Ongoing Controversy over NJEDA Task Force Findings Expected to Loom Over Democrats During a New Phase of the Budget Process
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If politics is picking sides, as Guy Gregg once said, never has a time been more magnetic than now, with the Democratic Party divided between the brain trust otherwise known as the South Jersey Democratic Machine and its attendants around the state on one side, and a band of allies close to Governor Phil Murphy on the other.
Revelations last week about the state Attorney General’s examination of a criminal referral into the legislative processes of the Economic Opportunity Act boomeranged on Democratic lawmakers who know now the budget season will likely unfold in even rockier fashion than last year.
And there won’t be any pot within reach to take the sting off the anger.
The first casualty of the war seems to be recreational marijuana, an assembly source told InsiderNJ.
Expanded medical.
Not recreational.
Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3) last month couldn’t muster the votes to support a favorite Murphy agenda item. Now, as Murphy’s AG microscopes a process that allegedly featured the “unregistered lobbying” handiwork of an ally of George Norcross III, the governor can kiss goodbye any Sweeney compliance on that front.
In the aftermath of a veteran Republican senator calling for an investigation, the source said Sweeney v. Murphy was already ugly.
Now it’s worse.
“I can’t take it. I’m going to go dark for a few months,” the source said, bothered by the prospect of having to labor in the political furnaces of both the governor and Norcross/Sweeney.
Multiple sources spoke to the awkwardness of Speaker Craig Coughlin’s (D-19) circumstances.
The machine run by Norcross landed him on the speaker’s chair as part of the power move to keep Sweeney on the senate throne. But Sweeney and Coughlin haven’t been overly cozy through the deepening ugliness of the budget season. Only the most enthusiastic anti-Norcross forces gleefully see signs of a Coughlin defection northward and intensified good relations with the governor’s office. The truth is, Coughlin and his people have been just as frustrated as Sweeney with the (pre-Helmy) neophyte attitudes on display in the front office.
An expressionless Coughlin managed to swim in the bad blood of both parties last budget cycle and will likely play the same lowkey role this time, as he tries to give a low-drama safe haven to lawmakers terrified of getting chopped up in the Murphy v. Norcross war machine.
He may not be able to save them this time.
We need a new Senate President.
And a new governor.
People in South Jersey Love Murphy and Hate Norcross and Sweeney.
Norcross and Sweeney need to be Indicted and someone needs to beat the hell out of them. They have destroyed South Jersey and ruined lives. I hope
Norcross and Sweeney drop dead 💀
They are evil and sinister Anti Christ’s
They are toxic, they lie, cheat and sell people in their own party out. The can not be trusted. Immature dried up old sneaky white con artist who come from nothing. The made it rich off stealing from poor people. The created the poorest city in America. Racist
Norcross and Sweeney both have a mother who is ate jackals. That’s how
Evil they are. He’s golf
Dark. What Does they mean
They are always doing bad things to people. They kill and lie I hope in the name of Jesus they get caught. They killed the Sheridan’s, Buckman and Lewis Katz. Bunch of bullies. I’m surprised no ones taken them
Out
Both dropped out of high school and never grew up. Sweeney and Norcross are Uneducated trailer park trash.