Vice President Joe Biden called the upcoming NJ governor's race “the single most important” election of the next three years.

Biden-backed Phil Murphy won the Democratic primary on Tuesday, delivering a Hillary Clinton populist message grounded in his career as a Goldman Sachs banker. Bernie Sanders did not endorse Murphy, although his son did campaign for the candidate.

As Sanders progressives rip into NJ Sen. Corey Booker's ethical credentials in any future presidential race -- having accepted money from big pharma companies in his state -- the Murphy win shows that at a state level, the Sanders wing of the Democratic party is not running the show in New Jersey.

The Murphy primary win -- and expected future win as NJ governor -- also demonstrates that Democrats can run on a platform that shares 95% of Sanders' priorities -- as the 2016 Presidential campaign platform did -- without throwing every person with ties to wealth and big business out of the party as the Sanders camp is demanding.

The Democratic party supports campaign finance reform, and the purge of big money from American politics. In a discussion yesterday, I arbitrarily estimated that for Dems to run nationwide in local, state and federal elections with campaigns that spend HALF the money of Republicans would cost every Dem voter $1000 in campaign contributions to a wide range of candidates. For all we know the amount is $5000. I wish one of the Dem think tanks would actually run the numbers, so that when progressives argue to throw every $ from wealthy donors out of the election process, that they are in a position to also advise all of us about what we will now need to contribute as civic-minded citizens. Granted, Democratic control would then allow us to pass new laws on campaign finance. But the Sanders camp needs to explain what it will cost each of us to get to this point. It's NOT $27 a person.

As Mother Jones writes: "In many ways Murphy’s platform, in a state with close ties to America’s capital of high finance, represents another sign of the Sanders wing’s policy momentum. (Quick: name a prospective 2020 candidate who doesn’t support a $15 minimum wage or single-payer health care.) But for a movement rooted in animosity toward the donor class, Murphy’s checkbook ascendancy highlights the gap between where the party is and where the Left still wants it to be. A populist ex-banker, after all, is still an ex-banker." ~ Anne

In 2012, women of color -- and especially Black women -- voted at a higher rate than any other group, representing a key constituency that elected President Obama. Black women voted in historically high numbers, voting Democratic and delivering a victory to the nation's first African American president.

In the 2008 election, many of these women were split between Senators Clinton and Obama. Now they are united in their commitment to Hillary Clinton.

Next month on Dec. 10, Star Jones, former co-host of 'The View' and president of the Professional Diversity Network and National Association of Professional Women; Cora Masters Barry, widow of former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry; Yolanda Caraway, president and CEO of the Caraway Group; and Minyon Moore, principal of Dewey Square Group and head of state and local affairs and multicultural strategies practices for the Clinton campaign are hosting an exclusive private reception and fundraiser called 'African-American Women For Hillary Clinton.'

Donations begin at $1000.

Survey Monkey Online Poll

In a new Survey Monkey online poll conducted Sunday through Tuesday among 5,755 adults nationwide, including 1,983 Democratic voters and independent voters who lean Democratic Hillary Clinton maintains a 16-point lead over Bernie Sanders.

Clinton carries 66% of all Black voters, male and female, vs. 16% for Sanders. Note that the race is closer than phone polls released this week, but it may be more accurate. A new Bloomberg Politics poll shows Clinton with a 25-point lead over Sanders.