TRENTON, N.J. — A face saving gesture?
A proverbial smack in the face to Governor Phil Murphy?
Or a little of both?
On Thursday, Republican Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi (R-39) of Bergen County secured half of the legislature to support A4584, a bill which if adopted would establish “procedures for disqualification from public office or employment upon conviction of certain crimes” as well as create a registry of disqualified individuals.
The co-sponor list includes 15 Democrats.
Schepisi’s idea didn’t come to being in a vacuum; the Murphy Administration recently hired former Passaic City Councilman Marcellus Jackson who plead guilty to attempted extortion following a state-wide sting operation — “Operation Broken Records” — executed during Chris Christie’s U.S. Attorney tenure. Jackson admitted accepting $26,000 as a quid pro quo for influencing the fate of public insurance contracts; he was sentenced to 25 months in a federal facility.
Jackson is now in a $70,000 position as a “special assistant to the state commissioner of education” paid for by the New Jersey taxpayer. Murphy defended the move when questioned by a usually compliant media, declaring that such hires will be “the new norm.“
Here’s the list:
- Bob Andrzejczak (D-1)
- R. Bruce Land (D-1)
- John J. Burzichelli (D-3)
- Patricia Egan Jones (D-5)
- Carol A. Murphy (D-7)
- Joe Howarth (R-8)
- Ryan E. Peters (R-8)
- Dianne C. Gove (R-9)
- Brian E. Rumpf (R-9)
- Gregory P. McGuckin (R-10)
- David W. Wolfe (R-10)
- Joann Downey (D-11)
- Eric Houghtaling (D-11)
- Robert D. Clifton (R-12)
- Ronald S. Dancer (R-12)
- Serena DiMaso (R-13)
- Amy H. Handlin (R-13)
- Daniel R. Benson (D-14)
- Wayne P. DeAngelo (D-14)
- Andrew Zwicker (D-16)
- Joseph V. Egan (D-17)
- Robert Karabinchak (D-18)
- Jon M. Bramnick (R-21)
- Nancy F. Munoz (R-21)
- John DiMaio (R-23)
- Erik Peterson (R-23)
- Parker Space (R-24)
- Harold J. Wirths (R-24)
- Anthony M. Bucco (R-25)
- Michael Patrick Carroll (R-25)
- Bettylou Decroce (R-26)
- Jay Webber (R-26)
- John F. McKeon (D-27)
- Edward H. Thomson (R-30)
- Gordon M. Johnson (D-37)
- Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-37)
- Robert Auth (R-39)
- Christopher P. DePhillips (R-40)
- Kevin J. Rooney (R-40)
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