Insider NJ’s 2021 Insider 100: Power Release
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When the Senate reconvenes in January, the governing body will be met with the conspicuous absence of Senators Steve Sweeney and Kip Bateman, Democrats and Republicans from South Jersey and Somerset County, respectively. Perhaps ironically, Democrat Sweeney, an ironworker by trade, lost his seat at the height of the virtual age, when near-reality supplanted brick-and-mortar substance. The Senate president’s replacement, a far-right Republican occupant, supplants the likes of Bateman, a Republican in the mold of Tom Kean, Sr., whose gravitas chops have contributed to Sweeney’s cross-cutting credibility.
It truly will be a new era without Sweeney, who tried to get New Jersey to focus on its budget crisis amid myriad distractions and sirens; and without Bateman, whose Republican Party at its worst is bowing to anarchy rather than projecting a willingness to work with the other half of America. It hurts to lose these men, allies who represented not the extremities of a country bent on unraveling, but leaders who moved beyond partisanship to a larger cause than just party.
That said, in a historic result, New Jersey chose to re-elect Governor Phil Murphy — even by the slimmest of margins — based on Murphy’s embrace of science, rather than the angry defiance of a crowd ; even as Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli, propelled in part by his party’s pitchfork-wielding base, made a compelling — and honorable — case for refocusing on core New Jersey issues such as property taxes, the budget government and school funding.
Beyond obliviousness on one side demanding a rigid measure of power on the other, we must discern the virtues of both sides, listen with the most attentive ear to the message of the voters – and navigate a course in forward and clear of the small protests of ourselves statewide…
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The Insider 100 2021: Power
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