WHO’S UP

Andy Kim

Yes, even though Speaker Craig Coughlin yanked that anti-transparency bill earlier today, don’t expect sinister payback effected by his home county allies. First Lady Tammy Murphy on Thursday night will still win the backing of the massively untransparent Middlesex County Democratic Committe. Don’t for a moment suggest some sort of separation among these key public interest groups. Indeed, all is well among the sturdy synergies of Middlesex County-the speaker-and-the-front-office. But in the meantime, U.S. Rep. Andy Kim – the unlikely Eddie Van Halen of New Jersey politics – secured a nice little win over in Mercer County. Yeah, go ahead and laugh. A win’s a win.

Even though the clock is going tick-tock, tick tock, and a ticked off mom is pulling into Middlesex.

John Burzichelli

Yes, the good government guy is back, getting good government done – regardless of whom it benefits.

Closed for more than a year due to structural damage sustained in February 2023, the overpass at the Route 295 interchange and Hawks Bridge Road reopened this week, according to the LD-3 Legislative Office. Senator John Burzichelli and Assembly Members Heather Simmons and Dave Bailey, Jr. joined New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) officials to formally announce the overpass reopening, made possible with temporary repairs that include the replacement of several diaphragms (which are cross section supports under the bridge deck) and concrete repairs. What really comes across in this project is Burzichelli’s unfailing charity – and humility – as he didn’t even bother to mention that now his conquered predecessor, Ed Durr, an over-the-road truck driver, will be able to safely get his rig across the overpass.

Jon Bramnick

Running for governor in 2025, the Republican state Senator from Union County scored a victory this week in the backyard of rival former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli when he picked up the endorsement of the Warren Twp. GOP Chairman. That’s Warren Twp., not Warren County. Warren Township is in Somerset County, just as Ciattarelli’s in Somerset County, and Warren County’s in Warren County, and Warren G. Harding was in Somerset County, when he came to Somerset to sign a joint resolution officially ending WWI.

Curtis Bashaw

You think Christine Serrano Glassner and Alex Zdan are the only ones in the Republican Party running for the United States Senate? Pshaw! Or rather, Bashaw is actually also running. He secured the backing this week of the Gloucester County Republican Committee.

Robert Singer

The Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee today passed legislation sponsored by Senator Singer that would prohibit Medicaid application assistors who are not attorneys from charging for providing Medicaid application assistance to nursing home residents. “A growing number of Medicaid specialists have moved into the nursing home industry, telling families that they can help them qualify for Medicaid. However, some of these Medicaid advisors are bad actors,” said Singer, Republican from Ocean County. “This legislation will create additional safeguards to help protect New Jersey’s most vulnerable residents from predatory practices.”

Singer’s bill, S-1962, prohibits an owner, administrator, director, officer, or employee of a long-term care facility or any person or entity affiliated or related to those individuals from being eligible to act as an attorney-in-fact for a resident of a long-term care facility or an individual who is in the admission process to enter a long-term care facility.

Apparently, Singer didn’t get the memo requiring Trenton lawmakers to craft legislation to hurt – not help – people.

HOTZONE: Middlesex

Don’t think it went unnoticed on the day of the night of the Middlesex County Democratic Committee Convention, that most untransparent of occasions, Speaker Craig Coughlin of Middlesex pulled the plug on the year’s most untransparent bill: A-4045.

Coughlin wouldn’t the entire state to go dark all at once, not when Middlesex wants to prove overwhelming organizational illumination for the U.S. Senate candidacy of First Lady Tammy Murphy.

Dangling over the Assembly Appropriations Committee like the nosecone of a nuclear bomb with the word “peace” spray painted on the side of it, the bill “modifies the conditions under which a records custodian has to respond to an OPRA request for records, allowing the custodian discretion to deny duplicative or anonymous requests.”

Uh, yeah.

Coughlin withdrew the bill with all the ceremonial aplomb of an emperor who throws people into a stadium filled with lions and then pulls them out splendidly amid cries of “Ah, our merciful leader.”

What was that damn bill doing in that committee in the first place?

It was an example, evidently, of giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s.

Or something.

Anyway, insiders this evening expect Tammy Murphy to beat Andy Kim tonight in Middlesex to rack another big, strapping county a little over a week after the First Lady secured Bergen.

WHO’S DOWN

Starbucks

When I look at the MESS you made of my town, Starbucks, the capital city of my home state, it makes me extremely angry as I take pictures each morning of myself with my favorite Frappuccino and post them on Facebook, barely containing my rage. You come to my state capital and pull out on my otherwise groovy city? Well, now, I just might not order a rice crispies treat with my coffee tomorrow on my way to a weekend stay at my favorite hotel, the Marriott.

Independents

We FINALLY have a candidate for the United States Senate: Bob Menendez, doing his level best to cast a shadow not simply over the Democratic Party.

Phil Murphy

Look, don’t you for one minute conflate the decision-making by the Governor’s Office with the First Lady, who was working hard on other fronts while her husband, according to an independent review of New Jersey’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, flubbed. It takes two to tango – and – evidently – two to cultivate different areas of expertise, and go in totally different directions governmentally. For every COVID executive bumbler, there’s a savvy burgeoning senator, even coming out of the same household – even serving the same state.

Jeff Van Drew

As much as the congressman from South Jersey – Donald Trump’s New Jersey State Director – tried to turn Special Counsel Robert Hur into Ben Hur, so he could get him to drive a chariot over Joe Biden, the stoic Hur refused to tumble into Van Drew’s trap. Van Drew’s point about the justice department “being weaponized against conservatives” came as a SHOCK to a New Jersey audience utterly unfamiliar with the feds politicizing law enforcement.

Such scandalous goings-on!

EDITOR’S NOTE: InsiderNJ Columnist Fred Snowflack took the top photo at Bergen County’s Democratic Convention a week ago.