NEW JERSEY POLITICS 2017 - · PDF fileOBSERVER.COM/NEW-JERSEY-POLITICS 2017: THE YEAR IN REVIEW 7 OBSERVER NEW EREY ITI Strength H Stability H Peace of Mind Horizon Blue Cross Blue

2017The Year in Review

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2017: Year in ReviewWe are closing the book on 2017, saying

goodbye in a few weeks to our larger-than-life governor, Chris Christie, and saying hello to

his richer-than-life successor, Phil Murphy.But it was an exceptionally busy year for virtually all the

major players in New Jersey politics. Let’s briefly recap:Bob Menendez survived a corruption trial because ju-

rors reportedly were overwhelmingly unconvinced that he had done anything wrong and the judge declared a mistrial.

Steve Sweeney just went through the most expensive state legislative race in U.S. history to keep his seat as Senate president.

Tom MacArthur became one of the top House Republi-cans in the middle of health care and tax negotiations.

Cory Booker has been one of the most vocal opponents of President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He may well have given Doug Jones the edge in the Ala-bama Senate race against Roy Moore.

There was so much more this year, and Observer NJ was there to cover as much of it as humanly possible. We want to thank our readers for their support and their civic engagement. We hope we were able sherpas for you during a crazy year in New Jersey politics.

But before you close the book on 2017, we wanted to give you a refresher on the year’s top political stories and discuss some of the aftermath after we first reported them. Enjoy, happy holidays, thanks for reading, and here’s to a great 2018.

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In some ways, the governor’s race was over before the year even started. Phil Murphy had already put away

his toughest competition by the time the calendar turned to 2017, forcing Senate President Steve Sweeney and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop to cancel plans for gubernatorial campaigns.

But the first-time candidate still had to take care of business in 2017, fending off a B-list of primary chal-lengers before cruising to victory over Chris Christie’s lieutenant governor. He transformed himself from virtual unknown to the next governor of New Jersey with a methodical brick-by-brick effort.

The Needham, Mass., native hired some of New Jersey’s top political talent and locked up every major endorsement. He spent millions from his personal fortune built up over two decades at Goldman Sachs. And he surprised many with his campaign’s heavy liberal bent, sounding more like Bernie Sanders than an ex-Wall Street bank executive.

Murphy, 60, beat Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno by 14 points in getting elected the 56th governor of New Jersey. He will be sworn in on Jan. 16.

Murphy promised everything to everyone during the campaign, and his challenge now will be finding the money while managing the state’s already shaky finances. He vowed to raise taxes on the wealthy, boost funding for education and public worker pensions, legalize and tax marijuana, institute a $15 minimum wage and move toward universal access to preschool education and tuition-free community college, among many other Democratic priorities that Christie vetoed or ignored for eight years.

He wants New Jersey to be “the Cali-fornia of the Eest Coast,” as he put it.

To cover the cost of his many cam-paign promises, Murphy expects to raise taxes on wealthy individuals (including himself ) and large corporations to the tune of $1 billion a year. He would round up another $300 million by taxing legal weed, and realize savings of $80 million

to $100 million by overhauling health care plans for public workers. But some budget analysts say that may not be enough money to pay for all Murphy has promised. And Sweeney is already pumping the brakes on plans to raise taxes on millionaires. Welcome to life in Trenton, Mr. Murphy.

Although he never held elected office, Murphy proved to be a calculating polit-ical tactician. After 23 years at Goldman Sachs, he became finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2006 to 2009. After that successful stint fundraising for Democrats, former President Barack Obama named Murphy ambassador to Germany, where he served from 2009 to 2013.

He established a nonprofit, New Start NJ, now chaired by his wife Tammy, that gave him an entrée into the state’s policy debates and a vehicle to start making connections with stakeholders and political leaders. Upon returning from Germany, he quickly sought counsel from Julie Roginsky, a seasoned Democratic strategist who had worked several big New Jersey campaigns, and the political

advertising shop Message and Media. He hired a veteran of several big statewide races, Essex County Freeholder Brendan Gill, as his campaign manager.

Murphy also used his personal wealth to overwhelm his opponents, donating handsomely to Democratic county and municipal committees to build alliances and spending $16 million of his own money to assure his chances of victory in the June primary. That fueled a state-re-cord $42 million in spending during the gubernatorial primary.

In the general election, Murphy painted Guadagno as a clone of Christie, frequently mentioning both names together to never let the Republican nominee escape her boss’s shadow. He staunchly opposed everything coming out of Trump’s mouth and adminis-tration, at one point alluding to Nazi Germany.

Although his campaign stumbled at times, Murphy stuck to a script that resonated with voters, promising to build a “stronger, fairer economy” and stand up to Trump with a “steel backbone.”

He also got a lot of help in the home stretch. Obama, former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Joe Biden and other prominent Democrats stumped for Murphy on the trail in recent weeks, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed and fundraised for him in New Jersey.

Despite those establishment ties, Murphy’s campaign ran far to the left and never tried to walk back to the middle. The resulting policy platform not only helped insulate Murphy from primary attacks over his Goldman Sachs history, it was apparently a big hit with voters in the general election Tuesday.

And it could give Murphy a platform to play a prominent role on the nation-al stage, as Democrats look for a model on how to navigate through the Trump era. After New Jersey soured on Chris-tie in part because he ran for president, state residents could have another ambitious politician on their hands. — Christian Hetrick

Phil Murphy Conquers New Jersey

Phil Murphy.

OBSERVER.COM/NEW-JERSEY-POLITICS 2017: THE YEAR IN REVIEW 6


The trial of Sen. Bob Menendez ended anticlimactically in Novem-ber after jurors could not reach

agreement on any of the 18 counts facing the senator and co-defendant Salomon Melgen, forcing the judge to declare a mistrial.

“We cannot reach a unanimous decision,” the jury told Judge William H. Walls in a note during the second week of deliberations. “Nor are we willing to move away from our strong convictions.”

The trial, which stretched over 11 weeks from September to Novem-ber, included charges that Menendez accepted gifts, bribes and high-dollar campaign contributions from Mel-gen. In exchange, prosecutors say he helped Melgen secure visas for foreign

After Mistrial, Menendez Heralds ‘Resurrection Day’

girlfriends and helped him with port security and Medicare billing issues. As they presented evidence, prosecutors recounted flights Menendez took on Melgen’s private jet, detailed accounts of lavish hotel stays purchased on Melgen’s dime and presented information about meetings arranged by Menendez with top government officials relating to Melgen’s business interests.

A reported 10 out of 12 jurors believed defense assertions that those exchanges were part of a long friendship, not a corrupt quid pro quo. Menendez main-tained throughout the trial that pros-ecutors were misrepresenting a close, personal bond as something nefarious.

“Friends can commit crimes together. Friends can bribe each other,” prose-

cutor Peter Koski said during opening statements.

But “there was no smoking gun in this case,” said juror Ed Norris after the mistrial was declared. Norris claimed that the senator came close to acquittal, with 10 of the 12 jurors leaning toward not guilty on all counts.

While the Justice Department has the option to retry the case, those tough odds and the staggering cost of a retrial make it somewhat unlikely that Menendez will face another trial.

For Menendez, the non-decision has been a political rebirth. Almost imme-diately after the mistrial was declared, New Jersey’s Democratic elite began issuing announcements of support for Menendez, all-but ensuring his nom-

Bob Menendez.



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ination for another term in 2018 — in a deep-blue state that hasn’t elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972.

To date, Menendez has scored endorsements from Governor-elect Phil Murphy, all seven House Democrats in New Jersey’s congressional delegation, the chair of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee and more.

Throughout the trial, the courtroom was a revolving door for powerful state Democrats who came to sit in the gallery and quietly offer support to Menendez. Sens. Cory Booker and Lindsey Graham were character witnesses for the senator, both vouching for his integrity.

“To those who were digging my political grave so they could jump into my seat, I know who you are and I won’t forget you,” Menendez said after the mistrial was declared in one of the most memorable political quotes of 2017.

Former Sen. Bob Torricelli had been reportedly asking around about jumping into Menendez’s seat, but he backed off on the day Walls declared a mistrial and said he was only planning to run if

Menendez resigned. Menendez, who was indicted two and

a half years ago, is already back in action in Washington, D.C. Polls show that his reputation with the public was hurt by the trial (49 percent say he should step down, according to a November poll by

Rutgers-Eagleton), but Menendez has just begun his self-proclaimed “resur-rection” and is focused on pushing back against the Trump administration, some-thing that he hopes will earn back trust among liberal-leaning New Jerseyans. — Alyana Alfaro

Bob Menendez.



After a tumultuous period as Assembly speaker from 2010 to 2014, Sheila Oliver fell prey to

the same New Jersey Democratic bosses who had orchestrated her rise. She was seen as too independent-minded and not enough of a team player during a heady time when Democrats were busy cutting all kinds of deals with Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

Oliver, an assistant Essex County administrator known as one of the more progressive state lawmakers, took a back seat for a few years and it was unclear where her career would go in the post-Christie era.

Phil Murphy answered that question by selecting Oliver to be his running mate this year. She is now the lieutenant gover-nor-elect and the incoming commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs, a post that will give her a policy agenda and oversight over the finances of many New Jersey cities that depend on the state government for aid.

She and Murphy come from different backgrounds, but they seem to have an affinity for each other and have committed to be partners.

Asked how her independent streak would mesh with Murphy, Oliver told NJTV last month that state government needs more people with critical thinking skills. “We need objective, analytical ex-amination of what the major public policy issues are that are affecting us, and we don’t get enough of that in government,” Oliver said.

She said, “We make jokes sometimes that if you’re a member of the Legislature all you have to learn to do is push the green button. But I think that we should pay more attention to the implication of what we do as governmental leaders and the implication it has for people’s lives.”

Over two decades, Oliver has served at every level of New Jersey government: as a member of her local school board in East Orange, as an Essex County freeholder, as a state lawmaker and Assembly speaker.

She was elevated to the speakership in 2010 as part of a backroom deal between George Norcross, the South Jersey Demo-cratic power broker, and Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, her benefactor and boss at her day job.

Oliver fills some of the gaps on Mur-phy’s resume. While the governor-elect has never held elected office before, Oliver has been on the statewide stage for years, has a connection to the Democratic Party’s urban and liberal base, and brings deep knowledge of the inner workings of the state house, the legislative process and the people who make the machine hum.

Oliver warred with Christie on a wide range of issues — especially charter schools and vouchers — and championed liberal causes. She successfully got a question on the ballot in 2013 to raise the state minimum wage, which voters ultimately approved. She passed a bill to legalize gay marriage in 2012, although Christie vetoed the legislation (the state courts would legalize gay marriage a year

The Return of Sheila Oliver

Sheila Oliver.



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later). And she battled Christie on raising the millionaire’s tax, funding Planned Parenthood, toughening gun control laws, and other issues that are now at the heart of Murphy’s agenda.

Oliver unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Sen-ate in 2013, losing to Sen. Cory Booker, then the Newark mayor, in the primary to succeed the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg. But she carved out a distinctive role in that campaign as a voice for women, minorities and the state’s hard-up residents.

“The time has come for women — activist women, political women, professional women — to stand up and represent women,” Oliver said at the time, lamenting that the U.S. Senate had become a wealthy enclave disconnected from urban America.

She has already made some early moves signaling a change of direction from the Christie years. A controversial state takeover of Atlantic City, Oliver told the Philadelphia Inquirer, would get a hard look and possible changes now that she will be overseeing it as DCA commis-sioner.-— Salvador Rizzo Sheila Oliver.



In the end, it was Senate President Steve Sweeney who taught the teach-ers a lesson.The New Jersey Education Asso-

ciation went all in trying to take out Sweeney, sparking what’s likely the most expensive legislative race in American history. The allies and opponents of Sweeney spent $18.7 million when it was all said and done. “It is more than most past gubernatorial candidates have spent statewide,” said Election Law Enforce-ment Commissioner Executive Director Jeff Brindle when the final figures were tallied.

Sweeney survived the multimil-lion-dollar bonanza and won re-election by a whopping 18 points. If nothing else, the NJEA sent a message to state officials that they have money to make your life hell if you cross them. And Sweeney showed that you can cross the union and still survive.

It all started when Sweeney reneged on a promised ballot question in 2016 to guarantee pension funding. Sweeney

also accused the NJEA and other union officials of trying to bribe him. The NJEA described Sweeney as a frequent partner in crime with Gov. Chris Christie, who in 2011 cut public worker benefits.

So the NJEA declared war against Sweeney. The union endorsed his GOP Senate challenger, Fran Grenier, a Presi-dent Trump supporter. The NJEA’s super PAC, Garden State Forward, ran ads la-beling Sweeney a “pay-to-play politician.” The union ultimately spent $4.8 million in the failed effort to oust the Legislature’s top Democrat.

Sweeney supporters matched the NJEA dollar-for-dollar, and then some. A super PAC supporting Sweeney, New Jer-seyans for a Better Tomorrow, spent $5 million in the district. A super PAC with ties to South Jersey power broker George Norcross, General Majority, contributed $2.6 million toward re-electing Sweeney. The Carpenters Fund for Growth and Progress added $1.25 million to boost Sweeney. Candidates in the district combined to spend $4.3 million, the vast

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majority coming from Democrats. The effort to knock out Sweeney forced

Democrats to spend millions of dollars on his district that could have been spent on other competitive races across New Jersey. While Democrats flipped seats in the 7th and 11th districts, they lost a seat to Assemblyman Chris Brown (R-Atlan-tic) in the 2nd district.

Whether the costly war between Sweeney and the NJEA will lead any long-term damage remains to be seen. The issue proved awkward for Gover-nor-elect Phil Murphy, who refused to pick sides between the union backing his campaign and the Senate president he will need to enact his policies. Swee-ney reportedly said he was disappoint-ed that Murphy was standing on the sidelines.

Sweeney didn’t bury the hatchet after winning the election, comparing the union’s leaders to thugs and saying he would only talk to the American Federation of Teachers, New Jersey’s other teachers union, from now on. After Murphy named NJEA president Marie

Blistan as co-chair of his education transition committee, AFT president Donna Chiera was added to committee a few days later.

Sweeney’s top legislative priority next year is to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into public schools, not exactly political punishment for the NJEA. But

the funding mechanism for this boost in funding is supposed to be a tax hike on millionaires, and Sweeney is now signaling he may abandon that plan. That’s reminding some observers of his 180 on the pension funding amendment, which started this snafu in the first place. — Christian Hetrick

Stev Sweeney and Chris Chrtistie.



New Jersey’s 7th and 11th con-gressional districts are poised to become battlegrounds during

the 2018 midterms, a critical election for Democrats who are targeting these tradi-tionally Republican strongholds as they attempt to overtake the GOP majority in the House.

In 2000, filmmaker Michael Moore registered a ficus tree to run against Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen in New Jersey’s 11th congressional district, a gag meant to highlight the uncompetitive nature of gerrymandered districts nationally.

Oh, how things have changed. Frelinghuysen is now seeing one

Republican and four Democrats — down from six Democrats originally in the mix — jostle to challenge him in the upcoming

2018 midterm election. He has represent-ed the district since 1995.

According to the Cook Political Report, the former GOP stronghold is now a “toss-up.” Cook cites a redistricting that brought some parts of Essex County, including lib-eral Montclair, into the district, changing voter demographics.

Frelinghuysen has also made a few potential missteps that have energized activists in the area. In May, Frelinghuy-sen wrote a letter to a local bank calling employee Saily Avelenda a “ringleader” in the activist group NJ 11th for Change, some of Frelinghuysen’s harshest critics.

The group has hosted candidate forums to educate voters about Frelin-ghuysen’s potential challengers, holds weekly protests outside of his office and

regularly calls on the congressman to hold in-person town halls, something Frelinghuysen has declined to do for many months. His letter tattling on Ave-lenda was seen as a ham-handed attempt to quash a dissenting voice in his district.

Some other controversial moves in the past year by Frelinghuysen, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, include his decision to support a House bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a bill that would have likely stripped health care coverage from many in New Jersey, and a vote to release a GOP budget reso-lution due to a need to get important ap-propriations moving. But that resolution also included the basic provisions of the Republican tax bill, a deeply unpopular plan in New Jersey and one that Freling-

In GOP Country, an Emerging Democratic Threat

Leonard Lance.



huysen eventually voted no on. His most successful Democratic

potential challenger to date is Mikie Sherrill, a former federal prosecutor and Navy veteran. Sherrill has raised over $744,000. Frelinghuysen has raised about $1.15 million. But former prose-cutor Mitchell Cobert, family advocate Tamara Harris, college professor Mark Washburne and attorney Martin Hewitt, a Republican, are also in the mix.

Six Democrats have so far registered for the June 2018 primary in the 7th congres-sional district, currently represented by Rep. Leonard Lance, a moderate Repub-lican. Those Democrats are former Assis-tant Secretary of State Tom Malinowski, lawyer Lisa Mandelblatt, businesswoman Linda Weber, lawyer Goutam Jois, lawyer Scott Salmon and community organizer Peter Jacob.

Lance has teamed with Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-5), a moderate Democrat, to push back against initiatives including looming changes to the state and local tax (SALT) deduction under

the national GOP tax plan. Lance was also one of the only national Republicans to vote against the House health care bill earlier this year, and is a regular although not vociferous critic of President Trump.

Despite those stances, Lance is still being painted as an enabler for national Republicans. His challengers say his support of Speaker Paul Ryan and other party officials has contributed to the cur-rent atmosphere in Washington and that,

despite his protests, national Republicans have not taken his criticisms to heart.

Lance has raised about $643,000 in campaign contributions, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. But there will likely not be a competitive primary in his district, allow-ing him to hold on to his campaign funds until after the June primary. Combined, the six Democrats in the field have raised $865,000. — Alyana Alfaro

Leonard Lance.



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Rep. Tom MacArthur’s moves are frequently viewed through the lens of an ambitious politician

with statewide potential. And in 2017, MacArthur (R-3) continued to emerge as a rising star in the New Jersey Republi-can Party, someone with a knack for get-ting in the middle of the most important issues.

But MacArthur’s latest moves have some observers scratching their heads. How could he put his name on an amend-ment to an unpopular attempt to gut the Affordable Care Act? Why is he the only New Jersey member of Congress support-ing a tax overhaul that would harm high-tax New Jersey? Does he know President Trump is not popular around here?

While other congressional Republicans in the state are keeping Trump at arm’s length — think Rep. Leonard Lance — MacArthur is riding in the caboose of the Trump train as he heads toward the 2018 midterm election.

He started the year as an influential player in efforts to repeal and replace

the Affordable Care Act. MacArthur’s combination of business experience and sway with his GOP colleagues quickly made him a point man in the negotiations between Republicans in Congress and the White House. He initially opposed efforts to repeal Obamacare, voicing concerns that the process was being rushed and didn’t involve Democrats.

MacArthur authored a crucial amendment to the GOP plan to scrap Obamacare. It would have allowed some states an option to set higher coverage rates for consumers with pre-existing conditions. The amendment revived a House GOP health bill got it passed through the lower House of Congress. The repeal effort then died in the Senate, but MacArthur’s efforts seem to have gotten him a seat at the table, rubbing elbows with Trump, Vice President Pence, House Speaker Paul Ryan and droves of colleagues.

Trump also personally rewarded MacArthur, hosting a fundraiser at his Bedminster golf club that raked in

MacArthur Takes Center Stage in Washington



$800,000 for the junior congressman’s re-election campaign. MacArthur will need the cash. His swing district covering parts of Burlington and Ocean counties went from “solid Republican” to “likely Republican” after the Obamacare repeal effort, according to the Cook Political Report.

But it’s MacArthur’s latest legislative moves that could carry the most risk. He was the only New Jersey member of Congress to vote for a GOP tax overhaul that would scale back the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction, some-thing that could force New Jerseyans to send more money to the federal government. He says the vast majority of his constituents won’t be harmed, and that he negotiated a $10,000 cap in the SALT deduction, rather than a complete elimination.

But Democrats are using every opportunity to paint him as a Benedict Arnold selling out his state. The tax overhaul would likely harm his chances for statewide office, and those close to him

have recently said he’s not interested in challenging Sen. Bob Menendez in 2018. But he’s been taking every opportunity to bash Governor-elect Phil Murphy for

his plans to raise taxes on the wealthy, suggesting he may still have his eyes on 2021, when Murphy is up for re-election. — Christian Hetrick

Tom MacArthur.



The pictures will follow Gov. Chris Christie everywhere: Alone on a deserted beach, with a few family

members and guests, while the state gov-ernment was shut down and no one else was allowed in.

It all began with a noble purpose. Sort of.

Christie really wanted to take $300 million from the state’s largest health insurer, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, and spend it on state programs to fight the opioid epidemic.

Democrats were opposed but even-tually Senate President Steve Sweeney and his colleagues in the upper house relented because Christie promised $325 million in extra funding for schools and other pet projects if they

agreed to raid Horizon’s reserve fund.There was just one hitch. Assembly

Speaker Vincent Prieto didn’t want Christie’s “blood money.” Raiding Horizon’s reserves would be wrong and could imperil health care coverage for nearly 3.8 million residents on Hori-zon plans, he said.

Because Christie wrapped up the Horizon plan with the state budget — and there was no agreement on anything — the state government shut down for three days in July. Some Democrats in the Assembly refused to cast votes on the budget until Prieto caved and agreed to raid Horizon’s reserves. But he didn’t.

The pressure was building on Prieto, and then Christie took a trip to the

beach.A Star-Ledger photographer in a

rented plane happened on the first family and snapped shots of Christie and his crew soaking up some rays on a Sunday morning during the shutdown at Island Beach State Park. A few non-gubernatorial residents had been told to pack up and leave. Families were being turned away at the en-trance. All because Christie and some Democrats were holding up the budget until they could grab $300 million from a private health insurer.

Christie then gave a misleading statement to reporters later in the day when asked if he had “gotten any sun.” He said no. A spokesman later dissembled that Christie was only on

Shutdown at the Beach

Chris Christie.

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the beach for 40 minutes, so it didn’t count.

New Jersey already had had enough of Christie. His approval rating was in the gutter after years of out-of-state jaunts to court donors and run for pres-ident. The Bridgegate scandal weighed on him like a bag of beach sand. And the shutdown put intense worldwide pressure on Christie at the worst possible time, basically stripping him of leverage to get his way in a deal to end the shutdown.

In the end, Christie agreed to a drastically watered-down Horizon bill that had almost no teeth. The company was fine with it. Prieto got his way. Christie did not get the $300 million. New Jersey got its bud-get. Sweeney still got his extra funding for schools and other programs. And the government was up and running again.

A few months later, however, the wily governor was having the last laugh.

Before he signed the budget, Christie vetoed out some budget language he himself had insert-ed, gaining broad authority to redirect any budget funds to any initiatives tackling a “public health crisis.” Christie had declared the opioid epidemic a crisis by executive order.

Although Democrats claimed victory when they struck the budget agreement with Christie, pointing to the $25 million preschool expansion and the $6.5 million in extra funding for tuition-assistance grants, it turned out that the governor’s crafty use of the line-item veto allowed him to take those funds for opioid programs. In total, the governor rounded up $200 million for those efforts. — Sal-vador Rizzo

Chris Christie.



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Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-5) has raised over $2.2 million ahead of next year’s congressional mid-

term elections, the most of any House candidate running in New Jersey in 2018, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Gottheimer, a former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, was first elected to represent his North Jersey district in 2016, unseating Republican incumbent Scott Garrett in the process.

Republicans see Gottheimer’s victory as a fluke and have identified the 5th district as a top target in 2018. According to the New Jersey Division of Elec-tions, there are about 148,000 regis-tered Democrats in the district, about 147,000 Republicans and about 214,000 unaffiliated voters. In 2016, Gottheimer beat Garrett by a 4 point margin, but the district has become slightly more Dem-ocratic-leaning since President Trump’s election.

Democrats are preparing for a knife

fight. Or at least, the kind of knife fight that costs you more than $2.2 million in campaign operations and TV ads.

At least two Republicans will face off in the June 2018 primary, former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan and John Mc-Cann, former legal counsel to the Bergen County sheriff. It will be hard for either Lonegan or McCann to match Got-theimer in the fundraising department, particularly if they go through a primary that eats up campaign contributions before the general election.

Lonegan is a perennial Republican candidate to who has previously run for governor, Senate and the House, all unsuccessfully. During the last weeks of 2017, Lonegan started an endorsement blitz, showcasing support from some prominent Republicans around New Jersey. But most of those endorsements are from Assembly members and local elected officials who remain largely unknown outside of their districts or communities.

Gottheimer Is Building a Wall — of Money



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McCann is a lawyer and general coun-sel to the New Jersey Sheriffs Association. He is also a former Cresskill councilman.

Lonegan has about $560,000 in his campaign accounts, $500,000 was self-loaned. McCann announced his candida-cy in November but has yet to report any fundraising to the FEC. But the National Republican Congressional Committee will likely spend money in the district next year after sitting out Garrett’s 2016 race. In 2015, Garrett refused to pay his NRCC dues over what was reported at the time as his concerns with the group’s decision to support gay candidates.

During the 2016 campaign, Got-theimer got support from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and focused on some of Garrett’s less popular stances — including the comments about gay Republicans — to appeal to mod-erate Republicans and right-leaning independents in the district and convince them to switch their vote to Democrat. Both Lonegan and McCann are staunch conservatives.

Since his election, Gottheimer has been carving out a role as a middle-of-the-road Democrat. He is the co-chair of the Prob-lem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan House group that tries to find common ground on issues like health care. He also regularly partners with Rep. Leonard Lance (R-7) on issues like fighting elimination of the State and Local Tax Deduction.

Gottheimer began fundraising for his

2018 campaign before he was even sworn into office in January, asking voters to con-tribute and prevent Republican victory this year. “There’s already talk that the Tea Party will do everything they can to unseat Josh and replace him with another extremist,” said a fundraising email sent in November of last year, just under two years before the 2018 general election.— Alyana Alfaro

Josh Gottheimer.



Sen. Cory Booker introduced a bill to legalize marijuana at the national level, became one of the harshest

critics of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and invested significant political capital in Doug Jones, the once long-shot Alabama Senate candidate who in December became the first Democrat to win the seat in 25 years.

None of that has to do with a 2020 presidential run, according to Booker. But, regardless of whether Booker has higher office in his sights, 2017 has marked a smooth ascension for Booker onto the national stage, allowing voters to see him as something other than the Twitter-famous mayor of Newark and elevating his profile to a key figure in the Democratic Party with substantive and

progressive policies in his quiver.That ascension comes at a time when

the party is changing and reimagining itself after massive national losses in 2016.

Booker, 48, started his year at a Sen-ate hearing testifying against Sessions’s nomination to be attorney general, breaking a long-standing tradition of senators not speaking ill of their colleagues in such hearings. But Booker said that the Alabama Republican was unfit for his position due to an inability to uphold equal rights for all American citizens.

Booker’s effort to legalize marijuana is a direct contradiction of Sessions, who wants to clamp down on states that have legalized the drug. And Booker

also has a bill to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating ties between Russia and President Trump’s campaign, from being fired.

He has also called on Trump to resign due to the allegations of sexual assault and misconduct from the president’s past.

“I just watched Senator Al Franken do the honorable thing and resign from his office. My question is, why isn’t Donald Trump doing the same thing — who has more serious allegations against him, with more women who have come forward? The fact pattern on him is far more damning than the fact pattern on Al Franken,” Booker said.

Booker’s primary argument for the decriminalization and legalization of

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marijuana is not the tax revenue that such a move could generate, but the positive change that new drug enforce-ment policies could bring to black and Latino communities that face harsher punishment for low-level drug charges than white counterparts, despite similar rates of use in all communities.

In September, Booker joined with high profile Democrats to sign on to a single-payer health care bill backed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The “Medicare for all” bill puts Booker in the company of some of the biggest Dem-ocratic names in the Senate including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).

Booker — a friend of Al Franken, the Minnesota senator who will leave the Senate after colleagues called on him to resign following misconduct allegations — said that everyone in positions of pow-er should be held to a higher standard. And he traveled to Alabama to campaign against Roy Moore, the Republican candidate who was accused of sexual misconduct with multiple minors.

Booker’s support likely helped nudge

Democrat Doug Jones over the top in the Alabama race, which ended 50 percent to 49 percent with disproportionately high black turnout.

“This has got to stop and we should not tolerate an environment where people continue to persist in positions of power even though women have come forward with compelling and true stories about how these individuals are

harassers,” Booker said at a December event with Sen. Bob Menendez and Governor-elect Phil Murphy.

For national political watchers, Book-er’s 2017 shows a senator actively paint-ing himself as the moral and intellectual antithesis of the GOP, something that could resonate in the next presidential election. Not that Booker is looking to 2020. — Alyana Alfaro

Corey Booker.



Gov. Chris Christie had a rough 2017, a final year in office that will likely be remembered more for

the wreckage of his approval ratings and photos of the governor on the beach than for his increased efforts to combat the opioid epidemic.

In late June, Christie and members of the state Legislature found themselves at an impasse. Christie wanted to allocate $300 million for drug treatment and resources, a plan that hinged on raiding the reserves of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, New Jersey’s largest health insurer. Legislators balked at the idea. The state budget was late. The govern-

ment went into shutdown mode over the Fourth of July weekend and residents couldn’t access state parks or beaches. Other than Christie and his family, that is.

Viral photos of Christie, his wife and other family members on a completely empty Island Beach State Park made national headlines. The shutdown quickly ended and Christie’s plan to raid Horizon’s reserves faltered.

But Christie, who rose to national prominence for his brash style, never apologized to outraged state residents for the debacle, often referred to as “Beachgate,” an homage to Christie’s

now-infamous 2013 “Bridgegate” scandal.

“That’s because the governor has a residence at Island Beach. Others don’t,” Christie said in defense of his presence at the beach that day. “It’s just the way it goes. Run for governor and then you can have the residence.”

When he was re-elected to office for a second term in 2013, Christie’s approval ratings were sky high. National Democrats had courted him to run for president the previous year. Many state Democrats broke with tradition and endorsed the governor in his effort to win back the State House, all but ignoring

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Democrat Barbara Buono. But this year, the governor’s approval

rating sunk to record lows. According to Monmouth University, post-Beachgate Christie’s approval rating sunk to 15 percent, the lowest of any New Jersey governor in history. Pollsters say that Christie was hampered by his failed 2016 presidential run, his endorsement of Donald Trump and the 2016 Bridge-gate trial that put Christie’s alleged involvement in the lane closures of the George Washington Bridge under a microscope. Christie was never indicted in Bridgegate but two of his political associates were found guilty of using the bridge to enact political revenge on a Democratic mayor who didn’t endorse Christie.

Republicans statewide had the alba-tross of Christie hanging around their collective neck in 2017, and this Novem-ber’s elections saw major losses for the state GOP. An October Quinnipiac poll found that Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno’s connection to Christie gave 51 percent of voters a negative opinion of her. The

party lost several seats in the Legislature, diminishing their minority and handing over the governorship to Democrat Phil Murphy, a political newcomer.

“I had my referendum. My referen-dum was four years ago,” Christie said on Election Day. “Everyone knew who I

was. I am not much different today than I was then, except a little bit older and a little bit grayer. But other than that, I’m not a whole lot different than I was then. I got 61 percent of the vote four years ago, I’m happy to stand on that. I’ll see if anyone beats that anytime soon.”

But regardless of how he leaves office, Christie’s presence in New Jersey gave the state a national political figure with a charismatic persona and a wicked sense of humor. It remains to be seen what kind of job he lands after leaving office, or what his long-awaited book will be called. It remains to be seen whether Murphy can do any better with New Jer-sey’s finances than Christie, whose fiscal moves earned a series of credit-rating downgrades from Wall Street.

But in Morris County, Christie’s home county, the often-divisive governor’s leg-acy will live on. “Governor Chris Christie Drive” was christened in November, a road that county officials (unironically) say will alleviate traffic in the area and improve access to a county park. — Alyana Alfaro

Chris Christie.



It all smacked of déjà vu.The Democratic party bosses in-

stalled Sheila Oliver as the Assembly speaker in 2010, but by 2014, she wasn’t playing ball as much in getting their backroom deals with Gov. Chris Christie through her chamber. She was out.

In came Vincent Prieto. A Hudson County code construction official and assemblyman, Prieto was drafted to be a more deal-friendly speaker. But, as in the Oliver years, the deals were mostly being cut by Christie and Senate President Steve Sweeney of South Jersey.

Prieto began to distance himself. He began to undercut Christie and Sweeney’s plans. And this year, he paid the price.

A state takeover of nearly-bankrupt Atlantic City? Too unfriendly to public worker unions and their collective bar-gaining contracts, Prieto said, proposing an alternative to the Christie-Sweeney plan. The Assembly failed to pass it.

A new plan to ramp up funding for public education? Too generous to

some districts and too punitive to dis-tricts like Hudson County’s Jersey City, Prieto said, offering an alternative to Sweeney’s plan. Sweeney eventually got most of his plan in the state budget.

A proposal to raid the reserves of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield and use around $300 million to combat the opioid epidemic? Too rapacious and dangerous, Prieto said. He stayed firm even as Christie shut down state government for three days in July. He went against his own party, which was eager to cut a deal with Christie to raid Horizon, sign a budget, and end the shutdown.

“Any member who does not vote for this budget will be hurting working families, and if they want to shut down state government, they will be responsible for putting thousands of New Jerseyans out of work and closing vital programs and assets such as state parks, motor vehicle agencies, general assistance and unemployment offices,” Prieto said.

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It was one of the only times when Prieto staked out his ground and won, a flash of what could have been.

South Jersey Democrats had grown fatigued with Prieto’s leadership style. As the Hudson County Democratic chairman, Prieto also was one of the key players who endorsed Phil Murphy for the governorship and cut off Sweeney’s path to the nomination in 2016.

Meanwhile, Democrats in Central Jersey saw an opportunity to move in on Prieto and wrest the Assembly speaker-ship from North Jersey’s hold. Assem-blyman Craig Coughlin began to round up support to oust Prieto. South Jersey power broker George Norcross was all in, and so was Middlesex Democratic Chairman Kevin McCabe.

A rare and public battle for the speakership ensued over several months leading up to November’s election. Coughlin announced in May that he had enough support to topple Prieto after the elections. Prieto sidelined some detrac-tors in the Assembly and the top political operative running Assembly races. He

brought in his own fundraiser and tried to flip some Republican seats to maintain an edge over Coughlin. His allies empha-

sized that Prieto was the only minority in a Murphy-Sweeney-Prieto equation, while the Murphy-Sweeney-Coughlin equation meant a Democratic govern-ment led by three Irish white guys.

But he came up short. Coughlin won over most of the Essex County dele-gation, which had been Prieto coun-try. After the elections in November, Prieto waved the white flag and endorsed Coughlin. Prieto was gracious — sort of.

“I would like to thank the members of the General Assembly for their support over the years, particularly the mem-bers in Hudson, Bergen, Passaic, Essex, Mercer and elsewhere who stood by me during a difficult time, as well as my staff for their hard work,” Prieto said, conspic-uously leaving out Middlesex County and South Jersey.

The buzz since the election has been that Prieto, an early and staunch Murphy supporter, will win a plum appointment to the state’s Sports and Exposition Authority. He only has a few years left before he qualifies for a full pension.

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For the first time in many years, the Assembly won’t be run by some-one from the north or south.

Assemblyman Craig Coughlin will give Central Jersey a seat at the leader-ship table when he takes the speaker’s gavel on Jan. 9. His ascension to the speakership marks a seismic change in New Jersey politics, as the traditional power-sharing agreement for the last eight years has been to select a speaker and Senate president from either north or south. Central Jersey is a growing region that some Democrats complain often gets overlooked.

Coughlin, a Woodbridge lawyer first elected to the Assembly in 2010, will be

the latest speaker to benefit from a deal struck by party bosses. South Jersey power broker George Norcross soured on current Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, who ironically rose to the speak-ership in 2014 after Norcross soured on Sheila Oliver. Prieto clashed with Senate President Steve Sweeney on issues such as school funding, a takeover of Atlantic City’s finances and the Democratic primary for governor last year.

Backed by Democrats in Central and South Jersey, Coughlin took the rare step this spring of revealing a list of supporters endorsing him over Prieto. He was later backed by Essex County Democrats, padding his lead over Prieto.

But the speaker hung on, seizing control of the Assembly Democrats’ campaign arm and banking on a series of unlikely Election Day outcomes that would have changed the math in his favor.

Coughlin made sure that didn’t come to pass. He raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Assembly Democrats in the competitive 2nd and 16th districts. Incumbent Assembly members Joann Downey and Eric Houghtaling (both D-Monmouth), Vince Mazzeo (D-At-lantic) and Andrew Zwicker (D-Mercer) all won re-election, and Democrats John Armato and Roy Freiman won seats in the 2nd and 16th districts, respectively. When the slow-burning, behind-the-

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scenes battled ended, Coughlin finished with a majority of the Assembly’s 54 Democrats committed to him.

Meanwhile, Coughlin was racking up the public contracts. While publicly run-ning for speaker, he opened a new law firm — Rainone Coughlin Minchello – which got contracts with at least a dozen public entities worth at least $1 million this year, according to public records. He got work from across the state, from his home county’s improvement authority to contracts with Newark and Trenton.

What the new power dynamics in the Legislature will look like in practice is not yet clear. Sweeney was re-elected by his caucus to be Senate president, leav-ing North Jersey on the sidelines in the legislative leadership. Coughlin may be more favorably disposed toward South Jersey Democrats than Prieto, possibly giving Norcross a complete legislative check on Governor-elect Phil Murphy. Sweeney is signaling he may abandon plans to raise taxes on millionaires, a key Murphy priority.

Coughlin still hasn’t specified his

plans on big ticket items, including whether his chamber will raise taxes on millionaires or legalize marijuana. Offering a glimpse into his agenda during a news conference after the election, Coughlin said he would seek to pass

some measures Gov. Chris Christie vetoed, such as “sane gun control” that limits magazine sizes for some fire-arms, equal pay for equal work and an expansion of paid sick leave. — Christian Hetrick

Craig Coughlin.

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Republicans were already facing a challenging year in 2018, with Democrats lining up to run against

several congressmen in New Jersey, even in districts considered safe GOP territory.

But the surprise retirement of Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-2) sets up what will likely be a high-voltage contest next year for his South Jersey seat. And perhaps more than any other GOP-held district, the Democrats look poised to flip the seat.

That’s because Democrats are already lining up behind state Sen. Jeff Van Drew, a centrist Democrat who is renowned for his constituent services and for being a champion of local issues in Cape May County. He has the backing of South Jersey power broker George Norcross and all eight Democratic county committee chairs within the 2nd district. That support means Republi-cans will likely have to spend big to hang onto the seat.

Republicans, meanwhile, are still searching for a candidate. The National Republican Congressional Committee

has spoken with several potential candi-dates, but no one has emerged as a clear frontrunner — or even jumped in the race for that matter. Assemblyman Chris Brown – the only Republican in the country to flip a seat in the November election — may have been the GOP’s best choice, but he turned the NRCC down. Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian is openly expressing his interest in the seat, but he just lost his re-election against City Councilman Frank Gilliam. Other potential candidates include Former Assemblyman Vincent Polistina and Hammonton Councilman Mike Torrissi Jr. Not exactly Republican rock stars.

LoBiondo, a moderate Republican who has represented the South Jersey district for 22 years, announced he won’t run for re-election in the middle of Elec-tion Day — and it hit the state’s political class like a bomb. One could say he was the first New Jersey GOP casualty of the Trump era. While he said his retirement had nothing to do with his electoral prospects – he won re-election last year

LoBiondo Retirement Shuffles the Deck in South Jersey



by a 22-point margin – he cited the increasing political polarization in Congress in announcing his decision. LoBiondo is one of 31 GOP House members who have decided to run for re-election or seek another office.

First elected to Congress in 1994, LoBiondo was a popular incumbent who scared away most prominent South Jersey Democrats – including Van Drew — from running for the seat. His exit reshapes the political dynamics in a district where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 15,644 voters. President Trump carried the 2nd district last year, but former President Barack Obama won the district in 2008 and 2012. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Com-mittee has the 2nd district in its crosshairs as it tries to seize on Trump’s deep unpopularity in New Jersey and pick up seats in the House.

Two other Democrats have announced campaigns for the 2nd congressional district: Tanzie Youngblood, a retired teacher, and Sean Thom, a school adminis-trator. Thom complained in a letter to the Democratic National Committee that Van Drew, who voted against gay marriage and gun control measures, isn’t really a Democrat. But Van Drew’s conservative leanings probably bode well for him in what he calls the “deep south” of New Jersey. The 2nd district includes all of Salem, Cumberland, Cape May and Atlantic counties, as well as portions of Gloucester, Camden, Burlington and Ocean counties. — Christian Hetrick

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Winners And Losers 2017

Phil MurphyJust two years ago, the former ambassador to Germany was largely unknown in the state and poised for a bitter primary battle in 2017 against some of New Jersey’s biggest political names. But Murphy persevered. He announced his candidacy early and, by 2017, scored valuable endorsements up and down the state and all-but locked up the Democratic nomination. With the state swinging to the left after the tumultuous tenure of Gov. Chris Christie, Murphy’s primary victory all but secured him a win in November, a race that was called in his favor just moments after the polls closed.

Bob MenendezThe Senator survived his cor-ruption trial after being accused of accepting bribes in exchange for political favors. The case stretched from September to November, ending after jurors couldn’t reach an agreement on a verdict. The mistrial has breathed new political life into Menendez. He is poised to an-nounce a re-election bid and has already secured support from prominent state Democrats. And if you were digging his political grave, he knows who you are and won’t forget you.

The NJEAThe union’s decision to back Republican Fran Grenier in the third legislative district fell flat. Senate President Steve Sweeney cruised to victory, defeating Grenier by 18 points.

Chris ChristieChristie’s final year in office was marked by a government shutdown and an. He will finish with a historically low approval rating, a far cry from where he was this time four years ago, when he was fresh off a dominant re-election victory and considered a presidential frontrunner.

The State GOPRepublicans had a bad year in New Jersey. In addition to losing the governorship, the party saw its minority shrink in both houses of the Legislature. State Republicans have to rebuild the party amid widespread discon-tent with President Trump and the GOP in New Jersey.

WINLOSE

Phil Murphy

Chris Christie.

Bob Menendez.



Chris BrownAssemblyman Brown’s election to the state Senate was the lone bright spot for the New Jersey Republican Party this year. Amid losses, Brown was able to unseat a Democrat in November and enter the upper house of the state Legislature.

Julie Roginsky and Brendan GillThe two political operatives were the architects of Murphy’s victory and helped swat away Democratic competition before anyone could gain ground on Murphy.

Steve SweeneyThe battle in the third legisla-tive district between Sweeney and the New Jersey Education Association was likely the most expensive legislative race in U.S. history. Sweeney faced the wrath of New Jersey’s largest teachers union over pension payment disagreements, and the group took the unusual step of endorsing Sweeney’s Re-publican challenger. But, in the end, Sweeney won by a decisive margin.

Vincent PrietoDespite his initial refusal to step aside and early confidence that he could hold onto the speakership, Prieto was pushed out of his position this year by Craig Coughlin, a previously little-known lawmaker from Middlesex County.

Kim GuadagnoSure, Murphy had a massive fundraising advantage and was probably going to win no matter what. But Guadagno was never able to take advantage of Mur-phy’s campaign inexperience and garner any real momentum in the race. She lost by double digits.

Kim Guadagno.

Vincent Prieto.

Chris Brown.

Steve Sweeney.



Thanks to all who helped make the 2016 Year-In-Review a success!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!


Craig CoughlinCoughlin will become New Jersey’s next Assembly speaker, winning a behind-the-scenes battle against current Speaker Vincent Prieto. Coughlin’s rise to power gives Central Jersey a seat at the table in legislative leadership.

ELECEssex County Executive Joe Di-Vincenzo finally paid the state’s election watchdog agency a hefty $20,000 fine this year. That payment came after Sweeney and Christie effectively defanged ELEC by not filling vacant seats, and DiVincenzo went to court to drop his charges. But neverthe-less, the group persisted.

Scott GarrettDefeated by Josh Gottheimer in 2016, Garrett resurfaced as Presi-dent Trump’s nominee to become head of the Export-Import Bank. There was just one hitch. Garrett, a small government conservative who curiously takes and seeks a lot of taxpayer-funded jobs, famously opposes the very existence of the Ex-Im Bank. And his fellow Repub-licans in the Senate have indicated that his nomination will not be approved.

Scott Garrett.

Joe DiVincenzo.

Craig Coughlin.

Documents

NEW JERSEY POLITICS 2017 - · PDF fileOBSERVER.COM/NEW-JERSEY-POLITICS 2017: THE YEAR IN REVIEW 7 OBSERVER NEW EREY ITI Strength H Stability H Peace of Mind Horizon Blue Cross Blue