The Sweeney 2025 Path to Drumthwacket in a Trump Universe

A source tells NJ Insider that as a result of Governor Phil Murphy's appointment of a task force to investigate an NJEDA tax incentive program in place during the administration of former governor Chris Christie and its subsequent criminal referral to the state attorney general, Senate President Steve Sweeney will not prioritize Murphy's wishes during budget proceedings.

An ironworker by trade who knows not only how to walk into a union hall but how to organize out of one of them, Steve Sweeney as senate president tried to spud wrench worker and taxpayer interests in a politically death-defying juggling act that ultimately cost him reelection.

Now he’s back, with $2 million in the bank as of the middle of October, seeking the 2025 Democratic nomination for governor, a week and a day removed from Republican Donald Trump’s steamrolling of Democrats who got too precious to simply deliver a stentorian pro-worker message. Sweeney’s Building Trades ally, former Assemblyman Tom Giblin, an operating engineer, left office cautioning Democrats: ignore Building Trades Labor at your own peril.

Sweeney, himself run out of his LD-3 senate seat by a nonunion – of all things – over-the-road trucker, more as collateral damage to Phil Murphy progressivism and the reddening of South Jersey in part owing to Fox News barstool brainwave deadening, wants to give his bealeagured party one last shot to make it about workers and not every little stubbed toe and tear-inducing personal offense.

To be clear, the Biden Administration had a stellar record on Building Trades issues, but like Sweeney, in a sense, found itself devoured by voters who couldn’t stick with the party on social issues, and, in the case of the Dems’ national campaign, preferred to think a change in direction might lower the price of eggs sooner than furnish Trump with an opportunity to pelt them with eggs.

As Democrats break into factions ahead of a gubernatorial election year and run the danger of becoming little more than shreds of individual angry grievances, Sweeney sees a chance to invoke the old organizer’s code and make the contest about workers. His allies will make the case that as a guy who knows what it means to struggle to pay bills, who relied on labor, not investments, Sweeney connects better with the Democratic Party electorate.

But are any of those guys still around? They might be, if Sweeney’s around. If Sweeney’s not around, they might not be, or so runs the argument.

Of course, Sweeney has a complicated record as a New Jersey lawmaker, ticking off, in no particular order, marriage equality advocates when he abstained on gay marriage, prior to backing it; public sector workers when he teamed up the Anti-Christ (in the parlance of public sector labor, and that’s putting it nicely) to patch the state’s pension system, prior to working with the NJEA to secure Chapter 44; and even, apparently, his own Fox News-fed constituents, prior to them voting out of office in a 2021 shocker.

But the bottom line – or so say his allies – is that when it comes to workers, Sweeney has a record that at this moment in time, can cut through a lot of incoherent party messaging, a champion of Paid Family Leave – probably his signature labor accomplishment, job creation, strengthened collective bargaining protections, $15 minimum wage, and many other pro-labor priority accomplishments. Certainly, the fact that he simultaneously prizes efficient government makes him persona non-grata among diehard libs – even now – or maybe especially now as the contest intensifies.

If Dems haven’t utterly eradicated Sweeney’s rank-and-file base in the excruciating aftermath of Trump’s victory, the former senate president’s backers still see a path for their guy even though he couldn’t win the 2017 Democratic Primary for governor at the zenith of his political power.

First of all, without a party line – the consequence of Andy Kim’s successful legal case – and lacking county party support outside of South Jersey, they see a way for Sweeney to penetrate on the strength of high name ID. They also trust in the three separate candidacies coming out of Essex County bulldozing one another into less than robust campaigns, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop sniping progressives, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka drilling into cities, and U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer and U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill chopping up North Jersey between them. With a labor organizer’s mentality, Sweeney, they argue, can consolidate himself and his Building Trades base maybe better than the others, expressing a readymade message for a party, if it cares anymore to hear about a balanced economic plan that doesn’t shaft, and in fact prioritizes, the worker. At the very least, even if public sector labor disagrees, Sweeney won’t have to wonder about a campaign starting point, which for him will always be a Union Hall.

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12 responses to “The Sweeney 2025 Path to Drumthwacket in a Trump Universe”

  1. Sweeney has a very simple message. He will protect YOUR money. He will not promote crusades unless he can pay for them. Sweeney is the only candidate who has proven to be fiscally responsible. He balanced State budgets for over 10 years. As a senior I am confident that he will responsibly pay for the enhanced STAY NJ Senior benefit. The other candidates have no fiscal plan. Hell, the two DC candidates don’t even know what STAYNJ is!

  2. As a progressive who will always remember how he screwed public workers, I’d be willing to give him a second look. Never been a real Fulop fan. Don’t think Baraka can win a statewide race. And would prefer Sherrill stays in the House. And he’s certainly not as bad as Genocide Josh.

  3. He’s shortsighted and self serving. He used S7 to indiscriminately dismantle education in NJ at the peril of countless students.

  4. The Oppo researchers will have a field day! He’s a member of the Norcross Enterprise. He shepherded through every piece of self-serving Norcross legislation, from the corrupt Economic Opportunity (for George) Act to privatizing Water. AND, even his destruction of the stable state public healthcare system, which has resulted in a death-spiral for the local gov’t system, was designed to support an independent healthcare broker like Connor Strong. Not to mention the fact that this “labor leader” forced union members to scab and break the Hudson Yards strike. There is no denying that Sweeney is smart. But his relationship and the degree of control Norcross has over him, makes Sweeney a huge step backwards in the efforts to address systemic corruption in NJ.

  5. Hetty has a short memory. Sweeney was the only one with the guts to ” tame” Christie when as Governor he wanted to gut the pension fund and privatize a lot of State government. Christie had her CWA on the ropes and was going to privatize big parts of Corrections and Human Services. Sweeney stopped him. She knows that. Sweeney protected the workers and the funds against big odds.

  6. He made entirely too many enemies during his reign of being Boss Norcross’s puppet, especially with the PUBLIC sector unions, to have a chance in Hades of ever getting that job.

  7. Gutting the NJ employees pension fund and privatizing a large part of NJ government isn’t a bad idea. He wasn’t going to gut the pension fund. He was going to put it into 401ks and IRAs, instead of the ridiculous “gold” pensions that NJ employees get. He was going to put state workers in the same pot as every NJ taxpayer gets put in. It’s called Equal Protection Under the Law.

  8. Sweeney said in 2006 that State workers should all take a voluntary wage and benefit cut. This from someone who makes over $250,000.00 per year! I actually had a chance to discuss this with him in a phone conversation in 2011 and he said: “And I was right!” When I told him he should take the same voluntary wage and benefit cuts to all of his 3 sources of income, he protested that he had not had a raise in 5 years! If Sweeney is the Dem nominee, I’m voting 3rd party because it will be like choosing between 2 Republicans! Sweeney is a scab! He’ll never get my vote. He is an enemy to all public workers.

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