| | | | |  | | By Matt Friedman | | Presented by |  | | | Good Friday morning! State Sen. Andrew Zwicker and Assemblymember Mitchelle Drulis were both heavily targeted on conservative “parental rights” issues in their campaigns last year. They also both won the election pretty handily. Now comes the backlash to the backlash after the “parental rights” issues turned out to be a political flop. A bill sponsored by both of them, the “Freedom to Read Act,” cleared its first legislative hurdle when the Assembly Appropriations Committee approved it yesterday following a four-hour hearing by a vote of 6-1 with 1 abstention. But the bill, which originally would have financially penalized schools and libraries that remove books for “partisan or doctrinal” reasons, has been repeatedly watered down and barely resembles its original form at all. Even just before yesterday’s committee meeting it was cut down from 26 pages to nine. Now, it mainly just restricts book challenges in schools to people with kids enrolled in the system, and creates a structure for committees that will consider book challenges. It also protects library staff from civil and criminal liability and says that public libraries should not remove a book “because of the origin, background, or views of the library material or those contributing to its creation.” Even some of the conservative activists who showed up urged lawmakers to just abstain instead of voting no, acknowledging they didn’t think the bill was really that bad. Those witnesses often stressed that they weren’t against books because they featured LGBTQ themes or diverse viewpoints, but because of the graphic images some of them contained that they consider pornography. And indeed, some books in high school libraries — typically the same few books are repeatedly highlighted by activists — do include some pretty graphic illustrations (see the examples they brought to the hearing here). I can understand why people are concerned about younger kids seeing them, even if I would not call them pornography. But check out this list of books highlighted by one of these groups. Is "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison pornography? "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini? "City of Thieves" by David Benioff? These books include some graphic and hard-to-read descriptions and scenes, but no reasonable person would call them pornography. If you look at the words and actions of some of the witnesses, it’s clear how at least some feel about the LGBTQ community. The Rev. Gregory Quinlan (quoted below) says he used to be gay and runs an organization whose mission is in part “confronting the homosexual agenda.” Another witness, Victoria Jakelsky of NJ Parental Rights, just last month decried that GOP Senate nominee Curtis Bashaw is “married to a man, and he is proud of it." Another witness complained her 7th grade daughter had access through her school library to a book about a pregnant 13-year-old. That led to an exchange you’ll find in my quote of the day. TIPS? FEEDBACK? Email me at MFriedman@politico.com. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Reverend, do you believe we should be educating our children about teen pregnancy?" — Assemblymember Education Chair Pamela Lampitt during Thursday's committee hearing “Teen pregnancy isn’t sexually explicit, is it? Are you talking about porn addiction? Are you talking about butt plugs and teen pregnancy? Because if you’re using a plug you’re not getting pregnant.” — Rev. Gregory Quinlan HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Linda Greenstein, Joe Cafero. Saturday for Colleen Mahr, Tom Hester. Sunday for Declan O’Scanlon, Frank Schultz, Tom Pullion, Suzanne Mack. WHERE’S MURPHY? — In North Wildwood at 3 p.m. to tour the beach replenishment project. He also has an AARP tele town hall at 11 a.m. | | | | A message from Amazon: Health care benefits started on day one for Caleb and his family when he joined Amazon’s Newark fulfillment center. “It gives me peace of mind knowing that my entire family can be taken care of,” he said. As the largest job creator in the U.S. Amazon is committed to helping their employees and the communities where they operate thrive with benefits starting on day one and free skills training. See the impact of day one benefits. | | | |  | MENENDEZ CORRUPTION TRIAL | |
THE BRUCK BARFS HERE — ‘Whoa, that was gross,’ former NJ attorney general recalls after meeting with Menendez, by POLITICO's Ry Rivard: New Jersey’s chief law enforcement officer and top aide [Andrew Bruck] looked at each other after they left a 2019 meeting with Sen. Bob Menendez. “Whoa, that was gross,” the aide told then-New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal. That’s how Grewal on Thursday recalled a September 2019 meeting prosecutors say was Menendez’s attempt to disrupt the agency’s work in exchange for bribes. The testimony was some of the most vivid yet in Menendez’s ongoing corruption trial, offering a behind-the-scenes account of a senator seeming to leverage his influence with one of the state’s most powerful officials ...
One of the men accused of bribing the Menendezes, Jose Uribe, has pleaded guilty and is also expected to testify as soon as today about his interactions with the senator. Grewal testified about a pair of 2019 interactions that prosecutors say resulted from Uribe’s bribes, which were allegedly meant to help Uribe’s associates evade scrutiny and punishment by the state attorney general’s office. OMG WTF? — “Nadine Arslanian Menendez texted Bergen County woman shortly after 2018 Bogota fatal crash,” by The Record’s Katie Sobko: “Though no subpoenas for Nadine Arslanian Menendez’s phone records were ever issued after her 2018 Bogota crash that left one man dead and her car totaled, information presented by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the federal corruption trial of her husband Sen. Bob Menendez shows that in the moments leading up to and after the crash, she was texting another Bergen County woman. In a Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday, Paul Monteleoni, a prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, had FBI Special Agent Rachel Graves read texts that Arslanian Menendez had sent to Rosemarie Sorce … on Dec. 12, 2018. The first message, sent at 7:28 p.m. was an update from the senator’s wife regarding her whereabouts. ‘I am four miles away due to two detours,’ the first message said. The next, six minutes later at 7:34 p.m., said ‘911, call me’ and a third at 7:54 p.m. said ‘I'm sitting in ambulance.’” | | | | THE GOLD STANDARD OF POLICY REPORTING & INTELLIGENCE: POLITICO has more than 500 journalists delivering unrivaled reporting and illuminating the policy and regulatory landscape for those who need to know what’s next. Throughout the election and the legislative and regulatory pushes that will follow, POLITICO Pro is indispensable to those who need to make informed decisions fast. The Pro platform dives deeper into critical and quickly evolving sectors and industries—finance, defense, technology, healthcare, energy—equipping policymakers and those who shape legislation and regulation with essential news and intelligence from the world’s best politics and policy journalists.
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HINDENBURG CAPTAIN SAID THE SAME THING — A day after he signed a widely-panned bill limiting public access to government records, Gov. Phil Murphy defended his decision as “the right place to land” and said he isn’t thinking about its impact on his legacy.
The term-limited Democrat has taken heaps of condemnation from good-government groups, advocates and press organizations for changing the Open Public Records Act in ways that create barriers to obtaining government records. Some critics have vowed to make lawmakers pay for pushing those changes in next year’s legislative elections while saying that Murphy’s signature is a stain on what is otherwise a fairly progressive legacy. When asked about that, Murphy said “[I] haven’t thought about legacy for one second.” He said he finds arguments linking the bill with corruption “offensive” and that the decision whether to sign it “did weigh” on him. “Is it perfect? No, I’m going to be the first to admit it may not be perfect. But the intention is to get that balance between updating it and making life easier while still delivering that transparency,” he said. “This was a tough call,” he added, but “when you net everything out, the changes are modest.” — Dustin Racioppi DURPH VADER — “Phil Murphy's legacy is destroyed as he signs a death warrant for transparency,” by The Record’s Charles Stile: “[M]ake no mistake about it: this new 'modernization' of the 22-year-old landmark law allows corruption and misdeeds to molder unnoticed in city halls, police departments and school districts. No amount of sanctimonious spin obscures the fact that his signing of this law will go down as a dark day for democracy in New Jersey. Wednesday will be remembered as the day when an allegedly progressive governor from Goldman Sachs expanded the power of officials to conceal public records from the prying eyes of reporters, activists, watchdogs, lawyers and the general public. They now have the power to stonewall requests with impunity and scare off document requestors with a new ability to file lawsuits. This is a day when the Empire of Government Power struck back, closed its doors and tightened the locks of public access with the help of sympathetic legislators, many of whom came out of town halls as local officials and now make their living as lawyers representing those towns. And Murphy, who has never previously held elected office, came to their rescue.” BETTER INVESTIGATE THIS COMPTROLLER — “Brutal attacks, beatings of N.J. inmates were not investigated amid ‘code of silence,’ report says,” by NJ Advance Media’s S.P. Sullivan and Ted Sherman: “The prisoner at Bayside State Prison was beaten and struck in the face multiple times before he was wrestled to the ground. Surveillance video, however, showed no visible provocation or threat against the officer. A year earlier in 2018 at the same correctional facility in South Jersey, another prisoner was pepper-sprayed and brought down, again with no visible provocation or threat against the officer. Yet in both cases, the Special Investigations Division, or SID, the internal affairs unit within the Department of Corrections which is responsible for investigating and uncovering allegations of correctional officer misconduct, failed to properly investigate, according to the Office of the State Comptroller … The comptroller said it examined 46 case files from internal investigations involving abuse allegations against inmates at three state prisons from January 2018 to August of 2022. In more than one out of five of the cases reviewed, SID investigators failed to interview all eyewitnesses. In addition, in most cases, SID did not recommend dispositions or clearly articulate whether an allegation was substantiated by the evidence. Key evidence was missing from nearly 13% of the investigative files reviewed.” — “NYC’s congestion pricing is on pause. But N.J.’s lawsuit against it is still on, gov says” — “NYC congestion pricing is on hold. How did that happen? What's next? What about NJ suit?” — “Verizon settles investigation with NJ Consumer Affairs, denies allegations of wrongdoing” | | | | A message from Amazon:   | | | | | BIDEN TIME | |
KIM: I HAVE A VERY PARTICULAR SET OF SKILLS — “Andy Kim is ready for Bashaw because he’s beaten similar candidates three times,” by New Jersey Globe’s David Wildstein: “As the newly minted Democratic nominee for United States Senator, Andy Kim feels well-prepared to take on Curtis Bashaw because, as he tells it, he’s beaten him three times already. Kim made it clear that he intends to paint Bashaw, a Cape May hotelier making his first run for public office, as an out-of-touch millionaire. 'I have a particular expertise in beating Republican multi-millionaire, self-funding businesspeople from South Jersey. That’s literally all I’ve done in politics when it comes to elections,' Kim told the New Jersey Globe in a telephone interview today. 'I’ve only run against, Republican multi-millionaire self-funders from South Jersey, and I beat them every single time.' In 2018, two years out of Barack Obama’s White House, Kim challenged Tom MacArthur, who self-funded his way to two terms in the House. He beat self-funders David Richter in 2020 and Bob Healey in 2022.”
— "Pro-Palestine ‘uncommitted’ slate snags one DNC delegate spot" — “More than 40,000 New Jersey Democrats voted ‘uncommitted.’ Here are the areas with the most protest votes” — “Primary results suggest absence of ‘party line’ made a difference" — “Dispute over mailed ballots in a New Jersey county delays outcome of congressional primary” — “Salerno lead in NJ-2 primary now at 397” — “32 independents file for Congress in N.J.” — “Measles case reported in central N.J., Health Department says” | | | | JOIN US ON 6/12 FOR A TALK ON THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY: As air travel soars again, policymakers and airlines are grappling with a series of contemporary challenges to the industry's future. Join POLITICO on June 12 for a topical and timely conversation with government leaders and aviation stakeholders about the state of the airline industry. From what passengers want to what airlines need amid the high demand for air traffic, workers and technology solutions. What can Washington do to ensure passengers and providers are equipped to fly right? REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | LOCAL | |
PARENTAL WRONGS — “N.J. school board member tried to get her kid’s bullying suspension reversed, ethics board says,” by NJ Advance Media’s Brianna Kudisch: “A school board member in Warren County tried to use her position to intervene when a harassment, intimidation and bullying complaint was filed against her child, according to an ethics complaint ruling by state officials. Lisa Moyer, a now-former member of the Allamuchy Township Board of Education, violated several sections of the School Ethics Act when she pushed to have her child’s suspension reversed, the state School Ethics Commission ruled earlier this year … Moyer confronted the superintendent and 'pressed on to the point of threatening her,' according to testimony quoted in the ethics board decision. Moyer allegedly emailed the school board and the superintendent about reversing the bullying decision without saying she was writing as a parent and not a school board member.”
BERGER HAS JUICE — “How progressives have made inroads against Piscataway Democrat,” by MyCentralJersey’s Suzanne Russell: “Democratic Mayor Brian Wahler has moved closer toward a seventh term in office, after holding off a mayoral primary challenge by the chair of the Piscataway Progressive Democrats Organization. However, the Progressive Democrats appear to have reason to celebrate as preliminary results indicate two Township Council candidates have apparently ousted two incumbent Democrats from the November general election ballot. And while Staci Berger, the Piscataway Progressive Democrats Organization chair, is disappointed by not prevailing in her mayoral primary race, provided the preliminary results hold, she's 'ecstatic’ about the outcome in the council race and moved by the number of people who came out to support their campaign.” — “Paterson council won't meet in City Hall for 3 months because of ceiling asbestos issue” — “It’s time for the Jersey City school board to prioritize progress over politics | Opinion” — “Fire [Fort Lee] teachers who taught controversial Israel-Hamas lesson, some parents say” — “[South Orange-Maplewood] school district appoints new superintendent after period of ‘turmoil’” — “Federal appeals court reinstates former union prez’s lawsuit against Hudson jail, former director”
| | | | A message from Amazon: Since starting at Amazon’s Newark fulfillment center Caleb has grown his family without worrying about health care. “With Amazon’s healthcare benefits I know my entire family can be taken care of without questioning how we’re going to afford anything,” he said.
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JORO DREAMS OF JERSEY — “Giant venomous flying spiders will not parachute into New Jersey this summer,” by The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Henry Savage: “For years, scientists in the Northeast have anticipated the arrival of the giant, flying, venomous jorō spider. Recent media coverage has led many to believe the spider will arrive in New Jersey this summer. Local experts say not so fast … Much of the recent media reporting surrounding jorō spiders, reminiscent of the 'murder hornets' scare in 2020, stemmed from a blog post posted by New Jersey Pest Control in January. However, just as murder hornets proved to be mostly a non-issue for humans and pets (eventually being subdued in Washington), the arrival of jorō spiders won’t come anytime soon, said Pennsylvania State University entomologist Michael Skvarla. ‘It seems like a big media craze the same way murder hornets were a couple years ago,’ Skvarla said. ‘Jorō spiders will eventually get to New Jersey and New York, but it’s probably not going to be next year. Maybe in the next 10 years.’” — “The College of New Jersey picks a familiar face as its new president” — “Cooper nurses approve a new union contract that includes safe staffing provisions” — “Tiny turtles released into the wild by N.J. kindergarteners helping save a species” | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
