well a surprising turn of events in the legal battle over the so-called Party Line a majority of County clerks have now dropped their motions to appeal federal judge kashi's recent injunction blocking Democrats use of the countyline ballot system for this June's primary that ruling has all but reset the race in the third congressional district among candidates vying to replace representative Andy Kim acting as a blessing for lesser-known contenders and a curse for those who already had a clean sweep of County endorsements senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan takes a look I think more than any other District in the state this is the one that's getting the biggest reset From the Block office ballot riters Mich rasm talking about the race to fill Senate candidate Andy Kim seat in Jersey's third congressional district Democrats this June will likely confront a whole new ballot design one that no longer lines up the party boss favorites that sent political shock waves rocking candidates for congress in Kim's home District where assemblyman herb Conway had scored the advantageous line in all Three Counties but now all of herb Conway's advantages that he built up in winning those three lines which were thought to be a prohibitive Advantage for him um are all gone and it is a great reset in that race now and it is anybody's game I disagree with them we are uh we have shown and demonstrated that we can win uh be before uh engaging smaller groups of Democrats uh I would expect to enjoy the same success as we move uh to a larger stage in the primary election Conway is a physician who spent 25 years in the legislature he's drawn overwhelming support from County Democratic committee members racked up weighty endorsements and favors a cohesive party he believes in the county line and expresses reservations about the lawsuit to abolish it as unconstitutional ironic filed by Andy Kim you know I have to study it I I do have a concern that that a measure like this might end up weakening the parties and as I say I I do believe we need strong parties I mean you hear this in the commentary all the time all bets are off and it's now a competitive race with Democrat Carol Murphy previously ran for assembly on the county line alongside her former teammate Conway and won but as his opponent for congress she's a convert to the new office block ballot yes I've been I've been converted and um I appreciate what Andy Kim did knowing that the line has fallen it's allowed me and along with my other running mates to be able to continue on to the primary to allow the people to make their voice Murphy commissioned an internal poll of registered Democrats which shows Conaway leads with 22% followed by Murphy with 18 and two other candidates who logged less than 5% each but with 49% undecided and a five Point margin of error you know what I think it like brings it back to neutral it brings it back to the fact that um yeah he might have got the county line but I'm also being reached out by a few of the county members as well that want to have that were not part of that convention right but ditching the county line also opens up the field a bit more for firsttime candidates like civil rights attorney Joe con and Seafood Company co-owner Sarah Shon good who was also a plaintiff in the county line law suit it's evening the playing field in terms of just having Fair placement on the ballot the county line is so crazy that it's it's hard to process like oh what are you saying where's your name going to be on the ballot um so this just you know this allows people to vote for me if they want to there will be visibility my name will be there and the new ballot could create a bigger potential for spoilers as the race tightens rasmon says we don't know who that front runner is going to be but could um could one of those other candidates serve as a sort of spoiler and peel off votes from one of the two front running candidates it's entirely possible he says campaigns will still depend on resources and Conaway can still count on the Democratic party's formidable get out the vote support I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News [Music]