Weinberg launches PAC

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May 24, 2022 View in browser   By Jonathan Custodio PACs continue to be all the rage. Former Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg announced the launch of a political action committee to support progressive initiatives that include increasing racial and gender diversity in government and "to serve those most underserved in the state by supporting the individuals and organizations fighting for justice and equality in our communities," according to a press release. The PAC will be chaired by retired Superior Court Judge Margaret Hayden. "I've retired from the State Senate but I have not given up on making New Jersey a better, more equitable, more just place to live, work and raise a family," Weinberg said, who announced her retirement last year. She has been a fixture in New Jersey politics for three decades. Weinberg said she formed the PAC for New Jersey's "brave, thoughtful, dedicated and principled people continuing to fight discrimination, demand government accountability, and lead our state into a greener, brighter future." HAPPY TUESDAY AFTERNOON — Hi there, I'm Jonathan Custodio, your Playbook PM author. We're adding New Jersey political trivia to this newsletter and will shout out one person who correctly answers the question in the following day's edition. Shout out to Lakshmi Barot for correctly answering that 1947 was the year New Jersey's current constitution was adopted. Today's question: Former Gov. Chris Christie earned his undergraduate degree at which university? Send answers and tips to jcustodio@politico.com. We're here with the latest from Trenton and elsewhere as New Jersey moves ahead in the budget process and the Legislature conducts hearings on Gov. Phil Murphy's spending plan. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY PROTECTING LAWMAKERS — New Jersey politicians on both sides of the aisle are concerned about their own safety, and they're seeking to do something about it. Two lawmakers — one Republican and one Democrat — have introduced measures that were partly written in response to threats they or other New Jersey politicians have received. But that's about all they have in common. One of the measures, NJ A4094 (22R), introduced by Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald (D-Camden), would require that the home addresses of elected officials and candidates for office be redacted from public documents and not disclosed under the state's public records law. The other, NJ S2678 (22R) , proposed by freshman Sen. Ed Durr (R-Gloucester), would ease New Jersey's strict firearms law so that elected officials would be allowed to carry handguns if they demonstrate at least eight hours of safety training. — Matt Friedman COVID NUMBERS — A new omicron subvariant is spreading throughout New Jersey as it reported 4,417 confirmed positive Covid-19 tests and 21 deaths from the virus. The state's seven-day case average is up 1 percent from a week ago and 127 percent from a month ago. ON THE BEATS LAW ENFORCEMENT — Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop criticized a recent bill introduced by four Assembly Democrats that would mandate a certain threshold of police staffing based on municipal populations and high crime rates. In a tweet today, the mayor challenged lawmakers to run for municipal office if they are unhappy with local leaders' decisions. "If certain ppl in the legislature are not happy w/the decision that a mayor or council make maybe they run for the job on a municipal level + make the changes that way, instead of making mandates that won't solve anything but in actuality will move us backward," Fulop tweeted. "To mandate a quota on police officers + do a complete 180 shows the public that some Dems have zero core beliefs or zero understanding of public safety." Under the bill, cities with populations of more than 60,000 paired with a high crime rate would be required to staff four officers per 1,000 residents. Jersey City would qualify under that mandate, and Fulop asserted that the state's police academies would be overburdened by the number of new recruits. "It also makes the assumption that all cities are the same. In the case of#JerseyCity this proposal would trigger hiring of 200 more officers + a huge tax increase," Fulop said. "It makes the wrong assumption that police academies in NJ can handle this # of recruits and furthermore it sends the message that an investment in social services is a distant second in priority and we have learned nothing over the last two years." Around New Jersey ASSEMBLY GOP CALLS FOR BIG TAX RELIEF — New Jersey Monitor's Nikita Biryukov: "Assembly Republicans want New Jersey to go big on tax relief using a voluminous surplus fueled by better-than-expected tax collections in the current and coming fiscal years. On a press call Tuesday, they pitched direct payments to consumers to offset high inflation, tax bracket tweaks that would account for more than two decades of inflation, additional state school aid, and an end to the state diverting municipal energy taxes. 'Anyone who's on this call knows the suffering that is going on, and no matter where I go people are saying, 'I have a difficult time affording anything,' and that's why we want to do structural changes, long-lasting changes, but we need immediate relief,' said Assemblyman Hal Wirths (R-Sussex), the Assembly Republican budget officer." MURPHY: SMALL BUSINESS PAID A PRICE FOR LONG BRANCH POP-UP PARTY — NJ Advance Media's Chris Sheldon and Brent Johnson: "The gigantic Tik Tok-driven 'pop-up party'in Long Branch's Pier Village that resulted in 16 arrests Saturday night badly hurt the upscale Jersey Shore destination's shops and restaurants, Gov. Phil Murphy said. Speaking to reporters after an unrelated event in Ewing, the governor said the incident included 'some modest amount of small-scale violence, but thankfully at the end of the day, we got through it.' 'Now who didn't get through it? The small businesses in Pier Village didn't get through it,' Murphy said. "They all had to close. That's something that's not acceptable. They paid a big price.'" SCUTARI, FOES SETTLE DISPUTE — NorthJersey.com's Dustin Racioppi: "Senate President Nicholas Scutari and his political opponents in Linden have agreed to end a bitter dispute after they accused him of 'serial absenteeism' as the city's prosecutor that wasted taxpayer dollars. The agreement legally ends an intraparty fight that raised the possibility of criminal charges, since one of Scutari's former colleagues in the Legislature went to prison after being convicted of similar allegations. It also clears a potential political liability for Scutari that had hung over him since he became Senate president, the second-most-powerful elected position in New Jersey, in January. 'The results of the settlement make it clear that Senator Scutari never participated in any wrongdoing,' said Scutari's attorney, Gregory Noble." Odds and ends — A huge sinkhole in Oradell has closed a road near the town's NJ Transit train station for at least three weeks. — A 15-year-old student was arrested for emailing a bomb threat to Bayonne High School. — "Free Toll Friday" is coming back on the Atlantic City Expressway. — Some recognizable New Jersey brands will be featured in the new Terminal A at Newark Liberty Airport.   Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook  |  Playbook PM  |  California Playbook  |  California Playbook PM  |  Florida Playbook  |  Illinois Playbook  |  Massachusetts Playbook  |  New Jersey Playbook  |  New York Playbook  |  New York Playbook PM View all our political and policy newsletters Follow us

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