JOHN REITMEYER | NOVEMBER 13, 2019 

NJ Spotlight

The new board will be led by Marlene Caride, right, Gov. Phil Murphy’s Banking and Insurance commissioner.

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Gov. Phil Murphy is planning to sign an executive order Wednesday that will create a 14-member “implementation board” to advance his goal of establishing a public bank in New Jersey.

The basic premise of such an institution is to hold the millions of dollars in taxpayer deposits that are normally kept in commercial banks and leverage them instead to serve some sort of public purpose.

The new board will be led by Marlene Caride, a former state lawmaker who now serves as Murphy’s commissioner of Banking and Insurance, according to information provided by the governor’s office ahead of a planned 11 a.m. announcement in Newark.

JOHN REITMEYER | NOVEMBER 12, 2019

NJ Spotlight

New Jersey’s ramp-up to a $15 minimum wage could be put on hold if the state economy begins to sputter, under a bipartisan bill that is scheduled for its first committee review later this week.

The measure seeks to create ways for state leaders to hit the pause button on a ramp-up schedule; under current legislation, most of New Jersey’s low-income workers would hit the $15 minimum wage by 2024. Prime sponsors of the legislation are Sens. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth) and Kristin Corrado (R-Passaic).

Business-lobbying groups have suggested such “off-ramp” provisions are vital to ensure the wage increases don’t cause more harm than good for the state economy as they are being phased in. But the off-ramp legislation has drawn strong opposition from liberal groups, who view the planned wage increases as a key tool for lifting people out of poverty and combating entrenched income inequality.

Updated Nov 10, 2019

By Ted Sherman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Attorneys for Bill Baroni and Bridget Kelly will present their arguments before the Supreme Court in January.

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Posted Nov 09, 2019

By Matt Arco | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

COLLEEN O'DEA | NOVEMBER 8, 2019

NJ Spotlight

Republican Jean Stanfield won an open seat in the 8th District based in Burlington County.

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New Jersey Democrats and Republicans can argue over which party had a better Election Day this year, but one group was a clear loser, at least at the state level: women.

Already lagging behind 19 other states, including nearby New York and Connecticut, in the percentage of lawmakers who are female, New Jersey stands to lose a net of one woman in the state Assembly come January, provided current results hold. That will drop the proportion of female representation in the state Legislature down to 30%. At the same time, more than 51% of those living in New Jersey are women, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

“This was basically a status quo election,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University.

JOHN REITMEYER | NOVEMBER 7, 2019

NJ Spotlight

The North River Tunnel under the Hudson connects New York and New Jersey and carries Amtrak & NJ Transit passengers making 200,000 daily trips.

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New Jersey’s two U.S. senators are challenging the head of the federal Department of Transportation to meet the commuters who routinely face delays caused by the Northeast Corridor’s century-old trans-Hudson rail tunnel.

In a letter sent yesterday to U.S. DOT Secretary Elaine Chao, Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Bob Menendez reacted to recent media reports that indicated the secretary privately reviewed conditions inside the North River Tunnel last year, even as her agency has held up federal funding for a new tunnel.

“While viewing the state of the existing tunnels is a compelling enough sight, we believe you and your team would also benefit from meeting with our constituents, who are impacted each week by countless delays, in order to better understand the urgency of moving the project forward,” the senators said

By Alan Steinberg | November 6, 2019

Insider NJ

Chris Russell

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Major Winner of Election Night: Chris Russell. 

The wunderkind of New Jersey politics, once again Chris Russell proved that he is the top GOP political consultant in New Jersey.  He was the chief strategist in the decisive upset GOP victories in the First and Eighth Legislative Districts, despite being vastly outspent by the Democrats.  On the local side, he scored two significant victories in Old Bridge and Parsippany.  Can Chris bring home a winning NJGOP gubernatorial candidate with Jack Ciattarelli in 2021? 

Major Upset Winners: Jon Bramnick and Nancy Munoz 

Virtually every pundit, including myself, had predicted that Jon Bramnick and Nancy Munoz would lose.  My exact quote: “Bramnick and Munoz have served with distinction in the Assembly, but in 2019, they have been hit with the perfect storm.”  What doesn’t kill you in politics makes you stronger, and the fact that that Bramnick and Munoz survived the perfect storm substantially boosts Bramnick’s stature as Assembly Republican Leader and Munoz’s eminence on health care issues. 

The Muhammad Ali Award – Mike Testa, Jr. 

Howard Cosell once said that every sports writer tends to fall in love with a fighter.  He fell in love with Floyd Patterson and Muhammad Ali.  That happens with political writers, too, and that’s what happened with me regarding Mike Testa, Jr. 

Before entering the ring with Sonny Liston on February 25, 1964, Muhammad Ali, then Cassius Clay, said to Howard Cosell, “I’m going to shock the world tonight!”   Yesterday afternoon, I received a text message from Mike Testa saying, “I predict we will shock the world!”  He sure did shock the New Jersey political world, carrying his Assembly running mates Erik Simonsen and Antwan McClellan in victory across the finish line with him.  At long last, South Jersey Republicans have a charismatic leader in Mike Testa.  He is only 43, and a decade from now, look for his name to be mentioned as a gubernatorial candidate. 

COLLEEN O'DEA | NOVEMBER 6, 2019

NJ Spotlight

Assembly Republican leader Jon Bramnick, with running mate Nancy Munoz and Senate Republican leader Tom Kean, declares victory.

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Democrats appear to have lost at least three and as many as five seats in the New Jersey Legislature, including the only Senate race on the ballot. And they did not flip any of the three districts they were targeting in this year’s election, which took place yesterday.

With 100% of districts reporting, Republicans captured the Senate seat in the southernmost 1^st District, as well as both Assembly seats there. They also held a smaller lead in the neighboring 2^nd, a split district with a Republican senator that includes Atlantic City. That race, however, had not been called with fewer than 800 votes separating the second and third place finishers and mail-in and provisional ballots apparently uncounted as of midnight. Final results there may not be available for several days.

Democrats were also unable to flip seats in three districts they had been targeting, although they did keep control of the Assembly seats in two others considered competitive.