Kim Edges MacArthur In NJ's 3rd Congressional District, AP Says

Democrat Andy Kim has won election to represent New Jersey's 3rd Congressional District, edging Republican incumbent Tom MacArthur, eight days after polls closed in the 2018 midterm election, the Associated Press declared Wednesday.

Kim held a lead of 3,474 votes through Wednesday morning, according to unofficial vote totals published on the Ocean and Burlington county election results sites, with about 6,400 provisional ballots to be tallied, according to an NJ.com report.

Provisional ballots were being examined in Ocean County on Wednesday, the Asbury Park Press reported, and presumably in Burlington County as well.

The provisional ballots, estimated at about 4,000 in Burlington and 2,400 in Ocean in the NJ.com report, were in the process of being counted. Across New Jersey, hundreds of voters cast provisional ballots after being sent mail-in ballots they did not request. (READ MORE:NJ's Mail-In Ballot Law Leaves Some Wondering If Votes Will Count)

MacArthur posted a statement to Facebook shortly before 7 p.m. announcing he had conceded.

"Tonight, I called Congressman-Elect Andy Kim to congratulate him on his victory," MacArthur wrote. "Enough provisional ballots have been counted to make the outcome clear. My staff and I will work with him to ensure a smooth transition in every way."

"It has been an honor to represent the people of Ocean and Burlington counties over the last four years, and I am proud to have done so with honesty and integrity," he said. "My wife Debbie and I have been truly blessed in life, and our commitment to helping others has never been defined by politics or elected office. I am also a firm believer that good can come out of life’s disappointments and I look forward to what the future holds for us."

"Thank you to all of those who supported me and even those who did not," MacArthur said. "We must all work together to ensure that America remains the shining city on a hill that President Reagan described so many years ago."

Kim's victory leaves New Jersey with just one Republican representative in Congress: Chris Smith of the neighboring 4th District.

"This campaign was never about the politics; it was always about the people of New Jersey and who would best advocate for the hopes and needs of our community in Washington," Kim said in a statement late Wednesday afternoon. "Our campaign was about the issues — about affordable health care for all Americans; about fair taxes for New Jersey families; and about a government that works for the people. I look forward to working on these and other key issues while representing my home district with integrity and civility in Washington."

The victory gives the Democrats 228 seats in the House, according to figures posted by RollCall.com. There are still eight more House races that have not been settled, according to that report.

Kim declared himself the winner on Nov. 7, 24 hours after the polls closed, despite the mail-in ballots not being fully tallied at that point. MacArthur, who was seeking a third term in the House, declined to concede at that point.

The vote totals for the two candidates swung wildly on Election Day. Ocean County, which is heavily Republican, posted results from those who voted at the polls by 9 p.m. on Nov. 6 and, not surprisingly, MacArthur held a substantial lead of more than 20,000 votes. About 11 p.m., Burlington County posted its initial tallies from voters who went to the polls, and with an infusion of more than 87,000 votes in the heavily Democratic county, Kim took a 395-vote lead.

At midnight on Election Day, Ocean County updated its vote totals with the results from more than 30,000 mail-in ballots, which boosted MacArthur back into the lead by 2,315 votes, which remained until Burlington County added in 25,000 mail-in ballots received there, pushing Kim back into the lead.

As of 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 7, the unofficial tallies had MacArthur, the Republican incumbent, leading Democrat Kim by 2,315 votes, 136,408 for MacArthur and 134,093 for Kim. Ocean County's figures included 30,453 mail-in ballots cast. That afternoon, Burlington updated with 25,545 mail-in votes giving Kim 148,580 votes to 145,958 for MacArthur. Those numbers were updated further after the Nov. 8 deadline.

The unofficial results as of 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. so far show the split between the two halves of the district: In heavily Republican Ocean County, MacArthur had 76,998 votes to 46,861 for Kim, while in Burlington, which leans more to the Democrats, Kim had 103,649 and MacArthur 70,038.

Lawrence Berlinski, the Constitution candidate, had 3,846 votes, according to the unofficial tallies.

The campaign between Kim — who was born and raised in Burlington County but had lived in the Washington, DC area working for the federal government — and MacArthur — a North Jersey transplant who bought a home in Ocean County shortly before running for the seat in 2014 — was at times testy as outside PACs poured money into fliers and advertising in the district and started well before the primaries, as neither faced a challenger for their parties' nominations.

From the start, it was seen as a verdict on the policies and politics of President Donald Trump, even though Trump's name was barely mentioned during the 3rd District campaign by either candidate. MacArthur was repeatedly criticized by Kim for his support of two of Trump's pet projects — repealing the Affordable Care Act and tax reform — and for his work on both issues. MacArthur promoted his efforts to protect a portion of the property tax deduction when other Republicans sought to eliminate it completely. His compromise — a $10,000 cap on the deduction — was seen as not enough for most of New Jersey, where the property tax deduction is the one salve that makes the high taxes marginally more palatable.

Kim's campaign also hit hard on the topic of health care, particularly on the issue of protecting those with preexisting conditions and on costs for those receiving their insurance through the insurance marketplace, where costs for those 55 or older would have risen significantly under provision of a MacArthur amendment. Though the amendment and the repeal ultimately went down to defeat, Kim's campaign successfully emphasized MacArthur's former work as an insurance industry executive and exploited the "what if" factor on the possibilities of the potential for renewed efforts to eliminate the ACA.

MacArthur touted having bipartisan ratings from The Lugar Center, a think-tank that looks and a wide scope of each representative's votes to just their bipartisanship. But his votes on the ACA repeal and the tax reform stood out to many as being Trump-centric when all other members of the New Jersey Congressional delegation — Democrats and Republicans alike — voted against both. Trump also hosted an expensive fundraiser for MacArthur at his country club in Bedminster, solidifying the appearance that MacArthur was closer to the president than he portrayed.

MacArthur, meanwhile, went after Kim on issues of a more personal nature, accusing him of taking a property tax break he wasn't entitled to receive — which Kim said he fixed and repaid the tax money he received — along with accusations of resume padding with regard to his national security work, and trying to paint him as a dangerous radical based on Kim's role in starting a Facebook group and organization to protest Trump's policies.

None of those efforts seemed to gain much traction despite a flood of advertising in the waning days of the campaign. If anything, voters on both sides expressed frustration and exhaustion with the negativity.

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Photos provided by the MacArthur and Kim campaigns