the state Saga over the use of the party line is far from over County clerks and other interested groups have until midnight tonight to file paperwork if they want to appeal federal judge zahed kashi's decision to temporarily scrap the use of County organizational lines on ballots for this year's Democratic primary app pellet judges could have a decision on whether to put a stay on kashi's injunction by as early as tomorrow evening Governor Murphy today made his first public comments on the ruling during an unrelated press event he was quick to point out that party organizations do more than determined ballot positioning but said the full impact on New Jersey's political landscape remains to be seen party organizations are about a lot of things not just ballot uh structure uh it's first and foremost about recruiting great Democratic candidates who believe in the values of our party getting them to take the big step to run and helping them get elected uh it's about putting all of our energies into defeating the looming presence of Donald Trump Republicans were mostly quiet while Democrats and Progressive groups wage their war against the party line judge karashi clarified over the weekend his preliminary injunction doesn't affect GOP Primary ballots Republicans will use the countyline ballot structure as usual but Democratic County Chairs aren't the only ones who used that line to their advantage now more questions are being being raised about how the ruling will affect the GOP Senate primary race and other down ballot elections in June senior correspondent Renda Flanigan reports the fiery Court battle is not confined to Democrats anymore after a federal judge struck down Jersey's controversial County Line ballot as unconstitutional he ruled the decision applied only to the Democrats primary on June 4th but Republican groups this week filed a flurry of their own legal briefs and they don't all agree one group wants no county line on GOP ballots in June we're looking for equality under the law of the original decision if the original decision stays in effect for the Democrats then it has to be in effect for us Michael Byrne with America First Republicans of New Jersey a farri group whose candidates got locked out of that Plum County Line spot on the gop's primary ballot where Donald Trump tops the ticket our party really needs to be leading on reform right now the Democrats own the reform movement with regard to ballot position there is going to be a slew of people coming in and on the Republican side challenging this the same way it's been challenged on the Democratic side so uh it'll be interesting to see how the third circuit handles it uh now that it's kind of moved on to them both Democrats and Republicans are appealing the original ruling New Jersey's Republican chairs Association will defend the countyline ballot system the Old Guard won't go down without a fight says analyst Chris Russell this has a a seismic impact on on the political landscape in New Jersey and and I think that's why I see so many people coming forward and throwing their hats in the ring on both sides of this thing if you remove the line on the Republican side then it's anybody's guess which way that Republican primary would go Monmouth poll director Patrick Murray says the line can boost a candidates vote share by 10 points on Election Day and with Trump's name at top the GOP and that's going to be the biggest visual cue that um that voters on the Republican side have because as I said they they don't know any of the candidates who are running I mean their their name recognition among Republicans was below 20% that would seem to favor Republican Curtis Basha a Cape May hotelier who's running for US Senate and won the GOP line from organizations in 14 counties his opponents though object bitterly the people who put him on the line are exploiting the Trump name and the Trump brand to drag him to Victory the facts are is he has a long history of donating to Democrats in a long history of being an anti-trumper and that's not what the Republican voters are looking for Christine Serano Glassner is a zealous Trump supporter and US Senate candidate who discounts the county line process as truly representational these are folks that are County committe members they are not the voter they are not the Republican primary voter the way she's run her race has been name calling and firebombing in uh incendiary emails about how I view president Trump all of which were mischaracterizations Basha says the county line is fair and that he backs Trump without offering an explicit endorsement I'm supporting president Trump this fall I'm his running mate we've been through a process it feels like it would be very difficult to exclude Republicans uh from the line process at this late hour bash says he's not afraid to run a campaign without the line and has the money to self Finance meanwhile the lawsuits continue as the calendar ticks towards June I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News