Well, New Jersey is in the midst of one of the most hectic primary election seasons we've seen in years, from the race to unseat embattled U.S.

Senator Bob Menendez to the ripple effect that's caused on congressional elections in opposite corners of the state.

And candidates are pulling in big fundraising dollars and endorsements showing just how much is at stake.

For a deeper look at the races to watch.

I'm joined by Rider University's director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics, Micah Rasmussen.

Micah, always good to talk to you.

So, of course, I have to start with the Senate because the now NJ PAC today endorsed Andy Kim over Tammy Murphy over Patricia Campos medina, two women.

What does this say?

Is it backlash against the Tammy Murphy campaign?

I think in this particular case, maybe not.

I think in this case, what they're saying is that Andy Kim has been in Congress.

He's been able to work on issues important to women like abortion rights, like equal pay for women, and that they think that he's got a record to stand up on.

It doesn't mean that they think that Tammy Murphy wouldn't be great for them, but they think that they need to be with the person who's been with them.

And in this case, that's Andy Kim.

And in fact, they did sit down with the candidates, at least they said in their statement that they released to the media and went through a litany of questions with them.

But that being said, there was a letter sent today by the Andy Kim, Patricia Campos Medina and Larry Hamm.

Tammy Murphy was not asked to sign on to this letter, we should note, asking the 19 county organizations in New Jersey not to use this county line on the ballot, which will note 49 other states in the United States of America do not use Sussex County, Salem County do not use.

And so does it even matter if he's getting endorsements like that when you have the power of the county line like Tammy does?

I think everything is going to matter.

I think there are some people for whom the county organization endorsements are going to matter, and there are some people for whom the women's groups endorsements are going to matter.

I think it all matters at this point.

This is a primary election in which not everybody is going to come out.

It's not going to be like the kind of turnout we're going to see in November.

So people have to be motivated.

They have to have a reason to come out.

And some of them are going to be motivated for different reasons.

So I think in this case, they are all scrambling, all of the campaigns to figure out how they can motivate their voters to turnout.

As you say, and as you said in your lead in we're seeing campaigns and candidates come out more than we have seen in recent primaries.

That's going to reinforce turnout from both hands.

The Senate race is going to generate turnout.

But all of these different House races that are getting multiple candidates are also going to increase turnout as well.

Let me move on, although I'm curious as to whether those county organizations will be swayed in any way by this letter in District three.

This is the race now for Andy Kim's seat because he's vacating that.

You've got to former assembly running mates Herb Conaway, Carol Murphy, they're not pulling in a whole lot of money like you might normally see.

But what's the path forward for them This?

Is this going to be as contentious as some of the others?

I know Carol Murphy and her husband, we don't usually talk about spouses, but really some of the premier strategists and practitioners of campaign politics in New Jersey.

And so I think you're going to see a first rate campaign.

They're not going to leave any stone unturned.

She's been getting out in Monmouth County in the 25% of the district that is Monmouth, in the portion of the district that is Mercer and Hamilton.

So she's looking to reach beyond Burlington County.

You're certainly going to see Herb Conaway doing the same thing.

By the way, says she's against using the county line, although she doesn't have it her Conaway does.

Which is pretty interesting because she's another one like Andy Kim.

They really haven't found their opposition to the line until now.

Right.

So we do have to say that.

But they're going to be looking to, you know, it's a little bit of a rope a dope, I think, in the amount of money that she's raised so far.

Typically, you'll hide how much potential you have to raise money until after the first report comes in.

Try to lull the other side to sleep.

So I would expect that they're going to come out guns ablaze.

And as we get closer to the June primary.

District eight, this is now Rob Menendez Jr seat, which was targeted because of his father.

It's gotten really ugly between he and his challenger, Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla.

I don't know how much uglier it could get, but Rob's got all the endorsements from Hudson County, so that stacks up when we're talking about a race like that.

He does.

And that was probably a really tall order for him.

It was I think we could even say that that was improbable as his father's indictments first came out, that he, with the same name as his dad, was going to be able to survive with the organizational support that he has.

Now that he's got that lined up, he really feels like he's got the campaign.

On the other foot.

He is getting out there.

He's aggressive, He's not backing down.

And Bhalla certainly isn't either.

He's got more money raised for anybody in their first quarter as a candidate for the House ever in New Jersey.

So this is going to be a serious challenge to Rob.

But Rob has all the organizational support and that really matters in Hudson County.

He's also asking Robin and to debate him six times before the election.

We'll see what happens there.

And very quickly in the seventh, we now at least it appears we have the two nominees, Tom Kean Jr, who's defending his seat, and Sue Altman, because the other Democratic challenger backed out of the race.

This is it.

That's the lineup.

We have a path forward, as she's known as a very progressive left wing activist.

This is a moderate district.

She is.

And you're going to see that the moderate positions of the Working Families Party and of Sue Altman are going to be the ones that she's going to feature.

She's going to feature the ability for middle class families to get ahead.

She's not going to be talking about the ones that, you know, have the ability to chafe with seventh district voters.

So, you know, listen, the Kean campaign is going to be pulling her back to those as often as they can.

They think that they have the candidate that they want it.

They think that they you know, that they know now what their playbook is going to look like.

And running against a progressive.

But, you know, look, she's going to be looking to uncover every Biden voter, every anti-Trump voter in this district, and driving that up as much as she can, much as Tom Malinowski tried to do two years ago.

Yeah.

Micah Rasmussen, thank you so much.

Thank you.