About a year into his first term, snow got Gov. Phil Murphy into a political mess. In November 2018, New Jersey and its neighboring states were caught off guard by a particularly fierce storm that snarled traffic, caused accidents and had residents stranded on the roads for hours.
Now, with a year left of his second and final term, snow gave Murphy a breather. New Jersey was not particularly hard hit by Sunday’s storm, but it had the potential to be bad enough to keep Murphy in state for President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Murphy’s planned attendance at the inauguration made sense. We’ve been on this ride before, and we’ve seen that Trump will take vengeance for something he sees as a personal slight, like an inauguration snub. But while Murphy may have had something to lose by not attending, he had little to gain as someone in attendance for an inaugural speech filled with culture war fodder.
Staying home for the snow gave Murphy a perfectly justifiable reason to avoid the political headache without making it look like a snub. Besides, he probably would have had to face the indignity of being seated in the overflow room anyway.
WHERE’S MURPHY? In West Windsor at 10:30 a.m. to promote expanding pre-k and full-day kindergarten. Woodbridge at noon for a groundbreaking ceremony at Middlesex College
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WHAT TRENTON MADE
SPADE LEAVE — Spadea to leave radio show this month: Radio host and Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Spadea will leave his morning drive time show at the end of the month. Townsquare Media, parent company of NJ 101.5, confirmed that Spadea plans to relinquish his hosting duties at the end of January. A campaign breakfast planned for Jan. 30 to celebrate Spadea’s “big day” will mark his departure from the show, which he’s helmed for about 10 years. “Bill will be going off the air at the end of the month and Eric Scott will be taking over temporarily,” Townsquare Media Regional Vice President Brian Lang said in a statement to POLITICO. Scott is NJ 101.5’s head of news and digital content … Ciattarelli and fellow GOP gubernatorial candidate state Sen. Jon Bramnick challenged Spadea’s continued hosting of the show with the Election Law Enforcement Commission in June, arguing that Townsquare Media — which Ciattarelli’s campaign said charged $500 a minute for commercials — exceeded the $5,800 campaign contribution limit in the first few minutes of the day he declared his gubernatorial candidacy. Spadea’s campaign argued that any attempt to sanction Spadea would violate his First and 14th amendment rights, while Townsquare Media said it had rules in place to prohibit him from promoting his candidacy on the show.
PLEASE, MR. PRESIDENT — New Jersey's governor tried to leverage the first hours of Donald Trump's presidency to kill congestion pricing. In a Monday letter to Trump, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy echoed Trump’s own criticism of congestion pricing as a “disaster” and urged the new president to give the New York tolling program a closer look. “As you begin your second term as president, I welcome any opportunity to work with you and your administration where we can find common ground,” Murphy wrote. “One area where I believe our priorities align is congestion pricing.” Murphy, who has so far unsuccessfully sued to block the tolling program that began earlier this month, said the tolls are “a disaster for working- and middle-class New Jersey commuters and residents who need or want to visit lower Manhattan.” The Democratic governor quoted from the Republican president’s previous statements about congestion pricing as “a disaster for NYC,” among other things.
Murphy’s office released the letter hours after the new president was sworn in. Murphy's letter also references another letter, which was not made public, which may contain details about what he hopes Trump’s administration will do. One way to upend the tolling program could be through Murphy’s ongoing lawsuit against the federal government’s necessary approvals of the tolling program, which is being run by New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The Trump administration could conceivably take a different view of the tolls than the Biden administration, which supported them, though it’s unclear whether it’s too late to undo the approval. — Ry Rivard
THE GREAT DEBASEMENT — “The war for N.J.’s soul: The far-right is ready for its moment. A reckoning looms for the state,” by NJ Advance Media’s Spencer Kent: “The future leader of New Jersey will have to go through us. Mike Crispi said it more as a brag than a warning. But we both knew the Republican operative was sending a message that November day. Donald Trump had just won the presidential election, and in the final weeks of 2024, Crispi — syndicated livestream host, America First leader and Trump designee in the Garden State — was setting the agenda for New Jersey’s new political landscape … For 11 months, I followed Crispi, 31, and other far-right influencers preaching to a burgeoning audience. It was 11 months of hate speech and conspiracy theories. Eleven months of xenophobic rhetoric and scapegoatin … And suddenly, as I sat in on those rallies, it felt like something had shifted. I realized the state faced a reckoning … At first glance, those influencers looked like grassroots activists running DIY campaigns. And some were. But upon closer inspection, I discovered legitimate gubernatorial candidates and powerful insiders with direct access to Trump. Insiders who use scare tactics to demonize. Insiders like Crispi, who espouses the Great Replacement theory — claiming the white population is being systematically replaced by people of color in a grand conspiracy — and once called for ‘a complete and total ban of transgenders.’ Like Durr, who has compared trans-friendly Democrats to groomers. And like Spadea, the popular drive-time radio host who has attacked the trans community on X and said the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol was ‘a Leftist lie.’”
BLACK AND BLUE THE BLUE —Trump issues sweeping pardons for Jan. 6 rioters, by POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney: President Donald Trump announced pardons for about 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol in his name on Jan. 6, 2021, instantly laying waste to the Justice Department’s four-year drive to punish the first disruption of the transfer of power in American history. The sweeping grant of clemency largely erases the prosecutions that have crammed Washington’s federal courthouse and featured prominently in national politics since Trump attempted to derail Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. “These people have been destroyed,” Trump said as he signed the pardons Monday night. “What they’ve done to these people has been outrageous.” He asked the Bureau of Prisons to facilitate the release of incarcerated defendants immediately. Trump’s decision came despite calls from some political allies and even a federal judge he appointed to refrain from “blanket” pardons of Jan. 6 defendants. The Justice Department charged about 1,600 perpetrators for their roles in the mob, including 600 accused of assaulting or impeding police during the chaos. About 1,100 of them pleaded guilty or were found guilty at trial. The other roughly 500 cases were still pending until Trump’s clemency.
GETTING IN BEDMINSTER TOGETHER — “Phil Murphy was to attend Donald Trump's inauguration. What does that mean for NJ?” by The Record’s Charles Stile: “Murphy had said he was ambivalent about going to an event that celebrates a president who dog-whistled his way back to the White House, who refused to concede his loss four years ago and who refuses to take responsibility for his role in the ransacking of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Yet Murphy said there was a bigger point of tradition and national solidarity that transcends Trump's conduct and the partisan warfare of the moment. Murphy cited President Joe Biden’s pandemic-restrained inaugural in 2020, where he was ‘struck by the amount of Republican governors who showed up.’ ‘It’s the right thing to do, no matter all of the challenges and issues with Trump,’ Murphy said of his plans to attend the inauguration last week … But this is about more than just honoring the democratic traditions and values that distinguish the United States from banana republics. The truth is that Democrats around the country are now forced to reckon with the reality that Trump is back in his bully pulpit — and with his hands on the purse strings.”
THE RULE OF FLAW — Biden said his pardon of family was meant to shield them from Trump. That’s not the full story, by POLITICO’s Ben Schreckinger: Joe Biden cast his last-minute pardons of family members merely as an effort to shield them from the retribution of Donald Trump. In reality, his brother, serial entrepreneur Jim Biden, had already come under scrutiny from investigators in Biden’s own Justice Department. In addition to calls from Republicans in Congress to prosecute him for allegedly lying to congressional impeachment investigators, Jim Biden’s activities have been investigated in recent years in two federal criminal probes, as POLITICO previously reported. Jim Biden, 75, has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing in those cases. Both investigations deal with a now-bankrupt hospital operator, Americore, that Jim Biden worked with in the years between his older brother’s vice presidency and presidency.
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LOCAL
McGRIEVANCES — Jersey City mayoral candidate James Solomon is hitting rival Jim McGreevey for using one of President Trump’s pollsters, McLaughlin & Associates, for his campaign. McGreevey’s last campaign finance report shows an $11,500 payment to the firm. “The 2024 election saw Donald Trump work even harder to divide people against each other for his own political gain, and it’s shameful that Jim McGreevey is bringing the masterminds of those tactics to Jersey City. The MAGA/Trump/McLaughlin agenda is going to hurt real people in Jersey City; targeting the vulnerable to help those who already have so much get more,” Solomon said in a statement. McGreevey in a phone interview told me this is a distraction from the “nuts and bolts” issues of Jersey City like property taxes, rent hikes, litter and crime. “For the past decade, every day of my life I have worked to assist those returning from addiction treatment, prison and veterans returning from war. Among the most marginalized persons in our city and state. My life’s work and my family has been about serving working families. I have not had the privilege and financial wherewithal gifted to me as has James Solomon,” McGreevey said.
Interestingly, McLaughlin is a Republican pollster, but McGreevey is not the first Hudson County Democrat the firm has worked for. (Jersey City’s election is non-partisan but with the exception of Bret Schundler recent mayors have been Democrats). McLaughlin’s website lists as clients Union City Mayor Brian Stack — who is McGreevey’s biggest backer — along with former Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, former Hoboken Mayor David Roberts and former Bayonne Mayor/Assembly Speaker Joe Doria.
WHITE TOWNSHIP IS NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH GREEN TOWNSHIP — “Voters narrowly rejected easing ban on weed businesses in this township. What’s next?” by LehighValleyLive’s Glenn Epps: “White Township Committee is expected to deliberate more on the consequences of a majority vote in favor of leaving the township’s prohibition on cannabis businesses unchanged. Voters sided 1,450 to 1,295 on the non-conditional ballot question in November in favor of denying any cannabis businesses to operate within the township. A 2021 rule already prohibits all cultivation, manufacturing and distribution. A clerk for the township confirmed the township will continue its discussion in January next month as an old order of business. No action will be taken. Elected officials initially approved an ordinance in June 2024 to rollback prohibitions on cannabis businesses. That measure would’ve allowed cultivators, growers and manufacturers to conduct business in certain parts of the township. Retailers, wholesalers and warehouses would not be permitted. After a backlash by residents opposed to the ordinance, officials opted instead to put the issue on the November ballot question.”
HE FINALLY GOT PLANNING BORED — “After 62 years on Franklin Lakes Planning Board, 92-year-old steps down,” by The Record’s Marsha A. Stoltz: “Anyone who has attended a Planning Board meeting can appreciate the hard work that goes into serving as a volunteer on such a board. Now imagine serving for 62 consecutive years. Julius Lauber Jr. did just that, and on Jan. 2, at age 92, he stepped down from the post. The nonagenarian served as chairman of the Planning Board for 18 of those years and 27 as vice chairman. When he stepped down after more than six decades, local officials said they believed he was the longest-serving planning board member in the state. He was honored at the borough's reorganization meeting on Jan. 2 with a volunteer award from Mayor Charles Kahwaty.”
TO PROTECT AND SLUR — “N.J. city has 2 Jewish police officers. Both have filed complaints alleging antisemitism,” by Kevin Shea for NJ.com: “Two long-serving Trenton police officers of the Jewish faith have filed legal actions claiming they were subjected to antisemitic slurs and comments from colleagues. Aaron Bernstein filed a civil suit in July 2024, and Alexis Durlacher, a lieutenant, filed a notice in September 2024 of her intention to sue the city, which often called a tort claim. Both have served for over 20 years. The actions are not related. Both officers are known to be the only Jewish cops on the force … Bernstein alleges he arrived at his work desk in December 2022 and found a dancing Santa Claus decoration that had been fashioned with a homemade sign that read, “F--- Jews.” It also had a star of David that had a red circle drawn around it with a red cross-out line.”
GET EUSTA HIM — “Eustace Mita balances Ocean City Boardwalk plans with global mission,” by The Press of Atlantic City’s Bill Barlow: “More than 7,000 miles from the Boardwalk, in a hilly African community of coffee fields linked by muddy dirt roads, Eustace Mita dreams of building a basilica. The project as envisioned would be far, far larger than Mita’s plans for a new hotel at the former site of Gillian's Wonderland, and one he describes as more important …. In 1981, several young people reported an apparition of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The appearance was recognized by Pope John Paul II in 2001. Advocates for the construction say it is the only formally recognized site of an appearance of Mary where a basilica has not been constructed … His plans for a new hotel on the Boardwalk have catapulted Mita from a familiar face at morning Mass to a household name in Ocean City. In many narratives, Mita has been cast as the villain, a rapacious developer bent on destroying a beloved piece of local history. While some commenters on social media have said they liked the design for Icona at Wonderland, or looked forward to the local investment and jobs it could bring, more have described it as a monument to greed that will hurt the community.”
