New Jersey Senate Budget Committee Sends Bills to Eliminate Separate Presidential Primary to the Floor

The New Jersey state Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee this morning voted in favor of S 2883 and A 3777, the bills that would eliminate the separate February presidential primary. Both identical bills would return the presidential primary to the first Tuesday in June to be held concurrently with the primaries for statewide and local offices. Eleven of the thirteen committee members voted for a bill (bills including the simultaneously considered Senate version) that unanimously passed the state Assembly in May.¹

Having passed the committee hurdles in the Senate,² the bills now head to the floor for consideration by the full upper house. Both are expected to pass.

--

¹ The way the committee tabulated the votes in realtime on the audio feed during the hearing was to count the votes in the affirmative. The remaining two members either voted no or abstained. Once FHQ has a better idea of the complete final vote tally, we'll update the post. Regardless, there was more than enough support for the bills to pass them.

² Due to the fiscal ramifications in these bills -- a savings of $12 million -- both had to go through the State Government Committee and then the Budget Committee as well.

Recent Posts:

Gubernatorial Signature Expected on New York Presidential Primary Bill

What's Happening with the Funding of the South Carolina Primary?

Ohio Senate Votes in Favor of Shifting Presidential Primary to May

Are you following FHQ on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook? Click on the links to join in.