| | | | |  | | By Matt Friedman | Presented by Health Care Association of New Jersey | Good Thursday morning! It’s been about a month and a half since the Election Law Enforcement Commission recommended a few changes to the “Elections Transparency Act.” None were drastic. The agency called for eliminating the loophole that allows independent expenditure groups to avoid disclosing their donors close to the election, increasing the statute of limitations for campaign finance complaints from two years to four, and exempting campaign finance reports from Daniel’s Law requirements that they redact the addresses of certain judges, law enforcement officials and others. Republicans have taken up the effort: Greg McGuckin has introduced legislation based on ELEC's recommendations in the Assembly and Holly Schepisi in the Senate. But, of course, Democrats control both chambers, and so far only one Democrat has put in one bill to address just one of the things ELEC called for. That’s state Sen. Joe Cryan, who recently introduced legislation address the Daniel’s Law recommendation. I have not heard anyone actually defend the independent expenditure reporting loophole, which appears to have been purposefully created. I pointed the loophole out well before last November’s election. And, of course, a few months later it used by South Jersey Democrats to promote allegedly fake candidates for state Legislature while hiding their involvement until well after the election. “It should be a no-brainer,” McGuckin told me. McGuckin said he’s currently seeking Democratic sponsors. Assembly Democratic spokesperson Chris Aikin said in a statement that Speaker Craig Coughlin is focused on the budget but “as with all proposed legislation, he’ll review it and consult with colleagues, experts, and advocates” TIPS? FEEDBACK? Email me at MFriedman@politico.com. QUOTE OF THE DAY: ““I think the headlines have been somewhere between hysterical and irresponsible … But the headlines — ‘Murphy kills transparency’ — I don't buy it.” — Gov. Phil Murphy, who at the very least wounded transparency, on OPRA HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Jon Whiten, John Armato, Matt White WHERE’S MURPHY? In Hackensack at 10:15 a.m. to speak at the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey, then Princeton at 4 p.m. for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
| | | | A message from Health Care Association of New Jersey: Trenton must stop short-changing nursing home residents and the staff who take care of them. Instead of piling on unfunded mandates, critical resources should be spent on hiring more staff and improving care. Otherwise, more than 9,000 current New Jersey nursing home residents risk losing their homes. Tell your state lawmakers: The state must invest now in the welfare of its aging senior population. It’s not a choice, it’s an obligation. | | |
|  | MENENDEZ CORRUPTION TRIAL | | EVERY TIME A BELL RINGS, AN ANGEL GETS A PAPER BAG STUFFED WITH CASH — Menendez defense tries to undercut ‘super weird’ story about a bell and his wife, by POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: Sen. Bob Menendez’s legal team tried Wednesday to unring a bell — literally. The government’s star witness had testified in the trial that Menendez used a bell to summon his wife to help in a conversation that involved bribery. … Menendez attorney Adam Fee pulled out all the stops to try to undermine the story. For instance, Fee pointed out Uribe had stopped at a bar before the meeting, which Uribe admitted. He said Uribe had been known to use Xanax without a prescription, which Uribe admitted. Fee also got Uribe to admit he wasn’t sure if Nadine brought out the paper immediately or she came out and then went back inside to get the paper. … But Uribe stood by his story. Then, after Uribe left the stand on Wednesday after several days of testimony, government prosecutors called a paralegal to read two text messages investigators obtained during their multi-year investigation of the Menendezes. In one of them, sent by Nadine weeks before the backyard incident Uribe described, she texts someone that she was “looking for the perfect bell.” —"A former close friend of Senator Menendez testifies against him"
| | | | A message from Health Care Association of New Jersey:   | | | | | WHAT TRENTON MADE | | CRITICS SAY HE’S FULOF IT — New Jersey’s political machine is teetering. This Democrat wants to topple it, by POLITICO’s Dustin Racioppi: Steven Fulop spent years engaged in New Jersey’s boss-driven machine politics. Now he’s waging war against the machine as he tries to win the state’s highest office. The Jersey City mayor is battling the state’s unique and highly influential county party system, which gives local party leaders the power to effectively select candidates of their choosing in primaries. If he’s successful, it could be the death knell for the once-legendary political machinery that has dictated New Jersey’s political future for decades — and has already been weakened significantly over the last six months thanks to a lawsuit driven by Democratic Rep. Andy Kim. “The boss system will never be the same in New Jersey. And some people are reluctant to accept this, but that’s just the truth — that the damage has been done,” Fulop said in an interview. “What you’re going to see is a cleansing of the system of elected officials over the next two, three years.” …. That is not to say the 47-year-old mayor of New Jersey’s second-largest city is driving political or policy decisions — and Fulop’s growing number of critics view him more like a broken clock that’s right twice a day than some fortune teller. It’s a drastic turn for someone who until recently played by all the rules of Jersey politics and says he abandoned a much-anticipated run for governor in 2017 because of them. … “I spent a lot of time with the traditional political structure in New Jersey, and that ended up proving to be my demise,” Fulop said. “I said to myself that if I ever got a second chance at this, I would do it my way.”
| | | | 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.
Our newsroom is deeper, more experienced, and better sourced than any other—with teams embedded in the world’s most active legislative and regulatory power centers. From Brussels to Washington, New York to London, Sacramento to Paris, we bring subscribers inside the conversations that determine policy outcomes and the future of industries, providing insight that cannot be found anywhere else. Get the premier news and policy intelligence service, SUBSCRIBE TO POLITICO PRO TODAY. | | | | | (REDACTED) — “Facing hefty fines, companies ask judge to declare Daniel’s Law unconstitutional,” by New Jersey Monitor’s Nikita Biryukov: “A legal fight is brewing over an increasingly expansive New Jersey statute called Daniel’s Law that bars the release of addresses and other personal information belonging to judges, prosecutors, and a growing list of public officials. On Monday, scores of data brokers, real estate firms, marketing businesses, and other companies asked a federal judge to declare Daniel’s Law unconstitutional, saying it is an impermissibly over-broad violation of the First Amendment. ... The filing is a consolidated response to more than 100 lawsuits lodged by a company called Atlas Data Privacy that allege it asked the companies to remove the addresses and other personal information of people covered by the statute and the companies failed to comply. … The law requires private entities to remove information that also appears in property records that governments, by law, are barred from redacting, the defendants note. Names and addresses for some of the named plaintiffs, each of whom is covered by Daniel’s Law, were readily available online from government websites, the defendants said. “These contradictions and holes in the statute’s coverage imply that, as currently constructed, Daniel’s Law is not effectively designed to reduce danger to public officials,” reads Monday’s filing, a motion to dismiss Atlas’ lawsuits.” RAPE KITS — “Gopal says all rape kits should be tested,” by News 12’s Walt Kane: “A New Jersey Senator says New Jersey owes it to survivors of sexual assault to test any rape kits they turn over to law enforcement. The comments come in the wake of a Kane In Your Corner primetime documentary, which exposed how New Jersey treats rape survivors. In ‘Victims of the System,’ survivors of sexual assault told Kane In Your Corner that law enforcement didn’t take the crimes against them seriously, and they said the proof was that prosecutors had chosen to not even open their rape kits to test for DNA.” LIZETTE: THE BEST THAT THEY CAN GET — SDA chief who resigned amid scandal lands at public university foundation, by POLITICO’s Dustin Racioppi: Lizette Delgado-Polanco, who resigned from the state Schools Development Authority following a political patronage scandal five years ago, is back in New Jersey's education sector. Delgado-Polanco is the new executive director of the New Jersey City University Foundation, the nonprofit fundraising group for the public university of the same name. — “Heat relief for N.J. workers will slow us down, big business says” —“NYC congestion pricing advocates plan lawsuit to keep Hochul from halting toll” —“What’s to blame for NJ Transit train delays? It’s complicated” —“How will NJ benefit from the 2026 FIFA World Cup? Lawmakers assess economic impact” —“Op-Ed: It’s not enough to abolish the ‘party line’” —“I’ve lived with congestion pricing, and it works. But it’s a half-measure | Opinion” —Billions of dollars for new tunnel to link New York and New Jersey coming 'at long last'
| | | | A message from Health Care Association of New Jersey: Trenton must stop short-changing nursing home residents.
Nursing homes require additional staff, and those staff deserve living wages.
To support more staffing hours, state payment rates need to rise.
State lawmakers and regulators need to stop piling on unfunded mandates that drain critical resources that should instead be spent on hiring more staff and improving care.
If they don’t, more than 9,000 current New Jersey nursing home residents risk losing their homes.
Tell your state lawmakers: The state must invest now in the welfare of its aging senior population.
It’s not a choice, it’s an obligation. | | | | | BIDEN TIME | | GRAB HIM BY THE WHISKEY — “Trump’s company: New Jersey golf club liquor license probe doesn’t apply to ex-president,” by The AP: “Former president Donald Trump is not the holder of liquor licenses at his three New Jersey golf clubs, his company said Tuesday in response to an inquiry by the New Jersey attorney general’s office into whether his convictions in a New York case might affect those licenses. The Trump Organization issued a statement Tuesday saying the former president is not an officer or director of any entity that holds a liquor license in New Jersey, or anywhere in the United States. The state Attorney General’s office said Monday it is looking into whether Trump’s convictions on 34 counts in a trial involving hush money payments to a porn star and falsification of business records to hide it violates a prohibition on anyone convicted of a crime involving 'moral turpitude’ from holding a liquor license.” THE RULE OF FLAW — “Trump loyalist Van Drew hawks bill curbing state prosecutions,” by NJ Spotlight News’ Benjamin J. Hulac: “U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew is one of 11 members of Congress, all Republicans, sponsoring a bill that would allow current or former presidents or vice presidents to move state lawsuits and criminal prosecutions to federal court, a not-so-subtle attempt to shield Donald Trump from further legal jeopardy. It’s one of several measures Van Drew (R-2nd) has sponsored that would benefit Trump in both his legal prosecutions and with the fallout from his congressional impeachments.” —“Storing your gun safely is a big aim for [Sherrill]” —“With LGBTQ+ seniors 'retreating into the closet,' Gottheimer pushes for more protections”
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MIDDLESEX COUNTY — “Lawsuit alleges Middlesex 'turned blind eye' to sex abuse at juvenile detention center,” by MyCentralJersey’s Mike Deak: “Six adults who were confined as juveniles in the Middlesex County Juvenile Detention Center in North Brunswick have filed suit against the county claiming they were victims of sexual abuse at the facility. The plaintiffs, ranging in age from 34 to 45, are four men and two women, with some of the alleged abuse occurring as far back as 1991. The lawsuit is the latest in a string of New Jersey juvenile detention abuse lawsuits brought by Levy Konigsberg, a New York City firm that has also brought suits against New Jersey for alleged abuse at state juvenile facilities in Monroe and Montgomery. The firm is also suing Union County on behalf of eight men and women who allegedly suffered sexual abuse during their confinement as juveniles at the Union County Juvenile Detention Center in Elizabeth and Linden.”
DISAPPOINTED RAGEAHOLICS TO LOOK ELSEWHERE FOR OUTRAGE — “NJ district blames email for Jewish student yearbook erasure,” by NJ 101.5’s Dan Alexander: “The schools superintendent believes it was a mistake — not an antisemitic intent — that was to blame for the names of Jewish students being left of the yearbook and their organization's photo replaced with one of Muslim students. … Valeski said the yearbook club asked the Jewish Student Union for the names of its members but did not receive a response. … The yearbook editors could not find a picture of the Jewish Student Union. Valeski said that it is up to yearbook club members to name and file the photos they submit but an adult takes the final step of adding the photo to the layout.” PATERCRASTINATION — “5 Paterson council incumbents didn't file campaign spending reports,” by The Paterson Press’ Joe Malinconico: “Five of the six winners in Paterson's recent ward City Council elections — all incumbents — failed to comply with the state's deadline for filing their final campaign finance reports. Those council members who missed the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission’s June 3 deadline for submitting their 20-day post-election reports were Al Abdelaziz, Michael Jackson, Shahin Khalique, Alex Mendez, and Luiz Velez. ‘This is the only accountability we have; this is only way we know where the candidates’ contributions come from,’ said Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University … When asked about their overdue political pending records, Abelaziz and Khalique said they would file theirs with the by the end of this week. Velez said his campaign treasurer went on vacation after the election and then was busy helping a Paterson family regain custody of an infant.” BECAUSE MENENDEZ COULDN'T AFFORD TO EAT THERE ANYMORE — “Paterson mall owners move to evict IHOP over $1M in unpaid rent, fees,” by The Paterson Press’ Joe Malinconico: “The IHOP restaurant at the Center City Mall closed down on Saturday, amid a court battle involving allegations that the business owners owe more than $1.1 million in rent and other payments. … Center City claimed Foya Foods owed $516,756 in back rent, $196,624 in mall common area management fees, and $387,182 from a loan for furniture, equipment, and other expenses from when the IHOP opened at the mall in 2016.” — “Toms River Animal Shelter shut down, mayor rejects push to force repeal of county takeover” —“Hillsborough schools may walk back some budget cuts. Here's how” —“Four years after George Floyd, here's what Neptune cops are doing differently” —“'Music is such a big part of Paterson’s culture.' How group is using it to fight violence” —“Hudson County approves $674 million budget” | | EVERYTHING ELSE | |
GIVING TEENS IN PARENT-HATING PHASE AN INCENTIVE TO ACT OUT — “Jersey Shore cops, pols want to hold parents responsible for kids’ rowdy actions after melees,” by The AP’s Wayne Parry: “Parents should be held civilly or criminally responsible for the actions of their children that create disturbances or damage in public places, a group of New Jersey police chiefs and Republican lawmakers said Wednesday during a forum held after a second consecutive year of disturbances at some Jersey Shore boardwalks over Memorial Day weekend … The panel consisted solely of Republican state and local legislators, whose party has blamed juvenile justice reforms enacted in recent years under the administration of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy for creating an atmosphere of lawlessness and disrespect for law enforcement among teens and young adults who feel there are no consequences for their behavior.”
—“Wildwood police say they shut down unsanctioned beach party planned for this weekend”
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