Noticias

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) on Thursday unveiled a set of proposals to streamline the state government’s operations and improve services for residents seeking permits, licenses, and appointments, should she be elected governor.

Through the “Save You Time & Money” agenda, Sherrill said she plans to eliminate the new business registration fee, cut business and professional license approval wait times by half, and reduce the wait time between booking an MVC appointment and the date of the appointment by 25%. At a press conference in West Orange, Sherrill didn’t say how much the agenda could cost, but said she has support from legislative leaders.

The congresswoman drove home the importance of accountability in implementing the proposed policies, saying she would be willing to replace department and agency leaders who don’t do their jobs effectively. She said maintaining that level of responsibility throughout the government could set her apart from Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration, as well as governors before him.

“Really driving that accountability in Trenton, I think that is different and new,” she told reporters.

Sherrill is the Democratic nominee for governor. She will face Republican former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli in November’s general election. Murphy, a Democrat, is term-limited.

Candidates in the state regularly argue they’ll streamline government operations. Former Gov. Chris Christie formed a Red Tape Review Commission, led by then-Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno. While Gov. Phil Murphy let the commission lapse and vetoed a bill that would have made the commission permanent, he’s said this year that overruling some local zoning regulations could boost housing construction.

Sherrill’s plan includes a customer-service-focused approach to improving the outward-facing operations of state agencies; Ciattarelli has proposed a similar initiative. The congresswoman said cutting fees and decreasing wait times for business licenses will help small businesses get started in the state — she said many small businesses face years of the permitting process and insurmountable costs while waiting to get started.

“It’s just too difficult to navigate the permitting and regulatory environment that we have right now,” she said.

The congresswoman said she would increase the powers and, if needed, manpower at the New Jersey Business Action Center, as well as create a “cross-agency Fast-Track Team” to expedite project approvals.

The Democrat said she thinks New Jerseyans could begin to reap the benefits of the agenda relatively early under a Sherrill governorship.

“We have the ability to do this,” Sherrill said. “We just have to set higher standards, and then we also have to cut through some of the regulations.”

When asked if there were environmental, safety, or health regulations she wanted to strengthen or weaken, Sherrill said many believe there is a “false choice” between having good government or a good environment. She pointed to the Trump Administration’s termination of solar power grants, which state leaders worry will harm the introduction of clean energy onto the grid. Sherrill said the solar panels should already be up and running, and blamed a slow permitting process for the now-expected missed opportunity on solar.

“Now, these permitting problems are driving up carbon emissions because we’re not getting power into the grid,” she said.

The post Sherrill releases platform targeting red tape, bureaucracy appeared first on New Jersey Globe.

At the beginning of this cycle, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly)’s 5th congressional district looked like a potential wild-card opportunity for Republicans looking to flip seats. The Bergen County-based district swung sharply to the right last year, supporting Kamala Harris just 50%-48%, and Gottheimer’s then-ongoing campaign for governor meant that there was no guarantee he’d be running for re-election.

The Cook Political Report (CPR), one of the country’s top elections forecasters, no longer sees the 5th district as a particularly plausible battleground race. Gottheimer said on the night he lost the gubernatorial primary that he plans to seek re-election in 2026, and CPR accordingly moved his district off the playing field yesterday, shifting it into the Solid Democrat column.

“The GOP’s only real opening here would have been if Gottheimer emerged from the gubernatorial primary having suffered serious damage to his reputation,” CPR’s Matthew Klein wrote. “That didn’t occur, and this race moves from Likely to Solid Democrat as a result.”

Republicans currently don’t even have a candidate in the race against Gottheimer; Mary Jo Guinchard, who ran for the seat in 2024 and lost by 11 points, had launched a rematch campaign but suspended it last month.

The shift in the 5th district means that CPR currently rates just two out of New Jersey’s twelve 2026 House races as competitive, and both still lean towards the party that currently holds them.

The Paterson-based 9th district, represented by Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon), narrowly and shockingly voted for Donald Trump last year after having been drawn as a safely Democratic district. But it remains to be seen whether a Republican not named Donald Trump can replicate that feat, and the district’s longtime Democratic roots are keeping it in CPR’s Lean Democrat column for now.

Two Republicans are currently running for the 9th district: Air Force veteran Billy Prempeh, who was the nominee for the same seat the last three cycles, and Clifton Councilwoman Rosie Pino.

In the 7th district, meanwhile, Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) is fighting off a horde of Democrats interested in his seat, which CPR currently rates as “Lean Republican” owing to Kean’s strength as an incumbent and to Trump’s tight win in the district last year.

No fewer than eight Democrats are campaigning for the seat, many of whom have already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars; Klein wrote that while Democratic officials worked to ensure a smooth primary process for 2024 nominee Sue Altman, they’re content to let this year’s busy primary play out.

“Unlike last cycle – when operatives tried to avoid a crowded primary by encouraging candidates to rally behind Altman – party figures have little intention of trying to whittle down the current crowded field,” Klein wrote. “Sources agree that the nomination is wide open with plenty of time for a shakeup, though almost all regard retired Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett as a top contender.”

The post Cook Political Report shifts Gottheimer’s district off the playing field appeared first on New Jersey Globe.

The post Watch the unveiling of Sheila Oliver’s statehouse portrait at 11:15 AM appeared first on New Jersey Globe.

In the high-stakes battle over whether or not acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba was properly appointed to her role, which is set to be heard by a federal judge in Pennsylvania tomorrow, one key question revolves around the extent to which federal law gives presidents unfettered power to choose U.S. Attorneys. Can President Donald Trump essentially name whoever he wants? Or do Congress or the judiciary need to have a say?

Some of the members of Congress who were there for the original drafting of the relevant federal laws are saying that it’s very much the latter: that Congress’s intent has always been specifically to prevent against the type of unilateral maneuvers that Trump has executed on Habba’s behalf.

In two different amicus briefs submitted to the court yesterday, a plethora of current and former members of Congress of both parties, among them New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), insist that the Trump administration’s actions violate their own legislative intent as well as broader constitutional protections of the separation of powers. (The briefs have not yet been officially accepted by the court.)

“The Administration’s recent actions to extend Ms. Habba’s tenure as U.S. Attorney beyond the statutory limit, without Senate confirmation, implicates the very separation of powers amici sought to address in 2007,” one brief states; the same line is replicated with small differences in the second brief.

When Habba was named interim U.S. Attorney in March of this year, her appointment came with a 120-day limit under federal law; the limit had been briefly revoked during President George W. Bush’s administration, but was put back in place by the Preserving United States Attorney Independence Act of 2007, which passed Congress overwhelmingly. If no Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney is in place at the end of those 120 days, the law states, federal District Court judges in the relevant district have the authority to name a new U.S. Attorney themselves.

The Trump administration, however, attempted to sidestep those requirements using a complicated series of maneuvers in late July, when Habba’s nomination was set to expire. After New Jersey’s judges voted to appoint First Assistant U.S. Attorney Desiree Grace to succeed Habba, Attorney General Pam Bondi fired Grace, accepted Habba’s resignation as interim U.S. Attorney, and named Habba as the new First Assistant, thus elevating her to acting U.S. Attorney by default.

Trump and Habba have argued in court filings that they followed the letter of the law at every step of the process, and that Habba is the duly appointed U.S. Attorney. But one of yesterday’s amicus briefs, submitted by six longtime members of the House who “participated in” the passage of the 2007 law, argues that the intent of Congress had always been to place limits on presidential authority when it comes to U.S. Attorneys.

“Amici have a strong interest in ensuring that the Court interprets the statutory framework governing the appointment of U.S. Attorneys in a manner faithful to this constitutional design and the original intent of amici in passing these critical appointment provisions,” the brief states.

Five of the amici are Democrats who remain in Congress today – Pallone and Reps. Nydia Velázquez (D-New York), Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), and Stephen Lynch (D-Massachusetts) – while the sixth is Wayne Gilchrest, a former Maryland congressman who served in Congress as a Republican but became a Democrat in 2019.

The other brief is substantially shorter and replicates many of the same arguments as its counterpart, but its list of amici is noteworthy nonetheless. It’s signed by nine former Republican members of the House and Senate – “members of the same party as the current United States Presidential Administration,” it notes – some of whom (like former Virginia Rep. Barbara Comstock) left office as recently as 2019 and others of whom (like former New York Rep. John LeBoutillier) haven’t held public office for decades.

Both briefs state that the members take no position with respect to the underlying challenge to Habba’s authority that will come up in court tomorrow: whether or not she can prosecute a New Jersey defendant named Julien Giraud Jr. on drug and weapons charges given the potentially illegitimate nature of her appointment.

Pennsylvania Judge Matthew Brann, to whom the case was transferred after the Third Circuit determined that it should not remain under the purview of a New Jersey judge, will preside over a hearing on the matter tomorrow morning in Williamsport. He ordered yesterday that a second, similar challenge to Habba’s authority regarding a real estate investor named Cesar Pina will also be heard in court tomorrow.

The post In amicus briefs, members of Congress argue that Habba appointment contradicts their legislative intent appeared first on New Jersey Globe.