Brace yourself: The open animosity between Gov. Phil Murphy and Democrats in the Legislature could soon derail efforts to expose the tidal wave of dark money that is giving wealthy special interest groups even more leverage in Trenton, all of it behind closed doors.

If you’re looking to pick sides, it’s Murphy who is chiefly to blame. The Legislature worked on a bill to force greater disclosure for months, with public hearings, and Murphy did not engage them. Once they passed a bill, though, he woke up and blocked its enactment with a conditional veto a few weeks ago.

“None of their objections were ever conveyed to me until the Friday before the veto,” says Sen. Troy Singleton, the sponsor. “We could have worked through all these issues.”

Count this wreck as a price we pay for electing a governor with no political experience. At Goldman Sachs, Murphy could issue orders. He doesn’t seem to appreciate that in Trenton, he can’t. That’s not how a democracy works.

Murphy has issued 62 vetoes now, even though the Legislature is controlled by his fellow Democrats. Singleton’s complaint about the lack of engagement is nearly universal among legislators. And patience is wearing thin.

“I think we absolutely should do an override,” says Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester.

Agreed. Senate Democrats will make that decision on Thursday. Assembly Democrats have a quorum set for June 6.

The real pity is that Murphy could have avoided this collision, and at least two of his objections to the bill are perfectly reasonable. He wants to force wider disclosure by including organizations that aren’t covered in this bill, like LLCs and 501c6’s. And he objects to forcing disclosure of donations to groups that lobby for causes, but do not take sides during elections, like the ACLU of New Jersey, which fears the bill will chill donations. The Brennan Center for Justice, among the most respected voices in the field, agrees with Murphy on both those points.

So why didn’t the governor’s people sit down with Singleton and ask to make changes? “I’m always open to conversation and continued dialogue,” Singleton says.

The cynical explanation is that Murphy didn’t want this bill to pass, that this wreck is not an accident. Remember, his own hands are dirty. Murphy’s senior advisors, including Essex County Freeholder Brendan Gill, are raising huge sums of dark money to promote the governor’s agenda, even as the governor bloviates about transparency and clean government. Those aides promised to reveal the names of donors at the end of 2018, but they broke that promise, and Murphy hasn’t lifted a finger to force their hands. So, only a fool would trust the governor on this issue.

Sweeney is tainted, too. His allies raise dark money from wealthy donors, and he was embarrassed when a clerical error revealed that PSEG donated $55,000 earlier this year, just four months after Sweeney engineered the approval of a shamelessly sloppy measure that allows PSEG to claim $300 million a year to subsidize its nuclear plants -- even though the plants continue to turn a profit.

To save this reform, to unveil donations of $10,000 or more, the Legislature has two options. It can do nothing, and the bill will die, forcing Singleton, D-Burlington, and Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker, D-Somerset, the other lead sponsor, to start from scratch. That’s a risky move. Singleton has been working on the bill for three years. And with Trenton’s bitter divisions growing harder every day, winning approval would be even tougher now.

The second option is to override Murphy’s veto, to bank these important reforms, and then start work on a second bill to address the governor’s concerns.

Many Democrats are reluctant to expose the political weakness of their own party’s governor by overriding his veto. But an override would not just protect this reform; it would teach Murphy a valuable lesson about the need to collaborate with legislators in the future. A course correction like that might be this governor’s best hope.

More: Tom Moran columns

Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com or call (973) 836-4909. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.