Getting desperate:
Anxious to rehash moments from the first debate in the New Jersey governor's race, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno on Wednesday attacked Democratic rival Phil Murphy after he said he'd make New Jersey a sanctuary state and then she blasted him for having any connection to disgraced film executive Harvey Weinstein.
Ahead of accepting the endorsement of a business trade group outside a Bergenfield auto body shop, Guadagno, the Republican nominee, took "two seconds" to talk about "the debate last night."
And then she went on the attack.
Murphy, meanwhile, had a public appearance about two hours earlier in nearby Clifton. He appeared with former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and took a few prewritten questions screened by his staffers at a veterans town hall.
Murphy left the event without talking about the debate or fielding questions from reporters.
In the race to succeed Gov. Chris Christie, Guadagno did everything she could to keep the focus on the prior night -- including calling for additional debates with her rival, which polls show her trailing by double digits.
She called it "completely wrong on every level" that Murphy would make New Jersey a so-called sanctuary state. During the debate, Murphy said he would fight President Donald Trump's attacks on unauthorized immigrants and children who grew up here known as "dreamers" and protect them from deportation.
Guadagno, who as Monmouth County sheriff made headlines for being one of only three sheriffs in the state to deputize her officers to serve as immigration agents, seized on Murphy's comments.
"It's unsafe," she said.
Hours later on Wednesday, her campaign released a video ad dubbed "Sanctuary" that claimed Murphy would "have the backs" of "deranged murderers."
The ad seizes on comments Murphy made at a town hall last month co-sponsored by NJ Advance Media in which he was asked about how one of the people convicted in the 2007 Newark schoolyard killings was an undocumented immigrant who previously been arrested on charges of child rape.
Murphy was asked if federal authorities should be notified if an undocumented immigrant is involved in a crime at the point of arrest or unless their is a conviction. Murphy said: "The field is so tilted against dreamers ... my bias is gonna be toward having their back."
Murphy released a statement Wednesday denouncing Guadagno's ads "vile and deceitful."
Here’s a recap from last night’s debate:
Mr. Murphy not only took advantage of Ms. Guadagno’s ties to her boss, but also sought to link her to the one elected official who is disliked by a large majority of the state: President Trump
He repeatedly made reference to the “Guadagno-Christie” administration and called Ms. Guadagno, “Trump before Trump was Trump.”
Mr. Murphy promoted himself as a check on Mr. Trump’s policies, declaring that New Jersey would protect undocumented immigrants.
“If need be, we will be not just a sanctuary city, but a sanctuary state,” he said.
Ms. Guadagno countered by channeling lines that were familiar on the presidential campaign trail: describing crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.
Mr. Murphy quickly retorted.
“What you’re doing is what Donald Trump does,’’ he said. “You pit us against them. You cast a pall over entire communities of people. It is un-American.”
Recent events also triggered acrimonious exchanges.
Citing the massacre at a country music festival in Las Vegas, Mr. Murphy said that he would sign gun control legislation that Mr. Christie has vetoed and called for stricter background checks. Ms. Guadagno said she would not “take guns out of the hands of honest law-abiding citizens.”
The debate roiling Hollywood – the avalanche of reports accusing the producer Harvey Weinstein of rape and sexual harassment – also came up in the debate.
Mr. Murphy denied, when asked by a moderator, ever accepting money from Mr. Weinstein, a deep-pocketed Democratic donor.
“I didn’t ask for and I didn’t get one dime from this guy,” said Mr. Murphy, calling him “heinous” and adding that “anyone who did should give it back.”
Also, here’s more from the John Kerry even for Murphy:
The morning after the first televised debate of the New Jersey governor's race, Democratic nominee Phil Murphy declined to take questions from reporters as he received an endorsement from former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Appearing together at a VFW post in Clifton on Tuesday morning, Kerry -- a decorated Vietnam combat veteran -- praised Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive, as someone who would bring "a business mindset" to the state's handling of veterans affairs.
"You deserve what state after state has in this country: a standalone Department of Veterans affairs to fight for you," said Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for president.
Currently, New Jersey's Department of Military and Veterans Affairs(DMAVA) is responsible for overseeing both the National Guard and veterans services, a dual mission that Kerry suggested pulls focus from the needs of vets.
Murphy, in turn, vowed to split apart the department and refocus its mission solely on veterans.
"The muddle is profound," Murphy said, promising to reshape it into two separate agencies.
Delaware, New York and Massachusetts have already done so.
As part of the restructuring, Murphy said the new department would help bring employment assistance to those transitioning to civilian life, and mental health counseling to those vets suffering from post-traumatic stress.
We need Murphy to win because he is championing as great progressive platform:
But Murphy’s campaign is not just about resisting Trump as he seeks to win the governorship left open because Trump’s BFF Chris Christie is prevented by term limits from running again. Murphy, who served as the DNC’s finance chair under Howard Dean and was appointed by President Obama to serve as ambassador to Germany, is championing a truly progressive agenda.
A central theme of Murphy’s campaign is helping New Jersey’s lower and middle-income families. “This is a middle-class state, we built this state for the middle class up, and in many cases… the middle class, unfortunately in this administration, has been left behind and hollowed out,” Murphy stated at the town hall. The loud cheers from the crowd made it clear that point resonated with Jersey residents in attendance.
Murphy, who has a sizable lead of roughly 20 points in recent polls over his GOP opponent, Christie’s Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, plans to help New Jersey’s economy with a series of programs. He plans on creating a public bank that will invest in New Jersey’s infrastructure and small businesses. He has vowed to raise the state’s minimum wage, now at $8.44 an hour, up to $15 an hour overtime. Murphy also detailed a series of incentives to attract businesses to move to New Jersey. And just last week he rolled out a plan for free community college for New Jersey residents. Given that Murphy will very likely have a Democratic legislature to work with as governor, his ideas are more than just aspirational promises—each has a good chance of becoming policy.
Murphy ended his speech Sunday with a line that resonates now more than ever given Trump’s policies: “Those who fail to vote embolden the voices of intolerance.” That phrase should be posted at every Democratic campaign office across the nation between now and the midterm election in November 2018.
And I for one love his idea of creating a new state owned bank:
To help restore fairness for everyone, Murphy said the state minimum wage must go up, student-loan programs revamped and tax breaks for the working poor should be expanded. But his most noteworthy proposal was a call for the creation of a state-owned public bank that would allow college students and small businesses to access loans at more equitable rates than those charged by profit-driven commercial institutions. Only one other state currently operates such a bank in the U.S.
Murphy, a former Wall Street executive and ambassador to Germany under President Obama, also criticized tax breaks for major corporations that have become a hallmark of Christie’s tenure, saying the governor’s approach represents “outdated” economic thinking. And if he becomes governor, Murphy said the state would invest more in cities, infrastructure and higher education, even if it means hiking taxes on the wealthy and forcing big corporations to pay more by closing loopholes to bring in new revenue.
“We can no longer tolerate a zero-sum economy where some are able to succeed only because others have been left by the wayside,” Murphy said. “There is too much inequality (and) our economy is in a place you don’t want to be, profoundly unfair and flat as a pancake.”
And with Murphy as governor, New jersey will be added to the list of states that legalized marijuana:
Phil Murphy, the Democratic nominee who's heavily favored to win this year's race for New Jersey governor, has promised to bring legalized marijuana to the state if he's elected. But at least one obstacle has threatened to stand in his way: President Donald Trump's administration.
Could that threat be subsiding, though?
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- the man in charge of enforcing federal law under Trump, a Republican -- has been vocally against legal pot. But a sweeping federal crackdown on states that have legalized marijuana now seems unlikely thanks to a U.S. Justice Department subcommittee, according to a report by Reason.com.
The Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety -- made up of prosecutors and federal law enforcement officials -- has offered up no new policy recommendations to move Session's anti-pot views forward, according to a report by the Associated Press.
And like Christie, Guadagno doesn’t want to do anything about this:
Gov. Chris Christie said a few times last week that even in the wake of the Las Vegas massacre, he is against new gun-control laws.
But on Thursday, the Republican governor signaled he would be open to further regulations in New Jersey on the controversial devices known as "bump stocks" that the gunman in the Vegas attack used to make his rifles fire bullets at a more rapid pace.
Kim Guadagno, the Republican nominee for governor and Christie's lieutenant governor, also made the commitment just two days after saying she would not change any gun laws in the state.
Both were derided by Democratic nominee Phil Murphy, who said Christie and Guadagno were swaying with the political winds.
Christie, however, insists this is no reversal on guns.
"Bump stocks" -- legal devices that allow semiautomatic rifles to mimic illegal automatic guns -- are not guns, he said Friday, so any law restricting one would not be a gun law.
We cannot allow Christie’s Lt. Governor to channel Ed Gillespie (R. VA) in her desperate move to try and pull off a win. Let’s help Murphy fight back. Click here to donate and get involved with Murphy’s campaign.