State Senator Jeff Van Drew (D-1) got a pass this election cycle due, in part, to the vicious battle in neighboring LD3, Save Jerseyans, but his district is traditionally one of New Jersey’s few genuinely “competitive” legislative battlegrounds.
That makes it all the more interesting to see him completely disavow Democrat gubernatorial nominee Phil Murphy’s Sanctuary State pledge earlier this week.
Van Drew issued the following statement through his campaign website:
I along with Assemblyman Andrzejczak and Assemblyman Land will not vote for any proposal to make New Jersey a sanctuary state. We are a nation of laws and rules and we cannot condone or support an effort to make New Jersey an outlier in this country and a jurisdiction that refuses compliance and cooperation with law enforcement authorities in enforcing federal immigration law.
Our state is already in dire financial straits. Serving as a sanctuary state will also mean added costs for programs and services that we cannot take on at this time.
The lack of action on immigration reform is a failure of the federal government, but it should not be our role as a state to become a sanctuary because of this failure.
Now, Van Drew IS known for staking out centrist positions in order to maintain control in his largely rural Southern New Jersey district. Granted.
But that’s kind of the point: Van Drew is savvy. He’s a Democrat who knows how to win in reddish-to-purple territory.
If he thinks a strong anti-Sanctuary State message is what his swing district constituents want to hear, then perhaps it’s more strong evidence that these public polls suggesting Kim Guadagno’s Sanctuary State opposition backfired are indeed missing something?
He’s not alone either. Other N.J. Dems have been backing away from Murphy on this issue, including a Democrat chairman and council candidate in the swing Middlesex County suburb of Old Bridge. I’ve heard of some other big names backing off, too. Just waiting for the footage.
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