New Jersey state lawmakers are “actively discussing” overriding a Gov. Phil Murphy veto, further signaling heightened tensions between the governor and his fellow Democrats who lead the state Legislature, one of the bill’s sponsor said.

The move comes after Murphy rejected legislation earlier this month that would force more political action organizations in the Garden State to disclose their donors.

The bill still has broad support among lawmakers and discussions of an override are happening as a meeting between lawmakers and the governor’s staff slated for Thursday was abruptly postponed, NJ Advance Media has learned.

If lawmakers go through with it and are successful, it would be the first override of a Murphy veto since he took office in January 2017.

In fact, it would be the first time in more than two decades that lawmakers overturned a governor’s veto in New Jersey.

The last time was in 1997, when then Republican-controlled Legislature reversed former GOP Gov. Christie Todd Whitman’s veto on of a bill banning partial-birth abortions.

“We are actively discussing the possibility of a veto override,” said state Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker, one of the so-called dark money bill’s prime sponsors.

“It is not my preference,” Zwicker, D-Somerset, said. “But I do feel very strongly that this is a good government bill and we need to act now.”

The legislation has been in the works for years but became mired in controversy recently because of a feud between Murphy and state Senate President Stephen Sweeney.

Sweeney, D-Gloucester, pushed for the legislation in an attempt to put pressure on a Murphy-aligned group to disclose its donors after the organization broke its promise and did not name its backers.

“We did not have a meeting today,” state Sen. Troy Singleton, another one of the bill’s top backers, said Thursday, a day after Murphy told reporters at a public event his staff planned to meet with Singleton and Zwicker very soon.

At the event in West New York Wednesday, Murphy said he’s spoken to both prime sponsors and added “we’re continuing to speak with them.”

But Singleton, D-Burlington, disputed he had any substantive conversations with the governor on forging a compromise.

“I had a two-minute conversation with the governor at a different meeting about this,” Singleton said. He said he “disagrees with his assertion” there’s been any progress toward a compromise.

Making matters worse, Murphy’s comments Wednesday defending his conditional veto further escalated tensions, Singleton said.

The governor said the legislation they sent him was "not as good as what we’ve given back” in the form of a conditional veto.

“I think the atmosphere was challenged a little bit by some of the governor’s comments,” he said. “(We) took offense to the idea that what we sent was somehow weaker than what was sent back by the governor’s office ... (and) we didn’t want to have the discussion steeped in emotion. We’re trying to take a step back to see if there’s a path forward.”

Lawmakers need two-thirds majority in both houses of the Legislature to override a governor’s veto.

The bill passed the state Senate 33-0 and the state Assembly 66-2 in March.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook.

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