To the Editor:

I’m writing in response to a letter in the May 7 Mailbox urging primary voters not to support 12th Congressional District candidates who received the ‘ballot line’ in Mercer or Middlesex counties. Instead Zachary Israel, author of this letter, urges a vote for Upendra Chvukula or Andrew Zwicker as the progressive candidates most independent of the “establishment.” While I disagree with Mr. Israel on several points, I think he is absolutely correct on one point: ballot order should not determine a voter’s decision. As voters, we should make our choices based on the issues and the records of the candidates, and we should know something about the candidates before we step into the voting booth.

Each county party is required to determine the order in which candidates will be placed on the ballot. The first ballot position in each race is commonly referred to as “the party line.” In Mercer County the decision is made by the party executive in consultation with party members at a public convention. The delegates to this convention are party committee members, elected at the local level by primary voters. Mercer’s process is among the most open of any county in the state. Although Mr. Israel implicitly criticizes Bonnie Watson Coleman and Linda Greenstein for achieving the best ballot positions in the 12th Congressional District’s two most populous counties, he fails to note that his native Somerset county awarded this favored position to Upendra Chivukula, a candidate he describes as not endorsed by “establishment insiders.”

In any case, the assignments of ‘the party line’ were hardly a conspiracy of machine politics. Ms. Coleman, Ms. Greenstein, and Mr. Chivukula are members of the state assembly from Mercer, Middlesex, and Somerset counties respectively. With only a short period of time between the announcement of Mr. Holt’s retirement and the deadline for deciding ballot placement, each county chose a figure already familiar to a large number of its voters. Given how much of our state is still run by party bosses, even a questionable assignment of the party line would be negligible in comparison to the machine politics in some of our neighboring districts.

In closing, I would like to object to Mr. Israel’s assertion that Mr. Chivukula and Mr. Zwicker are the most progressive candidates in the race. I count myself a supporter of Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman in large measure because she has the most consistently progressive voting record of the three candidates who currently serve in the State Legislature. She holds the endorsement of Barbara Buono, whom she supported during the 2013 gubernatorial campaign even as many Democrats shied away from opposing a popular Governor Christie. I think Ms. Watson Coleman will have the voting record in the House that will most closely match that of Congressman Holt. Of course, I hope that my fellow voters will take some time to inform themselves about the candidates and, on June 3, chose the person they think will best represent our district, regardless of placement on the ballot.

Samuel Weiss

Forester Drive