Van Drew’s voting record Presented by Pre-K Our Way

Good Tuesday morning!

Rep. Jeff Van Drew made national headlines late last year when he left the Democratic Party and became a Republican, amid collapsing Democratic support over his refusal to back impeaching President Donald Trump.


Van Drew, who serves the 2nd District, often sided with House Republicans when he was a Democrat. Now, Jonathan Salant from NJ Advance Media is reporting that Van Drew is still voting with the Democratic Party.

Salant writes: “Of 57 roll call votes this year in which a majority of Democrats and a majority of Republicans were on opposite sides, Van Drew backed the opposition 22 times, or 39 percent according to an analysis by NJ Advance Media.”

Van Drew’s authenticity has been questioned ever since his party switch. But the congressman says this voting record shows his independence. “I certainly do, and always have been, independent since the day I got involved in politics,” he says.

Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. had a different take, saying Van Drew is “trying to have it both ways.”

“We’ll see how many Democrats fall for it,” Pascrell said.

While Matt is out, please send tips (and puns) to [email protected] and [email protected] .

TWEET OF THE DAY I: “The great thing about @GovMurphy is truth doesn’t matter as long as he can make the sale. In our eight budgets we increased spending on public education (K-12), did the first capital investments in our public universities in 25 years, increased funding to NJ Transit 56% in 8 yrs.” — @GovChristie , in an ongoing Twitter feud with Murphy

TWEET OF THE DAY II: “Governor: you may still be fooling yourself, but you've long ago stopped fooling New Jersey. We're working hard to restore funding to education, NJT, and the pension system that you stripped to protect the wealthy and well connected. New Jersey, at long last, is moving forward.” — @GovMurphy , responding to Christie

DAYS MURPHY HAS SPENT OUT OF STATE SINCE BECOMING DGA CHAIR: 17

WHERE’S MURPHY?: Celebrating early construction for the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Extension with Hudson County officials.

WHAT TRENTON MADE

LET’S GET READY TO GRUMBLE! — “Christie and Murphy are fighting each other on Twitter,” by NJ Advance Media’s Matt Arco: “Things started with former Gov. Chris Christie sharing an opinion piece on Twitter Monday that criticized Gov. Phil Murphy. And then it spiraled from there. By the late afternoon, the current Democratic governor and the former Republican governor were mixing it up in a pretty feisty Twitter fight. Christie shared an editorial from The Press of Atlantic City, written less than a week after Murphy unveiled his latest budget, that took the governor to task for wanting to raise taxes on people who earn more than $1 million a year and on cigarettes. Murphy then swung back. ‘We’re still digging out of the spectacular failure brought by your eight budgets,’ Murphy tweeted to his more than 66,100 followers.”

THIS IS FINE — ELC, school district say state made a 'serious error' in calculating funding numbers, by POLITICO’s Carly Sitrin: The Education Law Center and officials from at least one South Jersey school district are sounding the alarm over possible mistakes in the state Department of Education's school aid calculations released last week. The ELC and the Pemberton Township school district in Burlington County claim the state relied on old tax figures from 2018 when drawing up the school funding amounts for fiscal year 2021. Therefore, they said, state aid amounts for hundreds of districts could require fixes. "The Department [of Education] should immediately redo those calculations and reissue the notices," ELC Executive Director David Sciarra told POLITICO. Pemberton Superintendent Tony Trongone sent a letter to Gov. Phil Murphy last Friday claiming that when the DOE calculated his district's "municipal overburden" — a condition where property tax rates are so high that a district would be fiscally incapable of raising any more local funds for its schools — it used an average tax rate from 2018 rather than the "most recently available calendar year" rate as required by state law. As a result, Pemberton and potentially 194 other districts facing state funding cuts may have been eligible for some — or total — relief from their cuts.

CORONAVIRUS — New Jersey requesting additional testing kits as coronavirus detections 'likely', by POLITICO's Sam Sutton: Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration is requesting more testing kits from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in anticipation of the arrival of the coronavirus in New Jersey. While New Jersey has yet to record any cases of the virus, its rapid spread prompted several administration officials to project an expectation the outbreak could spread to New Jersey soon. “Even though there are no cases, and the number of detections remains small, as we begin to do this additional testing, it does remain likely that we may identify cases in the near future,” said Lisa McHugh, an epidemiologist within the state Department of Health, at a press conference Monday afternoon. “Should we identify a case, or several cases, we are ready to respond and begin to take necessary public health action.” New Jersey’s public health lab has 500 testing kits available, according to health department spokesperson Donna Leusner. The state is awaiting federal guidance on the availability of additional kits.

FACT CHECK — “Murphy claims he's done the most to lower NJ property taxes. We took a look at the numbers,” by The Record’s Dustin Racioppi: “Phil Murphy didn't make property taxes — the issue residents say tops their list of problems — a focus in his campaign for governor. And he hasn't made it much of one for the past two years. But Murphy made a bold claim during his budget speech last week by declaring that ‘no other administration has done so much in its first two years to control property taxes.’ Murphy boasted that his administration ‘achieved the first- and fourth-lowest year-over-year increases in property taxes on record’ and ‘we are making real progress and moving in the right direction.’ But Murphy’s claims — calculated by including the final year of his Republican predecessor — obscure the fact that the most recent average property tax bills increased at a greater percentage than they have in four years, according to a data analysis by the Trenton bureau of the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey.”

I THOUGHT WE WANTED TO BE THE NEXT CALIFORNIA — California narrative casts a pall over East Coast efforts to elevate gig economy workers, by POLITICO’s Dana Rubinstein, Katherine Landergan and Anna Gronewold: California’s measure, which took effect Jan. 1, has Uber and other companies who use gig workers warily watching other states that might want to emulate the biggest U.S. state. But while labor-friendly politicians on the East Coast have been making noise about protections for contract workers in New York and New Jersey, the narrative emerging from California hangs over the two states like a specter. The torrent of bad headlines and unintended consequences — freelance writers struggling to make ends meet, working moms whose carefully calibrated balancing acts have been thrown off-kilter — has been doing much of the lobbyists’ heavy lifting so far in scaring lawmakers away. In New York, a divided labor movement has yet to coalesce behind a piece of legislation, while Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who cited the importance of the issue in his State of the State speech, quickly off-loaded it to a task force.

BUT THEN HOW WILL I SEE 100 ADVERTISEMENTS FOR THE THING I GOOGLED ONE TIME — “New Jersey lawmakers push data-privacy bill,” by the Wall Street Journal’s Joseph De Avila: “New Jersey legislators are proposing a bill to strengthen data protections and impose tougher restrictions on the tech industry, potentially following in the footsteps of privacy laws passed in California and Europe. The bill would require companies to obtain permission from New Jersey consumers before they can collect and sell personal data to third parties. The legislation, which would apply to internet companies like Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc., would have implications for any company that collects consumer data. ‘This is all about consumer awareness and consumer choice,’ said Democratic state Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker, chairman of the Assembly’s Science, Innovation and Technology Committee and lead sponsor of the legislation.”

ON THE WATERFRONT — Murphy asks State Ethics Commission about Lesniak nomination to waterfront agency, by POLITICO’s Ryan Hutchins: New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s office has asked the State Ethics Commission if former state Sen. Raymond Lesniak would be forced to recuse himself from some agency decisions if he’s appointed to the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor. Lesniak’s impending nomination to one of two seats overseeing the anti-corruption agency appears to have stalled after a report by POLITICO that raised the possibility he could be barred from voting on some agency business because of a past political contribution. Lesniak said Monday he had cleared a State Police background check two weeks ago but had not yet heard from the governor’s office about when his nomination would be submitted to the state Senate. “What I heard was this issue as to whether I would have to recuse myself from any matter remotely connected to the Shipping Association” was being discussed, Lesniak said. Mahen Gunaratna, a spokesman for Murphy, said in an email that the governor’s office had “referred the matter to the State Ethics Commission.

LOCAL

HACKENSACK DRAMA — “Ex-Hackensack school official blasts 'dysfunctional' board, asks state to oversee district,” by The Record’s Terrence T. McDonald: “The former business administrator of Hackensack public schools wants New Jersey officials to consider installing a state monitor to oversee the district because of what he characterizes as a ‘blatant disregard of integrity’ among school board members and undue influence from City Hall. That request and the accusations behind it came in a three-page letter Dennis Frohnapfel fired off on Feb. 9, days before he resigned from the school district. His letter, obtained by NorthJersey.com after a public records request, says his early resignation is tied to the ‘dysfunction’ on the school board. ‘The community, administration, staff and students of Hackensack deserve public schools free of political intrusion,’ he wrote. ‘These dysfunctional elected officials are a detriment to the successful operation of the Hackensack Public Schools.’”

CAMDEN — “Camden’s tale of the tape,” by NJBIZ’s Daniel J. Munoz: “The current chapter in Camden’s history really begins in 2002, when then-Gov. Jim McGreevey, a Democrat, signed the Municipal Rehabilitation and Economic Recovery Act. The law authorized the state takeover of Camden, via the Department of Community Affairs. One of the largest municipal takeovers in U.S. history, the move was prompted by decades of corruption and mismanagement by the city government. Under the law, which Gov. Jon Corzine, also a Democrat, renewed in 2007, the state stripped Camden of authority over its own governance and finances.”

EVERYTHING ELSE

BAG BAN — Senate scheduled to vote on bill to ban plastic bags, by POLITICO’s Samantha Maldonado: The state Senate on Thursday is scheduled to vote on a bill that would ban single-use plastic and paper bags — a measure that stalled during the lame-duck session. The bill would phase out both plastic and paper bags 18 months from the date it was signed into law. It would also limit the availability of single-use plastic straws and ban polystyrene food containers, measures making it the strictest state-level plastics legislation in the country. The legislation died last session after it stalled in the Assembly when leadership could not agree on a timeline for the phase-outs or the role of thicker plastic bags in the ban.

NJ TRANSIT — “Murphy’s plan for NJ Transit: Where the money’s going to come from,” by NJ Spotlight’s John Reitmeyer: “Amid New Jersey Transit’s continuing struggles with delays and major service disruptions, Gov. Phil Murphy’s latest state budget proposal calls for increasing direct support to it by more than $130 million. The additional funds — a roughly 20% year-over-year increase of total state-budget support — would help the struggling mass transit agency enhance both bus and rail operations, including by hiring and training more rail engineers, according to Murphy administration officials. If approved by lawmakers, the planned state funding boost in fiscal year 2021 would also help ease pressure on rider fares, which already cover a significant share of the agency’s more than $2 billion annual operating budget, the officials said. However, Murphy’s plan for NJ Transit funding continues to rely on diversions from the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, meaning the take from the state’s main toll roads would continue to be used to subsidize mass transit even as a toll hike could be in the offing.”

LET’S WORK ON THIS — “The race for better politics in New Jersey,” by Edina Brown for InsiderNJ: “With the spotlight on #MeToo and celebrations of the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, it can be easy to overlook a problem that plagues communities across the garden state: racism. Though it may be less salacious than the fight for gender equality, racial discrimination is alive and thriving in New Jersey politics. … To be clear, shameful racist acts are not exclusive to one political party. The scourge of racial bias is prevalent on both sides of the aisle. The silence of political leaders is more disheartening than the acts themselves, since leaders can lend support to admonish such behavior. Legitimately supporting more people of color in higher offices and higher positions would help to balance the scales. Leaders can promote candidates of color even in non-diverse towns by highlighting their strengths to apprehensive members of the community. When we include the voices of men and women of color in politics, we gain valuable ideas on how to improve communities.”

— DEP considers rule changes to account for climate change

— “Green Party registration in N.J. has tripled since Trump took office”

— House appropriators press Chao for Hudson River tunnel repair plan

Follow us on Twitter Matt Friedman @mattfriedmannj