NJGOP Chair denounces “hollow” Murphy following act of political retaliation

TRENTON, NJ — Phil Murphy spent his entire 2017 campaign for New Jersey governor invoking the memory of Bridgegate as reason enough to make a change in Trenton.  Then, in the Democrat’s inaugural address, Murphy called on all New Jerseyans “to join us on the road forward… [w]hether you are a Democrat or a Republican or an independent.”

Murphy failed to heed his own advice.

Less than a month after Inauguration Day, the Murphy Administration’s henchman dispatched Monmouth County Republican Freeholder Gerry Scharfenberger from his position as Executive Director of NJ’s Business Action Center and Director of the State Office for Planning Advocacy, apparently for skipping a Murphy press conference in Marlboro to promote the Governor’s hairbrained property tax charity work-around scheme, one which even some Democrats have admitted won’t work as an elixir to the new federal SALT cap.

Attendance wasn’t part of Scharfenberger’s job description with the state; he was reportedly expected to attend in his capacity as a Monmouth County Republican Freeholder.

NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt laid into Murphy after news of the retaliatory firing broke.

“Freeholder Scharfenberger’s firing proves that Governor Murphy has completed his evolution into a hollow politician,” said Steinhardt. “Out of one side of his mouth, Murphy makes empty promise on empty promise, pledging to bring this state together, while out of the other side he fires a well-qualified public employee, husband and father of two adult children, for partisan politics and because he would not fall in line with a fake solution to New Jersey’s property tax crisis.”

“Phil Murphy has shown a pattern of disregard for Republicans, Independents and anyone who doesn’t conform to his extreme left agenda.  Consequently, it should come as no surprise that similar discrimination has trickled into the workplace,” added Steinhardt. “Blind partisan loyalty should not come at the expense of the first amendment.”

Murphy has had time for political retaliation but not addressing the property tax crisis here at home, thus far ignoring calls from members of our congressional delegation to address New Jersey’s own state property tax deduction cap.

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