Noticias

A poll found that even with tax deductions that disproportionately benefit New Jersey residents, the GOP’s recent budget bill is disapproved by a majority of the state’s voters. 

Wednesday results from the Fairleigh Dickinson University poll show 27% of the state’s voters approve of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, while 61% disapprove. The wide-ranging bill is expected to knock hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans off of Medicaid or food stamps, though many tax bills will likely go down across the state. Initial results from the poll, including an 8-point lead for Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) in the gubernatorial race, were released Tuesday morning. 

The budget bill included a provision that would raise the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap from $10,000 to $40,000 for the next four years, providing relief especially impactful in higher-tax states like New Jersey. But Dan Cassino, the executive director of the FDU poll, said respondents who were told about the tax deductions were not significantly more likely to support the budget.

“The hope was that putting in the SALT deduction would make the budget bill more palatable to voters,” Cassino said in a release. “But even voters who are going to get a tax cut from this bill don’t seem to like it.”

Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield), the 7th district congressman who is expected to face another tight re-election battle this fall, was one of many blue-state Republicans to fight for an increase in the SALT deduction cap. Cassino said some independents were more likely to support the bill if the SALT cap was mentioned, but overall support remained underwater.

“The bump in support among independents is good news for Republican incumbents like Tom Kean, Jr, who voted for the bill,” he said. “But even an eight-point increase isn’t great when sixty percent of independents say that they oppose the bill.”

The bill, trumpeted by President Donald Trump, has become an issue in the governor’s race, with Sherrill attacking Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli over his support for the legislation.

“These figures are very much in line with how the bill is viewed nationally,” said Cassino. “Tax cuts are generally pretty popular but pairing them with cuts in healthcare spending more than cancels out that support.”

The poll also surveyed voters on NJ Transit, which has faced occasionally severe disruptions from weather, labor strikes, and malfunctions since last year. The transit agency received passing grades from the respondents. When asked to give a letter grade to NJ Transit, 6% gave an A, 28% gave a B, 30% gave a C, 13% gave a D, 8% gave an F, and 15% weren’t sure or did not answer.

Republican and Democratic scores for NJ Transit were largely similar.

“It’s been six years since Governor Murphy vowed to fix NJ Transit, even if it killed him, and while it’s getting a passing grade from most voters, there’s still lots of room for improvement,” said Cassino.

The FDU poll surveyed 806 likely voters between July 17 and 23 with a margin of error of +/- 3.4%.

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Two hugely powerful New Jersey labor unions, including one run by former Senate President Steve Sweeney, today endorsed Democrat Mikie Sherrill in the New Jersey governor’s race: the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers, and Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters.

Sweeney, who ran in the Democratic primary against Sherrill and four others, is the general vice president of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers.  He’s been an ironworker and union leader in New Jersey for almost four decades.

“I know just how important it is that we have a governor who is committed to standing for my union brothers and sisters. Mikie has a plan to fix our state’s broken infrastructure, including in South Jersey,” said Sweeney.  “She’ll expand pathways to apprenticeships and aggressively enforce New Jersey’s strong labor laws. We need Mikie to lead our state into the future.”

William Sproule, the executive secretary-treasurer of the Carpenters’ union, called Sherrill “ a proven champion for working families and union labor.”

“From defending prevailing wage laws to backing the PRO Act and expanding union apprenticeship programs, Mikie has consistently delivered for the men and women who build this state,” said Sproule.  “Mikie has shown she will fight for good-paying jobs, safe workplaces, and policies that strengthen the middle class.”

Sproule said that “New Jersey needs a governor who puts working families first.”

“Whether it’s supporting responsible contractor language for public projects, investing in infrastructure, or defending the rights of workers to organize, Mikie Sherrill has proven she has the vision and the determination to lead,” he said.

After the primary, Sweeney was quick to endorse Sherrill, who praised him today

“Senator Sweeney has done more for the building trades than any other legislative leader in New Jersey’s history, and his efforts were critical to our state enacting some of the toughest labor laws anywhere in the country,” Sherrill said.  “It’s an honor to earn Steve and the Iron Workers’ endorsement, and I am excited to work together to bring good-paying union jobs to New Jersey, expand access to apprenticeships, and support working families here in the Garden State.”

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In the face of strident objections from both of New Jersey’s senators and allegations of misconduct from multiple whistleblowers, Senate Republicans voted this evening to confirm Emil Bove to a seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the highest federal court in New Jersey save the U.S. Supreme Court.

The vote on Bove, who will hold a Newark-based seat despite having only tenuous connections to the state, was 50-49, with Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) joining every Democrat in voting no.

Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim said in a joint statement following the vote that Bove, whose nomination they tried and failed to halt at several points during the confirmation process, “should be nowhere near the federal bench.”

“The people of New Jersey deserve a federal judge who will uphold the rule of law, remain immune from undue influence, and preserve and secure justice for all,” the senators said. ‘And the people of America deserve Senators who honor their constitutional duty to rigorously scrutinize and responsibly consent to judicial nominations. Today, neither of those things happened. New Jersey will bear the burden of Senate Republicans’ cowardice.”

Bove, a top official in the Justice Department and a former personal attorney to President Donald Trump, was nominated to the Third Circuit in late May, moving rapidly through the Senate in the two months that followed. The speed of the confirmation process, however, did not prevent a tremendous cloud of controversy from developing around his nomination.

Bove had already drawn heavy scrutiny during his brief time as acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General after he directed prosecutors in Manhattan to drop charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a decision that one resigning prosecutor said amounted to a quid pro quo. Bove was also reportedly a contentious figure during his time as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, at one point prompting an internal inquiry into his conduct.

And after he was nominated to the bench, a Justice Department whistleblower named Erez Reuveni came forward with allegations that Bove had suggested that his subordinates disobey judges’ orders when it came to enacting Trump’s deportation agenda. Democrats quickly called for the whistleblower to appear before the Judiciary Committee for a hearing, but they were rebuffed.

Since then, a second whistleblower has corroborated Reuveni’s account, and yet another whistleblower emerged just today alleging that Bove misled senators about his role in the dismissal of charges against Adams.

When Bove came before the Judiciary Committee for his lone hearing, Democrats asked him dozens of piercing questions about the allegations – he responded to many by saying he couldn’t recall the answer or was not at liberty to say – and subsequently accused him of evasiveness and even perjury. At a committee meeting a few weeks later, Republicans pushed his nomination through on a party-line vote, and Democrats stormed out of the meeting entirely rather than participate in what they said was a sham process.

Republicans, for their part, have defended Bove in near-lockstep: “What we’re witnessing has all the hallmarks of a political hit job, timed for maximum media splash with minimum substance,” Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said shortly before Bove’s committee vote.

Collins and Murkowski weren’t won over, but every one of their fellow Republicans was – including, crucially, Senator Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), who has been a swing vote on other Trump nominees but who said he saw no reason not to support Bove.

Bove’s confirmation to the Third Circuit, which covers New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, means that the 14-member court now tilts slightly towards conservatives. Seven seats are held by judges appointed by Republican presidents and six by judges appointed by Democratic presidents, with one other seat vacant that Trump will likely fill soon.

The fact that the seat now held by Bove was open for Trump to fill at all was a preventable disaster on Democrats’ part. In 2023, Judge Joseph Greenaway, a Barack Obama appointee, announced his retirement; President Joe Biden, in conjunction with Booker, nominated a North Jersey attorney named Adeel Mangi to fill the seat a few months later.

But Mangi, who would have been the first-ever Muslim federal appellate judge, came under withering criticism from Republicans over some of his past stances and associations, and they were joined by a critical handful of Democrats who said they’d oppose Mangi’s nomination. It was clear by spring of 2024 that Mangi couldn’t win confirmation, but the Biden administration never found an alternate course of action, and the seat was left vacant for the rest of the year.

Once Trump took office, Democrats’ failure became Republicans’ opportunity; the Trump administration was quick to celebrate Bove’s confirmation tonight after making it a top priority in the Senate.

“This is a GREAT day for our country,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on social media. “I cannot thank Emil enough for his tireless work and support at [the Justice Department]. He will be missed – and he will be an outstanding judge.”

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What might have been the fairly routine passage of several police-related bills on the Senate floor this afternoon turned into a surprisingly bitter intra-Democratic argument, with Senator Cory Booker sparring with two of his fellow Democratic senators over how willing their party should be to work with Republicans and President Donald Trump.

Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) took to the floor to ask for unanimous consent to pass seven bills related to policing and public safety, all of which have a bipartisan list of co-sponsors and one of which even lists Booker himself as a co-sponsor. But Booker objected to five of the bills, accusing the Trump administration of shifting police grant funding away from states like New Jersey in retaliation for their Democratic-leaning politics and their hesitance to cooperate with the president on immigration enforcement.

“Why would we do something today that’s playing into the president’s politics, and that’s going to hurt the officers in states like mine?” Booker said. “I believe in these bills – I’m a co-sponsor on some – and that’s why I’m standing here to fight to ensure police departments in New Jersey aren’t excluded from accessing these vital funds.”

Booker asked to pass an amendment ensuring that grant money is equally allocated; Cortez Masto objected, calling it a “poison pill” to the package. Cortez Masto also noted that Booker could have offered the amendment during the Judiciary Committee hearing on the bills, where they passed unanimously; Booker said he was unable to attend the meeting due to a conflict.

That prompted Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), the sponsor of one of the bills in question, to enter the fray and essentially accuse Booker of grandstanding. She also noted that she and Booker have clashed over police funding previously, before the current battles with the Trump administration entered the picture.

“We have committees for a reason, and we have hearings for a reason,” Klobuchar said, with anger audible in her voice. “You can’t do one thing on Police Week, and not show up, and not object, and let these bills go through, and then say another [thing] a few weeks later in a big speech on the floor.”

Booker responded by refocusing the dispute on loftier questions within the Democratic Party: to what extent should Democratic members of Congress focus on day-to-day legislating, and to what extent should they treat the Trump era as an aberration that needs to be resisted at every turn?

“That is complicity with an authoritarian leader who is trashing our Constitution. It’s time for Democrats to have a backbone. It’s time for us to fight. It’s time for us to draw lines,” he practically shouted. “Don’t question my integrity, don’t question my motives. I’m standing for Jersey, I’m standing for my police officers, I’m standing for the Constitution, and I’m standing for what’s right.”

Booker ultimately allowed two of the seven bills to pass – both of which don’t relate to grant money, and one of which was sponsored by Cortez Masto – while blocking the other five, leaving their fate uncertain.

Broadly speaking, Booker has made a name for himself during the early months of the Trump administration as one of the Democratic Party’s most visible and indefatigable anti-Trump crusaders. Most famously, Booker took to the Senate floor for a full 25 hours this spring, setting a new record with his speech decrying the Trump administration’s policies. 

Today’s argument, however, is the first time that Booker’s frustration has been publicly directed at fellow Democrats, rather than at Trump or Republicans. The high emotions running between Booker and Klobuchar are especially notable, given that they’re both members of Senate Democratic leadership: Klobuchar is the caucus’s #3 Democrat, and Booker is #4.

Leaving the Senate chamber after the fight, Booker told reporters that he believes his fellow Democrats like Klobuchar and Cortez Masto are allowing Trump to “broadside” his state and others.

“There’s a lot of us in this caucus that want to fucking fight,” Booker said, per Punchbowl News’s Max Cohen. “And what’s bothering me right now is we don’t see enough fight in this caucus.”

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