Each of the major parties (Democratic and Republican) has a party structure that is comprised of elected committee men and committee women. The party committees endorse and work to elect party candidates to all state and local positions (e.g., mayor, council).
The NJ Law referencing the parties’ state committees is NJSA 19:5-4: “The members of the State Committee of each of the political parties shall be elected at the primary for the general election of the year in which a Governor is to be elected.” That is, State Committee members are elected in the primaries, every 4 years. [Note: The law lays out three possibilities for state committee. The Republican Party chose option a, the Democratic Party chose option b]
Republican State Committee (male and female): According to the New Jersey Republican State Committee’s Constitution and By-Laws, the (Republican) State Committee is composed of one male and one female registered Republican from each of New Jersey’s 21 counties elected at the primary election in the year in which the Governor is to be elected. Each elected member shall take office upon their election following the primary, and hold office for four years.
Democratic State Committee (male and female): According to the NJ Democratic State Committee by-laws (Article XII, section 4, page 8): The New Jersey Democratic State Committee shall be made up of 98 total votes that are apportioned among the counties based on total population of each county. The voting body of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee shall be made up of members with whole votes and members with half votes. Different counties have different numbers of votes depending on population. There shall be an equal number of men and women in the committee. In the case where some counties will have an odd number of members (because of weighted votes based on population from the last Census) these members will get a half vote.
What do the party committee do? Committee members elect a Chair each year & other officers. Other officials such as a salaried Executive Director are appointed by the Chair. The organization then helps to elect public officials at the federal, state, county and local levels.