| | | | |  | | By Matt Friedman | | | Good Tuesday morning! Rutgers’ faculty enters the second day of their strike today, and despite efforts by Gov. Phil Murphy to get the two sides working together in Trenton and “lock the door,” they have yet to reach a resolution. I don’t regularly report on higher education, and I’m going to stay out of actively reporting on this issue because my lovely wife Emily is a member of one of the striking unions and recently taught classes at Rutgers-Camden as an adjunct. (She’s not currently lecturing and is unlikely to at Rutgers in the future.) But as much as I’d like to avoid writing about this altogether, I can’t ignore the biggest government-related story in New Jersey right now. It should also be noted that pay for adjuncts, the main issue of contention here, is a controversial topic around the country, and that colleges and universities have been increasingly relying on them to teach classes. Check out Dustin Racioppi and Daniel Han’s story on the strike here. NJ Advance Media has a good explainer of the basics of the dispute, and an article about what students are going through. And Governor, I mean Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, bashed the Rutgers administration: “With @RutgersU investing tens of millions $$ into a below average football program, it’s hard to accept that faculty don’t feel valued at the same time.” TIPS? FEEDBACK? Email me at mfriedman@politico.com. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Unilaterally disarming in an electoral finance capacity makes no sense at all” — Gov. Phil Murphy defending a political non-profit chaired by his wife that does not publicly disclose its donors HAPPY BIRTHDAY — Robert Karabinchak, Mickey Quinn, Matt Brinn, Mark Meyerowitz, Pete Oneglia, Tim McDonough WHERE’S MURPHY? "Ask Governor Murphy" on your local NPR affiliate at 7 p.m.
| | A message from Alibaba: New Jersey businesses are thriving with Alibaba. Sales from U.S. brands on Alibaba added $1.2 billion to the state’s GDP and supported 10,000 jobs and $694 million in wages for local workers, according to a new study by NDP Analytics. Learn more about Alibaba’s impact on the U.S. economy. | | | |  | WHAT TRENTON MADE | | POLITICIANS SEE MANY UPSIDES — “Advocates see few upsides to recent pay-to-play overhaul,” by New Jersey Monitor’s Nikita Biyrukov: “The law extends an oft-derided pay-to-play loophole to public contracts awarded by the executive branch. The change will allow state departments to award contracts worth more than $17,500 to individuals and firms that have contributed to the governor or lieutenant governor so long as those contracts go through a formal bidding process. Under prior law, gubernatorial donors were entirely barred from securing state contracts worth more than $17,500. ‘We are returning to the bad old days of political contributions influencing contract selection and the lower quality and waste of tax dollars that we know, from experience, will be the likely result,’ said Harry Pozycki, founder and chair of the Citizen’s campaign.” —Murphy defends signing new campaign finance law ‘even if it may not be perfect’, by POLITICO’s Matt Friedman: Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday defended his decision to sign a controversial bill that overhauls New Jersey’s campaign finance laws, a week after he quietly enacted it. “I think this does a lot of good in terms of transparency, disclosure, bringing money from outside to inside,” Murphy told reporters Monday at an unrelated press conference. … The law also gives Murphy a 90-day window to unilaterally appoint four new commissioners to ELEC, who will be paid $30,000 a year. Once that time frame expires, the commissioners will, as before, have to be confirmed by the state Senate. Murphy said he’ll announce the new commissioners “sooner than later” and pushed back against insinuations by critics of the bill that he would stack ELEC. “It’s going to be a very strong, bipartisan group of commissioners, and I think when folks see the list of commissioners … you’re going to see the last of the stories that they put a bunch of their cronies or colleagues up, because you’re going to see that’s not the case,” Murphy said. SUPERINTENDENTS DEMAND MURPHY ALSO KISS THE BAND-AID — “One-time payments to NJ school districts hit by cuts just a 'Band-Aid,' say school leaders,”by The Record’s Mary Ann Koriuth: “More than 160 New Jersey school districts that have suffered through six years of state aid cuts will receive one-time payments totaling $102 million this year through a last-minute bill signed last week in Trenton. But many of those districts' leaders say the extra money, which is separate from Gov. Phil Murphy’s budgeted school funding, is just a “Band-Aid” and they need a sustainable solution to keep serving their students. Many of the districts face dropping enrollment, but the aid cuts are driving them to cut programs, increase class sizes, and lay off teachers and staff. For instance, 40 faculty and staff members in Sussex County’s Vernon Township school district were informed March 23 that they would not be returning to their jobs this fall. … ‘We need a long-term systemic solution … this is a Band-Aid. It’s only a one-time allocation,’ said Jeanne Howe, superintendent of Jefferson Township Public Schools." BUCCO DOESN’T WANT BOONTON TO BECOME BOOMTOWN — “The new housing boom is taking over North Jersey. Is it time to hit the pause button?” by The Daily Record’s William Westhoven: “Smack in the middle of North Jersey, suburban Morris County has become an epicenter for a building boom that is remaking parts of the Garden State. You can see the evidence rising throughout the county: more than 1,400 new apartments and townhomes in Parsippany, another 300 housing units in Montville, 500 more in East Hanover and almost 1,000 in neighboring Hanover. Builders are busy in other parts of North Jersey as well. … Now some New Jersey officials are looking to hit the pause button. They want to shut down a legal avenue that developers and nonprofit advocates have used since 2015 to get local towns to accept massive new developments in the name of providing more affordable housing. … "You're forcing towns into these high-rise developments that are already changing the character of municipalities," said state Sen. Anthony Bucco, a Morris County Republican whose proposed legislation would delay the onset of new housing requirements.’ … Housing advocates like New Jersey's Fair Share Housing Center oppose the idea, saying it's another example of affluent towns trying to raise the drawbridge and keep out low- and moderate-income residents.” —Murphy seeks to open more state government jobs to those without college degrees —“What happens if the judge adds new candidates to the ballot after voting begins?”
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | BIDEN TIME | | GOT-KEAN’S-BACK-HEIMER — “Tom Kean Jr. targeted by Democrats in 2024 election,” by The Record’s Charles Stile: “The permanent campaign arm of the congressional Democrats sent out an alert declaring last week that freshman Rep. Thomas H. Kean Jr., R-Westfield, is officially an ‘offensive campaign target.’ … ‘Tom Kean Jr. has spent his short time in Congress enabling far-right extremist, defending [House Speaker] Kevin McCarthy,’ wrote Tommy Garcia, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. … But the voting record and rhetoric aside, the clear narrative of Kean-as-MAGA-enabler has been made a little murkier, thanks, in part, to the bipartisan innovations of U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a moderate Democrat from Bergen County. Gottheimer is co-founder of the ‘Problem Solvers Caucus’ … Kean was granted membership last month. Kean has also enlisted as a member of the ‘Congestion Pricing Caucus,’ another Gottheimer brainchild … The caucus memberships will undoubtedly help Kean deflect accusations of being a rubber stamp for McCarthy and the MAGA zealots who have him on a short leash, but help him build the profile as a non-ideological representative focused on bread-and-butter issues, like transportation infrastructure —“New Jersey federal court judge targeted in 2020 attack to speak during online Stockton University program” —Biden eyes seasoned Dem operative to be State spokesperson
| | | | A message from Alibaba:   | | | | | LOCAL | |
PATERSON — “Killing of Najee Seabrooks exacerbated tensions between cops and St. Joe's,” by The Paterson Press’ Joe Malinconico: “A man making a 911 call late on the morning of March 21 said he planned to kill himself and even picked the way he was going to do it. ‘Suicide by cop,’ he told the Paterson public safety dispatcher … [T]he city’s emergency dispatcher called the crisis intervention team at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center to ask for mental health specialists to go to the scene. But the psychiatric emergency services group was not available. … The situation ended ‘in a peaceful manner,’ according to the police report. The suicide-by-cop call on March 21 was one of three instances in an eight-day period when the hospital crisis team did not show up at incidents involving people in emotional distress, despite being requested by Paterson cops, according to reports filed by city police officers. Those three incidents all happened between one and two weeks after St. Joseph’s President Kevin Slavin issued a strongly worded public statement asking why his hospital crisis team wasn’t called to intervene during the almost five-hour standoff that ended in the fatal police shooting of Najee Seabrooks.”
MR. JONES AND WEED — “Is the state Democratic chair influencing who can sell legal weed in [East Orange]?” by NJ Advance Media’s Jelani Gibson: “ Multiple applicants in East Orange, including [Precious] Osagie-Erese, have brought up concerns city leaders are being influenced by one of the state’s most dominant power brokers, State Democratic Committee Chairman LeRoy Jones Jr., through his lobbying firm 1868 Public Affairs, which is representing an applicant in the city’s selection process. … ‘We’re supposed to be supporting social equity in cannabis,’ Osagie-Erese said. ‘Those merits aren’t as important as politics and that’s the problem in and of itself — that’s what’s heartbreaking.’ Dan Smith, a senior associate for Jones’ lobbying firm 1868 Public Affairs, has been serving as the representative for applicant Nimbus Holdings LLC. ‘There has been no undue political influence on behalf of Nimbus at any point as they have been treated the same as the other applicant every step of the way and have presented a strong application for consideration,’ Smith said.” LAW AND ORDER: ATV — “Jersey City Council to propose measure banning selling fuel to dirt bikes and ATVs,” by Hudson County View’s John Heinis: “The Jersey City Council will propose an ordinance banning local gas station from selling fuel to illegal operated dirt bikes and ATVs at Wednesday’s meeting. ‘We have been working closely with our police department as this issue has become increasingly alarming, and our residents are being put in harm’s way due to reckless ATV drivers,’ Mayor Steven Fulop said in a statement. The measure is being co-sponsored by Councilwomen Denise Ridley and Mira Prinz-Arey in part due to the JCPD responding to 100 calls for service involving dirt bikes and/or ATVs since June, 10 of which involved motor vehicle accidents” HEALTHCARE — “In a civilian hospital, military medicine is kept alive,” by The Wall Street Journal’s Ben Kesling: “[Army Spc. Hannah] Broman, a licensed practical nurse assigned to Fort Belvoir in Virginia, was one of a handful of young soldiers on a two-week rotation recently at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, where she is spending the bulk of her time in the trauma center learning how to treat the worst injuries the hospital sees as well as assisting in surgeries. She is one of many troops across the country working at civilian hospitals in a partnership between the Defense Department and nonmilitary healthcare centers to make sure combat medics know their craft. Even though U.S. troops face combat across the world in small conflicts, the volume is nowhere near what was seen in Iraq and Afghanistan. During those two decades of war, everyone from high-level military doctors and nurses to front-line medics with about four months of medical training were getting intense field experience, treating patients wounded in combat. In peacetime, uniformed personnel have to go into the civilian world to make sure the medical lessons of war aren’t lost.”
| | | | GO INSIDE THE 2023 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO is proud to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider" newsletter featuring exclusive coverage, insider nuggets and unparalleled insights from the 2023 Global Conference, which will convene leaders in health, finance, politics, philanthropy and entertainment from April 30-May 3. This year’s theme, Advancing a Thriving World, will challenge and inspire attendees to lean into building an optimistic coalition capable of tackling the issues and inequities we collectively face. Don’t miss a thing — subscribe today for a front row seat. | | | | | —“Jersey City Cannabis Control Board could halt hearing applications for 6 months” —“Vainieri to announce resignation from Hudson Board of Commissioners Thursday” —“South River Republican mayor faces primary challenge” —“Bergen County will spend $15 million to replace old voting machines by June election” —“[Deptford] cop avoids jail, loses job in plea deal for domestic assault case” —“Suit that said Bergen law officers caused mobster's execution-style slaying gets tossed” —“Monmouth County's property tax rate keeps falling. Here's why you might pay more anyway” —“3 hurt when inflatable ride at Lakewood Passover carnival blows over in wind: police”
| | A message from Alibaba: Three months was all it took for New Jersey-based Nuria Beauty to open an online storefront on Alibaba and outpace their domestic retail sales. With access to over one billion consumers on Alibaba, Nuria has achieved great success and brand awareness in China. “We’re very excited about the results we’re seeing on Alibaba. There is no ceiling in China,” said Josh Ghaim, CEO of Nuria.
Read how American businesses are succeeding with Alibaba. | | | | | EVERYTHING ELSE | |
NOW WE’LL NEVER KNOW HOW MUCH SNOW FELL — “WNBC-TV reporter Brian Thompson will retire next month after 27 years as New Jersey’s most respected journalist,” by New Jersey Globe’s David Wildstein: “Brian Thompson, a New Jersey reporting legend and perhaps the most consequential journalist in New Jersey today, will retire after 27 years with WNBC-TV, the New York-based NBC network affiliate. The departure of the most familiar face on local television marks an end to a 50-year broadcasting career that began at radio stations in North Carolina and Florida. Thompson won an Emmy Award for his work on Channel 4’s political series, ‘What Matters,’ and broke thousands of news stories as a TV reporter. … He’ll always be remembered for using a green ruler during major snowstorms; in full Jersey style, the ruler was a giveaway from a colorful former mayor of Hoboken, Anthony Russo.”
SIX RED FLAGS — “Will feds sanction Six Flags Great Adventure over animal transactions?” by NJ Spotlight News’ Michael Sol Warren: “At the heart of the issue are captive-bred wildlife permits, which are required for any interstate trade of exotic animals born in the U.S which are listed as endangered or threatened in the wild. Six Flags Great Adventure has held valid permits which allowed the park to purchase and breed African elephants, Siberian tigers and red lechwe, an antelope known for its long, spiral horns. But after those permits expired in 2007, Six Flags Great Adventure waited more than a decade before filing paperwork to renew them in March 2018. In the meantime — with apparently no valid permits — the park ‘imported’ one Siberian tiger and eight red lechwe” —“Why is student absenteeism up? Shore schools cite COVID as root of problem” —“Man accused of stabbing imam caused concerns at another Paterson mosque” —“Man told police he stabbed N.J. imam over religious differences, cops say”
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