Governor Phil Murphy Finally Discovered South Jersey

Phil Murphy

There has been a lot of news coverage lately of Governor Phil Murphy’s assault on the billions of dollars of tax incentives given to companies moving to Camden. See here, here and here for more. Even former Governor Chris Christie got into the act.

To me, it looks more like a heavyweight boxing match with Governor Murphy in one corner and George Norcross in the other. They are slugging it out! And, who doesn’t love a good political fight? The fight is even better when a group of Democrats fight with the state’s Governor from the same party.

It’s not my intention to get into whether or not the billions of dollars in tax breaks given to companies moving to Camden are a good or bad thing, everyone already has their thoughts on that issue, but the fight is fun to watch.

I will say that back in February I wrote about a sweetheart deal in which a piece of Camden waterfront property was transferred for the total sum of two dollars ($2.00) and how I found that to be odd.

Anyway, back to the fight. One has to wonder what Murphy’s endgame is here. Is he going after Norcross as a way to punish New Jersey’s Senate President Steve Sweeney?

Why even pick this fight? It’s not like Murphy has ever cared about South Jersey before.

We can argue all day long about how good former Governor Chris Christie was, but at least he paid attention to South Jersey – even when I wished he would stay away.

My point? Whether I agreed with him or not, Christie paid at least a little bit of attention to South Jersey. It appears to me the only time Murphy cares about anything in South Jersey is when he can mess with Sweeney – like the time Murphy decided to veto the minutes of a South Jersey Port Corporation meeting. Politico did a detailed piece on that Murphy stunt in which they wrote:

Gov. Phil Murphy this week vetoed the minutes of a South Jersey board stacked with allies of Senate President Steve Sweeney after the directors refused Murphy‘s request to cut ties with the agency’s general counsel.

Basically, Murphy vetoed those meeting minutes to pick a fight with Sweeney.

All this leads me to ask again, Why is Murphy picking this fight? Murphy was for tax breaks when they benefited him. Some Camden County Democrats even proved that point when, according to New Jersey Globe they said:

“We find it surprising and hypocritical that Governor Murphy has happily accepted $165 million in tax credits when he was on the management committee at the huge and lucrative firm, Goldman Sachs, and was fully prepared to give away $5 billion to the planet’s richest company, Amazon, but has feverishly insinuated without proof that irregularities “exist for tax programs that would help Camden, the Democrats said. “It must have been okay for him and Amazon because he was moving his firm to Jersey City and Amazon was considering moving to Newark.”

Frankly, that’s a good line of attack. Murphy, according to Wikipedia, retired from Goldman Sachs in “2005-06.” Yet according to a December 2003 New York Times article Goldman Sachs was “seeking subsidies to build in New York, where its headquarters have long been located.” At the time, the 42-story tower Goldman Sachs was builing in Jersey City was nearing completion – a building that received considerable tax breaks.

Camden County Democrats are absolutely right to call out Murphy on his hypocrisy over tax incentives.

I frequently complain that South Jersey Republicans always get excited when someone goes after Norcross. This time, there might be a reason to get excited because if we pay attention to this fight it is likely the Democrats fighting with Murphy might give us some useful information for 2021.

Stay tuned because this fight isn’t going to end anytime soon and, if we’re lucky, Murphy will continue to show exactly what a big hypocrite is.

Will The Unofficial South Jersey Young Republican Organization Ever Get Its House In Order?

I’ll start with a disclaimer: This post is NOT me taking a shot at young Republicans. It is me saying, once again, that the “leaders” of a rogue young Republican organization better start getting their house in order before they have a negative impact on the officially chartered young Republican organization.

To be clear, the South Jersey Young Republicans are not chartered and therefore not officially recognized by the Young Republican National Federation (YRNF). The Young Republican Federation of New Jersey (YRFNJ) is chartered and that means they are officially recognized.

Both organizations are fairly active on social media. The difference is the officially recognized group doesn’t post stupid stuff. The unofficial group tends to post stuff without bothering to gather facts, like the time the organization’s apparently self-appointed leader, Jenna Evans, made the false claim that Atlantic County Young Republicans Chairman Brian Fitzherbert tried to sabotage one of their events.

Evans’s claims were untrue, but that didn’t stop her, and others, from making the claim without checking the facts.

Well, it turns out Evans, or the person running her group’s Facebook page, still insists on posting things without checking facts. For example:

Granted, Evans and her sidekick Hirsh Singh (more on that in a bit), were only about 2 or 3 years old when that man stood in front of a tank at Tiananmen Square, but a simple Google search would have told them the guy was not run over by the tank.

One would think the leaders of the rogue young Republican group would fact check before sharing such an image. Apparently not.

And, just because I promised “more on that in a bit” here’s how I know Singh is Evans sidekick. Back in March, shortly after I wrote my piece proving that Evans didn’t know what she was talking about when she accused Fitzherbert of “sabotaging” her Atlantic City event she reached out to my radio show co-host Bob Greco. She set up a meeting with Greco, coincidentally not far from my house, and she brought Singh to that meeting. Two peas in a pod!

Why make it a point to out Singh as Evans sidekick? Singh wants to be Governor/Senator/Congressman/Senator and one would think that a guy who wants to be elected to an office who also appears to be a leader of a rogue YR organization might at least make sure that organization checks facts before posting to social media.

If the leaders of the rogue YR group do take the friendly advice and start fact checking before posting to social media, maybe then they’ll start thinking before posting distasteful items to their Facebook page:

While I completely understand they were going for humor when they shared the above post to the South Jersey Young Republicans Facebook page I believe Evans and Singh should have thought for a minute before posting. Apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks the post wasn’t the smartest thing to do:

“You’re kidding right?” And, “Probably should have deleted before posting this one. Keep it classy kids,” sum up my thoughts.

Sharing posts like the one above, while amusing to some, do nothing to advance the Republican cause and puts the official young Republican organization in the state at risk of being lumped in with the rogue organization. The lack of fact checking and thoughtless post sharing is not fair to the young Republicans who did things the right way and got chartered.

So, South Jersey Young Republicans, before you negatively impact the actual chartered Young Republican Federation of New Jersey please get your house in order

Note To Insurgent Democrats: There’s No Whining In Politics

This is probably the most boring Republican primary election season EVER in South Jersey. Because it’s so boring I’ve been watching the insurgent (“progressive”) Democrats in South Jersey, specifically Camden County. I’ve blogged about them twice, here and here.

I didn’t plan on writing about these insurgent Democrats again, but I stumbled onto this gem on social media:

The Facebook post links to a recent Philadelphia Inquirer article. It’s a good article and basically has a bunch of “he said, she said” regarding petition challenges. Reading the article, and the above snapshot of a social media post, I had to laugh when I came to this:

“In what country can you remove from the ballot your political opponents? Norcross Country,” Rena Margulis, a progressive candidate for county clerk, said in a recent interview.

Candidates get thrown off the ballot all the time in elections in New Jersey (and other states). Just last year Brian Fitzherbert was bounced from the GOP congressional primary ballot and given the facts that (a) Hirsh Singh’s campaign manager “was present for the court proceedings” to remove Fitzherbert from the ballot and (b) “filer Christopher Coleman, a Galloway Republican, said he reviewed the petitions of candidates Sam Fiocchi, Seth Grossman and Robert Turkavage,” according to New Jersey Globe I believe it had nothing to do with being in “Norcross Country.” Quite the opposite, it had everything to do with Hirsh Singh being afraid of competition.

Fitzherbert didn’t whine. He supported the eventual winner of the primary and worked hard to build the Atlantic County Young Republicans and continues to help build other YR organizations.

I can guarantee that back in 2012 when Gary Smith got thrown off the ballot in New Mexico’s GOP 1st congressional district primary that it had nothing to do with “Norcross Country.” Smith did whine, in fact, being removed from the ballot angered Smith so much he became a serial tire slasher (video at the end of this post). As I was the executive director of the Bernalillo County GOP at the time I remember this being quite a huge pain in the ass, as was replacing a couple of tires.

Having said all that maybe there might be a “Norcross Country” connection to the petition challenges filed against the GOP freeholder candidates in Gloucester County, but they aren’t whining about it and are working hard to ensure they get enough write-in votes to have their candidates on the ballot in November.

And, so I don’t sound like a hypocrite I will state again what I wrote in this blog previously:

I get it, challenging the signatures on nominating petitions is a part of political campaigns in New Jersey (and elsewhere). It’s a part of campaigns I dislike. No campaign I managed has ever challenged nominating petitions – that’s how much I despise the practice. I believe working to remove a candidate who meets the requirements to run for an office from the ballot is a gutless move that proves the person challenging signatures on a nominating petition has very little faith in their chosen candidate to win on ideas.

My intent is not to critique the Philadelphia Inquirer article nor is it to defend “Norcross Country.” Seriously, my only purpose here is to remind folks, especially challenger candidates, “There is no whining in politics!”

The Philadelphia Inquirer article is clear, there are many insurgent Democrats still on the ballot:

Most of the candidates on the progressive slate are running for a seat on the Democratic Committee, which is involved in party business and endorsements. About two dozen other candidates on the slate are running for Assembly, county clerk, and mayor or council in the county’s three biggest municipalities — Cherry Hill, Camden and Gloucester Township — and six other towns.

Rather than whining that your freeholder candidates were tossed from the ballot maybe you should get to work for all your other candidates. Be like Brian Fitzherbert or the Gloucester County Republicans and work. Don’t be a Gary Smith!