position. Engel had previously served on the town council in her hometown of Maplewood and as a district leader for the local Democratic party. But she said she was frustrated by the way party bosses in Essex County appeared to control the levers of power.

“ I felt like new voices weren't heard,” she said.

Engel connected with the Essex County Reform Democrats, a nascent political group formed in the wake of the line's death. In 2026, she became a candidate for county commissioner.

It was a job she admitted she didn’t know much about. She would learn that in Essex County, the nine-person board controls a $900 million budget, representative of about 15% of local tax dollars.

The night of the primary, Engel finished third out of a field of six Democrats. The top four finishers advance to the general election in November. Two of the candidates she bested were backed by the Essex County Democratic Committee.

“ It felt great. We beat the machine,” Engel said.

Leroy Jones, who chairs the Essex County Democratic Committee, said he intended to back Engel’s campaign heading into November.

“It's a pleasure to work with people that put it all in,” he said.

He added that there is “no tension on my part” with Democratic candidates running against those that his organization has backed.

Both Engel and Cherry told Gothamist that if elected, they hope to bring more transparency to local government while stressing they won’t be a “rubber stamp” for their party’s leadership. At the same time, they said they believe they can have a good working relationship with those establishment figures still in power, whom they’ve been fighting politically.

“ I like to get along with everybody,” Engel said.

‘Open war’

While political outsiders have made gains in recent cycles, race results on the whole have been far from a full-on rebellion against the Democratic establishment. In Piscataway, the other three candidates backed by the Piscataway Progressive Democratic Organization lost their races.

In nearby Passaic County, Ali Ajarrah, a progressive candidate for county commissioner, had the backing of Bernie Sanders.

Miles told Gothamist that in the weeks leading up to the election, the New Jersey Working Families Party knocked 12,000 doors in the county for Ajarrah.

But on election night, Aljarrah fell short. He finished in a distant third behind two candidates backed by the Passaic County Democrats, as well as Gov. Mikie Sherrill.

In South Jersey, the primary results showed that the Democratic Party’s different factions in that part of the state are still far from coming together.

In the primary for Camden County commissioner, two candidates backed by the South Jersey Progressive Democrats lost out to machine-backed candidates. Kate Delany, president of the South Jersey Progressive Democrats, blamed the loss on what she called an illegal ballot designed by the county clerk.

She and other progressives in the county say that mail-in ballots sent out to some voters in the district violated state law by placing county commissioner candidate Louis Capelli, the head of the Camden County Democratic Organization, directly below and in line with high-profile candidates Sen. Cory Booker and Rep. Donald Norcross.

Capelli finished first with fellow party-backed candidate Jonathan Young coming in second. The top two finishers now advance to the general election in November. Progressive candidates Vonetta Hawkins and Constance Mercedes came in third and fourth.

Capelli did not respond to a request to comment.

A spokesperson for the Camden County clerks’ office told Gothamist in April that the ballot design followed the letter of the law.

William Tambussi, an attorney for the Camden County Democratic Committee, said the ballot was fair.

“There was no legal challenge to the form of the ballot, as any such legal challenge would have been frivolous. Instead, the voters expressed their will for the most qualified candidates,” he said, adding that he believes Capelli and Young “are the progressive Democrats.”

Delany disagreed. She said the Democratic establishment in Camden County is in a state of “open war” with her progressive organization.

“They really do view us as ‘the enemy,’” she said.