The Tommy Murphy defense

Jan 16, 2024

Good Tuesday morning!

First lady Tammy Murphy has gotten a lot of criticism for her U.S. Senate run, particularly for the appearance of nepotism.

But what if she was a man? She posed that hypothetical during a public event the other day, suggesting the criticism is based on her gender.

“If my name had been Tommy Murphy, I don’t think people would have minded. I don’t think anyone really cared when Tom Kean ran,” she said.

This distracts from the argument against her. Gov. Phil Murphy is influential and his closest political allies benefit from him being in office, as the New York Times detailed last month. (And Tom Kean’s dad, former Gov. Tom Kean, has been out of office for three decades.)

This question came at the tail end of Tammy Murphy’s event, and she might have been peeved by it. She has offered other arguments to the question of nepotism, namely that she has had an active role in her husband’s administration on policy issues such as maternal health and the environment.

But Tammy Murphy is smart enough to know that valid questions of her influence, and that of her husband, have nothing to do with her gender. Actually — and here I should disclose that I am a middle-aged man — questions about her qualifications for the Senate might smack of sexism more than anything else. Did Frank Lautenberg or Bill Bradley face these questions? I don’t know, maybe. But Tammy Murphy also knows what arena she is in, and it isn't gender neutral.

TIPS? FEEDBACK? Email me at dracioppi@politico.com

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “If anybody called and asked me, I would say they are making it hard for us to maintain a decent transportation system,” Kathy Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City.

WHERE’S MURPHY? — In South Amboy at 10 A.M. signing legislation “expanding access to school meals.”

JOIN 1/31 FOR A TALK ON THE RACE TO SOLVE ALZHEIMER’S: Breakthrough drugs and treatments are giving new hope for slowing neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and ALS. But if that progress slows, the societal and economic cost to the U.S. could be high. Join POLITICO, alongside lawmakers, official and experts, on Jan. 31 to discuss a path forward for better collaboration among health systems, industry and government. REGISTER HERE.

WHAT TRENTON MADE

TWO STATES, NO SOLUTION — New York and New Jersey agree: Gov. Phil Murphy is ticking them off,” by POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: “New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy came to office six years ago as a Democrat promising to save public transit in his state.

Instead of becoming a hometown hero, Murphy’s now being blamed in two states for worsening the already dysfunctional regional transit system that surrounds and serves New York City. Democrats, advocates and environmentalists across the region increasingly cast Murphy as a mass transit villain and New York’s business leaders are souring on him.

CALL ME — “‘Would a Call From Tammy Help?’ Pressure Grows in Race to Oust Menendez” by New York Times’ Tracey Tulley “The College Democrats of New Jersey were preparing to make an endorsement in one of the country’s most closely watched U.S. Senate primaries when calls began to come in from someone in touch with the campaign of Tammy Murphy, the presumptive front-runner and the wife of the state’s governor.

The caller, a female college student who works as a youth coordinator for the Democratic State Committee, wanted to know what Ms. Murphy’s campaign could do to block the group from endorsing Ms. Murphy’s main rival, Representative Andy Kim.

“Would a call from Tammy help?” the woman said she asked, while indicating she was relaying a message from the Murphy campaign.

Then, in a series of calls over the next two hours, the pressure from the caller, Keely Magee, escalated to warnings — about funding and future job prospects for leaders of the College Democrats, according to several people involved in the discussions and a recording of one call.”

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CHRIS CHRISTIE HAS FANS? —”Newark activist embraces ‘Dr. Martin Luther King’s agenda’ in U.S. Senate bid,” by New Jersey Monitor’s Dana DiFiloppo: “Larry Hamm is no Chris Christie fan.

“Christie can’t escape the fact that he helped to create this Frankenstein monster, Donald Trump,” said Hamm, one of New Jersey’s busiest social justice activists.

Still, when Christie dropped out of the White House race last week, Hamm was irked.

“He served a role being in there criticizing Trump,” he said. “I think he was pressured to get out. But if he was really the tough guy that he poses himself as, he should have stayed in there and criticized Trump all the way through the primaries.”

Such logic is why Hamm remains steadfast in his quest for a seat in the U.S. Senate.

In September, Hamm, 70, became the first Democrat to enter the race to replace indicted Sen. Bob Menendez, who hasn’t yet said whether he will run for reelection. In an increasingly crowded competition for the seat, political observers have largely discounted anyone other than Andy Kim and Tammy Murphy as the likeliest winner of New Jersey’s June Democratic primary.”

BIDEN TIME

MLK — “King Dream Rooted in Labor’s Rising,” by Insider NJ;s Bob Hennelly: “This Martin Luther King Day comes just weeks after a year that’s been dubbed ‘the year of the strike’ because in 2023 there were well over 300 such work stoppages involving 450,000 union workers willing to take the risk of walking out on their employer, a 900 percent increase from just a few years earlier.

Automakers, actors, writers, nurses, and a long list of other occupations were fed up enough that they walked off their job by the tens of thousands. Meanwhile, the National Labor Relations Board reported in 2022 receiving over 2,500 applications for workplace union representation, a 53 percent increase over the previous year..”

LOCAL

NEPTUNE — “One of 18 children becomes first Black woman mayor of Neptune; here's what she will do” by the Asbury Park Press’ Charles Daye: “Rev. Tassie York, 63, is familiar with being first. She is one of 18 children but was the first in her family to earn a double master's degree, and she is now the first Black woman to be mayor of Neptune Township, picked by her fellow Township Committee members to lead this year.

"I am grateful to my colleagues for having that trust in me, having the confidence to know what I am all about," York said. "I am in this for the people, not for the fame or fortune. I don't need my name in lights, I just want to make sure I am doing what is right for the town."

And now as mayor she plans to take on several challenges, including the redevelopment of Ocean Grove's North End and dealing with its perpetual parking problems, and getting police more involved with the community.”

A DREAM — “MLK Day Clinic in Newark Helps Snuff Out Cannabis Criminal Records,” by TAP Into’s Matt Kadosh: “NEWARK, NJ — Trey Johnson, a 30-year-old Newark resident, was among 77 people who took a first step in clearing their criminal cannabis records on Monday, Jan. 15. Johnson, who showed up for the cannabis expungement clinic at the Newark Museum of Art with his guitar slung across his back, said his past arrest on marijuana charges had been weighing on him — a blemish — from a time before he turned his life around.

“I was arrested,” said Johnson, a musician who works in Brooklyn, New York. “I was definitely going down the wrong path in my life. I was using weed in the wrong ways.”

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