While NJ commuters were stranded on highways, Gov. Phil Murphy dined at swanky restaurant

Nicholas Pugliese | Trenton Bureau

Show Caption Hide Caption Reading angry tweets to Phil Murphy for handling of NJ snowstorm NorthJersey.com assignment editor Matt McGrath reads some of the angry tweets sent to Phil Murphy during Thursday’s snowstorm.

Thousands of commuters were still stranded on unplowed roads or waiting at a paralyzed Port Authority Bus Terminal when Gov. Phil Murphy and his wife settled into dinner at an upscale restaurant in Middletown during last Thursday’s storm.

It had been a long day for the Democratic governor, who had spent the afternoon into the evening scrambling to deal with stronger-than-expected snowfall that officials later admitted they weren’t prepared for, and Restaurant Nicholas, a mile from his house, was an inviting and convenient option.

The New York Times, in a glowing four-star review in 2006, raved that the lobster, served over a homemade lemon-zest pappardelle, was “outstandingly sweet and tender.” The dinner menu starts at $75 per person, while the bar menu is somewhat more affordable, according to the restaurant’s website.

“The governor ate dinner late Thursday night near his home after being stuck on the road for several hours during the storm," Mahen Gunaratna, a spokesman for the governor, said in a statement on Tuesday morning after this story was first published. "Earlier in the night, he held a conference call with Cabinet officials on the storm response and visited the Statewide Traffic Management Center to monitor conditions.”

Gunaratna also said Murphy ate at the bar and was on the phone helping to coordinate the storm response throughout dinner. The administration initially declined to comment on the record when contacted Monday.

Outside, New Jersey was gripped by seemingly unending mayhem, and Murphy's decision to dine in luxury around 8 or 9 p.m. that evening may strike many in New Jersey as tone-deaf — akin to former Gov. Chris Christie lounging with his family and friends on a state beach closed to the public during a government shutdown.

It also risks painting Murphy, a wealthy former Goldman Sachs executive who owns at least three homes and reported $6.8 million in income last year, as out of touch with the experience of everyday residents.

“People will see this as somebody who works for a living gets to sit in traffic and somebody who has got a lot of money and is the governor gets to sit and have a nice dinner,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a New York-based political consultant who works mostly with Democrats.

“While it may not break his political fortunes in the short term, it’s the kind of thing where if you seem like you are both unready and unwilling … it can have a long-term effect,” added Rick Wilson, a longtime Republican strategist based in Florida.

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Because snowplows had not been deployed until after roads were clogged with traffic, even major highways couldn’t be cleared. Jackknifed tractor-trailers and stalled cars led to glacial progress along roadways, while the conditions caused officials to effectively shut down the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City.

NJ Transit trains were delayed, and some schoolchildren spent the night on campus or waited out the storm in a diner. Commutes that should have taken minutes took several hours.

Murphy, too, was affected by the snow and appeared engaged with the state’s response as its intensity came into focus. It took him several hours to fight through traffic from Atlantic City, where he delivered the keynote address at a major convention Thursday afternoon, to Drumthwacket in Princeton, where he held a conference call on the storm with Cabinet officials.

Later Thursday, around 7 p.m., he traveled to the Statewide Traffic Management Center in Woodbridge to be briefed by emergency management officials, calling in to several radio and television news programs along the way.

Two high-level state officials were involved in roadway accidents on Thursday, Murphy said during a news conference the next day, and he and his wife, Tammy, had to cancel a scheduled dinner Thursday evening to deal with the unfolding chaos.

New Jersey’s Statewide Traffic Management Center in Woodbridge – including officials from @NJSP, @NJDOT_info, @GSParkway, and @NJTurnpike – continues to track roadways. The storm was worse originally forecasted. We will not stop working until our roads are clear. pic.twitter.com/1I9zGuVgxd — Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) November 16, 2018

But in other ways, Murphy’s response to the storm seemed incongruous with the reality on the ground. He posted a video to Twitter shortly before 7 p.m. — well after the highways had deteriorated into parking lots — urging people to “stay in.”

He tried to blame the state’s poor response on forecasters and the fact that because the storm was the first of the year, emergency crews didn’t have enough practice, or “reps.”

And the next day, he again tried to deflect blame and left it to Department of Transportation Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti to issue an apology for how the state handled the situation, although he did say “the buck stops with me, period.”

“Clearly, we could have done better, and we will do better,” Murphy said.

Sheinkopf, the political consultant, said it’s both a blessing and curse that Murphy is still early in his first term as governor.

“The good news is he’s got 3½ years for people to forget,” Sheinkopf said. “The bad news is he has 3½ years for people to remember.”

Murphy on Sunday night tried to make good on his promise to do better by asserting an “aggressive posture” in the face of two smaller “clipper” weather system that were approaching the northwest part of New Jersey. Each was expected to drop less than 3 inches of snow.

During a conference call with reporters, state transportation officials said all state roads had brining solution applied and salting and plowing crews were at the ready.

"Are we being more cautious and more aggressive? Did Thursday contribute to it? The answer would have to be yes,'' Murphy said Sunday. "The state got clobbered and many people got clobbered. And that is still very fresh in our minds."

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Wilson, the Republican strategist, said redemption for Murphy could come through that type of more hands-on storm management.

“You better be on the spot with the New Jersey emergency operations center people the next time a storm’s bearing in. You better be on TV the next time a storm’s coming in,” Wilson said. “Be the voice of managing the crisis rather than being a story about the crisis.”

This story has been updated to include comments from Murphy's spokesman. It has also been corrected to clarify that Restaurant Nicholas is in Middletown.

Email: pugliese@northjersey.com