No casino question in 2016 boosts Brown, humbles Sweeney

Steve Sweeney

By The Staff | The Save Jersey Blog

There are going to be some angry donors out there in Dem Land this Christmas, Save Jerseyans.

Notwithstanding a fevered push to get casino gaming for North Jersey on the ballot as a constitutional amendment next fall, Politico New Jersey reported on Monday evening that Democrat infighting has caused the initiative to miss a key procedural deadline.

Chris Brown (R-2)
Chris Brown (R-2)

Let’s take the economics and substantive debate out of this issue for a second.

The biggest political winner? Chris Brown, the intrepid GOP Assemblyman representing Atlantic County’s Second Legislative District who survived the Election 2015 Super PAC assault that claimed the political lives of four Republican colleagues. He can rightly claim credit for making the issue very uncomfortable for South Jersey Democrats including Senate President Steve Sweeney.

LD2’s high votergetter in 2015 is now an even stronger candidate for State Senate in 2017 regardless of what Jim Whelan decides to do.

And the biggest loser, by the way, is clearly Steve Sweeney. He wanted North Jersey casinos for one reason and one reason only: to buy support for his 2017 gubernatorial primary campaign. Now not only did he fail to deliver for prospective campaign allies, but his ability to lead the party will inevitably be called into question in some circles where he can’t afford to lose support to the likes of Steve Fulop, Phil Murphy and Ray Lesniak.

So in that respect, the Democrat field sans Sweeney stands to gain from this embarrassing failure of the Senate leadership to leverage a positive Election 2015 result into a major gaming coup.

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3 Comments

  1. Sweeney looks like Central Casting’s answer to the question “Hey…can you guys send over someone to play the part of a Union Thug?”

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