MORRISTOWN - If you want to talk about democracy and transparency, you can't go wrong cozying up to Thomas Paine.

That's precisely what brought Mikie Sherrill on Friday morning to a Paine statue in a local park - a 1950 memorial highlighting some of Paine's famous writings about democracy and freedom.
Reinforcing the visible image of the day, Sherrill said:

"I'm going to say something that I think is just common sense."

She then presented a four-part plan to make state government more open and transparent.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate said she plans to create a "New Jersey Report Card" that will show how state funds are spent - and more than that - show if the money is getting results.

This will include putting all state contracts online and describing the state budget in "plain language" as opposed to clumsy bureaucratic verbiage.

Transparency, of course, is one of those things that just about all candidates talk about. Reality can be different.

Under Gov. Phil Murphy, for instance, the state took a step backward in that regard by scaling back the Open Public Records Act, which was created more than 20 years ago. The revisions make it more difficult for the public to access government information on all levels.

Asked about OPRA, Sherrill said she opposed many of the changes, adding:

"Going forward, I am going to work to get more information out to people."
Continuing, she said that her plan "actually addresses much of what people OPRA the state for."
By that, Sherrill explained that by putting more information about state finances online, there would be less need for people to use the Open Public Records Act in the first place.
We are in an election campaign, so it was not surprising that Sherrill mentioned Republican Jack Ciattarelli and accused him of lack of transparency.

She said that she has released her recent tax returns and called on Ciattarelli to do the same.