Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman today threw his support behind Representative Andy Kim in the high stakes political battle over New Jersey US senate seat a recent recording first shared with the New York Times reveals just how critical endorsements are in this race after a youth coordinator for the Democratic State committee seemingly tried to pressure the college Democrats of NJ against endorsing Kim instead of Front Runner Tammy Murphy.

As senior political correspondent David Cruz reports it's a rare behind the scenes look at this race and a potential sign of a weakness in the Murphy campaign during election season it's easy to get sucked in by news of a recorded phone call where one side says they felt politically threatened by the other maybe you read the New York Times piece on how a college junior a part-time paid organizer for the state democratic party allegedly tried to pressure the college young Dems into cancelling their endorsement of Andy Kim in the upcoming Senate primary I think if you endorse this early on it would only hinder you um in the long run in terms of your organization and I would be worried about that.

It was scary to hear an employee of the state party tell us that we were going to make powerful enemies Nate Howard was on the other end of that call a recording of which we heard and it sounded friendly enough but political threats are in the eye of the beholder and the Murphy campaign says they get that but point out that the college junior you heard on that call did not represent the campaign and it called her comments totally and completely inappropriate but there's another part of the call which might point to what observers say is a potential weak point of the Murphy campaign a lack of street cred among progressives party Grassroots and yeah young people this from the same organizer in the same phone call I want you to know Nate I am voting for Andy Kim I'm supporting him this primary like I will be casting a vote for him I think he is the best person for young people perception wise she does have the perception that she is the organization's candidate that she is the regular Democrat and so um that means that if you are from a group that's typically more disaffected from the organizations more disaffected from the line that you may want to shop elsewhere the Tammy Murphy campaign says it's got plenty of Grassroots and Progressive support but the Phil Murphy Administration in which the first lady has played a major role has had a lukewarm at best relationship with the left who make up a bulk of primary voters other candidates in the race say Tammy Murphy is the symbol of the political establishment and not in a good way the concern is real the concern calls into a double standard and a overreach of power and we all of us who are who are activists of the democratic party are concerned about it so there's not a real base of support for her on the ground the people who are gravitating to my campaign or are the people that are just fed up with our our broken politics and I think that you know that that phone call that was uh putting pressure on the college Democrats that was an example of this broken politics that people can't stand and that's why I stepped up to run progressives are often the loudest voices in the party but their political potency is often debated in a multi-candidate primary though a United block of Voters is clearly desirable but in politics what supporters say isn't always what they do a lesson learned by one college student this week I think what I learned is that I don't want to have to be that person who is constantly conf iing on my values and is working to help candidates that I don't even like or support that's not the career I want said almost every College age student of politics ever before jumping into campaigns that will challenge that at every turn I'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight news