Throughout his speech this afternoon, Governor Phil Murphy gave multiple attaboys to the stone pillar figures sitting over his right and left shoulders.

But he also made sure to boost an actual political ally.

“Let us use this year to also turn our attention to our aging water infrastructure,” Murphy said. “More than 1.5 million residents – north, central, and south, rural and urban – are currently serviced by water with elevated lead levels. We must leverage every opportunity to build a modern water infrastructure network that ensures the delivery of clean water to every child, and every family.”

That was his build-up to welding his own oratorical pipeline to one of his stoutest political supporters: Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who sat front and center in a piece of intended theater.

“We have inherited water infrastructure that is, in some places, a century old, if not older. Some of Newark’s water lines were installed in the 1880s. Mayor Ras Baraka has been on the frontlines of this, and I applaud him and his team for their work to protect Newark’s residents,” the governor said.