Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop And Attorney General Matt Platkin Are Speaking Out
The other day I read about New Jersey’s Attorney General, Matt Platkin— not elected, appointed by the governor— blowing up the state’s heart of corruption: the political machine system. I was shocked, but probably not as shocked as Governor Murphy. I immediately thought we should get Jersey City mayor Steve Fulop on the weekly radio show I do with Nicole Sandler. Why Fulop? He has a reputation as a straight talker; he’s been speaking out against “the line” and, he switched his endorsement in the Senate race from the governor’s wife to reformer Andy Kim. Nicole loved the idea. So yesterday, I met the legendary Steve Fulop, the guy who snagged the Pompidou Center for Jersey City… and a future governor of the Garden State.
“People across the country,” he told me after the show, “are often amazed at New Jersey politics overall when they read things like our US Senator Bob Menendez allegedly accepting gold bars or acting as a foreign agent but beyond the salacious headlines is a political system that is unique to New Jersey that manipulates the outcomes of elections prior to Election Day and for the first time in decades that system could be at risk which in of itself would change New Jersey politics for the better in every way imaginable. It’s a big deal.”
It is a big deal and I see that Tom Moran was congratulating Platkin for his role in the unfolding political revolution. Moran called it going “rogue” when he announced that his office would not defend the infamous “line” that gives the political machines “such corrupting power.” Moran wrote that “This is huge moment in Jersey politics. If the lawsuit against the line succeeds, then First Lady Tammy Murphy’s campaign for Senate is doomed, and Rep. Andy Kim will almost certainly be our next U.S. Senator. We know that because every time a county organization plays fair, Kim crushes Murphy. The latest case was Morris County, where Kim got 85 percent of the vote. Democratic voters clearly prefer him. Kim, a three-term member of Congress, is a million times more qualified, has a long history of impressive public service, and a compelling personal story that Murphy can’t match. He gets standing ovations, over and over, she gets polite applause. She’s a lifelong Republican who switched only in 2014, and the ‘line’ is her only hope.”
Back to Fulop, who put it like this: “It sounds crazy but New Jersey has a system with the line in the most populous counties where the at question system allows a small group of men to manipulate the ballot in a way that immensely favors their individual preferred candidate. So in many ways the outcome is known before the voter arrives to vote and for that reason you have elected officials that are beholden to the system more than the voters. It needs to change and for the first time in decades if very well may change. It’s a corrupt system that even per the state Attorney General is likely unconstitutional. There is no other way to describe it if you are being fair but you have a small group of men fighting to maintain the status quo because their power, influence, and often money is directly tied to the system. For the first time in decades the system is at risk and that is a good thing for democracy.”
And many of those machine bosses, he told us on the air, are lobbyists, so their livelihoods are tied up with kissing up to whomever's hand is on the purse-strings, and right now that’s Governor Murphy. “Tammy Murphy’s campaign puts the problem in sharp relief,” wrote Moran. “She’s winning only in those counties where the chairs tilt the board shamelessly in her favor. And those same chairs have profound conflicts of interest that corrupt the process. Camden just went for Murphy, after refusing to let Kim even speak to delegates. That’s the fief of George Norcross, whose personal business has received giant state tax breaks, and who chairs the board of a hospital that receives generous state aid. Middlesex just went for Murphy, too, thanks to Chairman Kevin McCabe, a lobbyist with business before the governor. Essex supports Murphy, too, thanks to Chairman LeRoy Jones, also a state lobbyist. And Bergen went for Murphy, thanks to Chairman Paul Juliano, who was appointed to his $280,000 job by the governor. This is all legal. Which makes New Jersey special, and tells you why the law must be changed, starting with killing the line, and followed by strong rules on conflicts of interest.”