You’re not going to recall Phil Murphy. Here’s what you can do… | ROONEY

By Matt Rooney
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Phil Murphy isn’t batting a thousand at the end of year one.

Tax hikes. Sanctuary statehood. #SnowMess. The Katie Brennan story. NJ Transit is still a nightmare and anyone who can still afford to get away is moving towards the exits. It’s perfectly understandable that many frustrated New Jerseyans — and many of this site’s loyal and newer readers alike — are increasingly throwing around the word “recall” whenever Murphy’s name enters into the conversation.

Our Save Jersey social media threads are busting at the seams with recall-oriented comments. There a petition going over at change.org with over 20,000 signatures as of this writing.

Sorry to be a buzzkill, folks, but I’ve got news for you all: it’s not happening.

Here’s the relevant portion of our New Jersey Constitution: “…a recall election shall be held upon petition of at least 25% of the registered voters in the electoral district of the official sought to be recalled.”

25%. So to recall a governor, in addition to complying with all of the onerous, deliberately difficult procedural requirements implicated by the promulgated petition process, you’d need 25% of ALL registered voters in the state of New Jersey to participate. We’re talking about around 1.5 million people! Republicans can barely fill their phone banks as it is; the manpower needed to pull off such a feat simply isn’t there.

Nope. Murphy is going to need to be beaten at the ballot box in 2021. We can’t do it without a REAL opposition party, and it’s no secret that we don’t have one right now. We could have one if everyone who read this website got into the game. There’s an opening for sure! The New Jersey GOP is a hallowed out. As of this spring? 37% of Morris County’s GOP committee seats were vacant. Other counties are in a similar predicament.

Once powerful organizations and boss-led fiefdoms are now history. Bergen and Morris are hobbled and disorganized. Burlington’s is gone. Somerset and Hunterdon are on the brink. The Shore is still standing but there are cracks in the seawall.

The good news, and this post’s bottom line: in most districts and precincts around the state? There’s absolutely nothing stopping you from getting involved. Making a change TODAY. Disrupting the status quo. Even taking over your local party and having a real say in which candidates carry the banner in 2019, 2020 and beyond. Not a damn thing.

That’s the silver-lining of surviving a biblical-level flood or “blue wave” if you prefer: those who remain have a chance to dry out, start over, and build a new, better future.

No one will blame you should you choose to cut bait and flee. The road ahead is long, uncertain, and extremely difficult. But ask someone in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, or even Florida how well running works. The Left destroys states and then, displaying NO self-awareness, escapes the mess it made to take up in another state. And on, and on, and on.

If you’re staying for the long haul, please accept the fact that the energy you could waste on a quixotic recall effort would be much better spent building the sort of opposition movement that could ACTUALLY be WORTHY of the taxpayers’ trust and support. The Left’s activists certainly don’t sit on the sidelines and complain, do they? Groups like Indivisible, Working Families, etc., suck up their problems with the Democrat leadership, wade into the trenches, and MAKE the leadership answerable to them.

The great Elie Wiesel once opined how “[t]he opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” He also observed that “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.” Said another way: those who sit around and complain, but don’t lift a finger, are doomed to defeat. Social media is how we recruit and message; your online angst can’t be the end-all. 

It’s now or never, Save Jerseyans. You’re out of excuses, and our state is almost out of time. Get to it. Make the New Jersey Republican Party what you’ve demanded it be or stop bitching about it.
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Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8405 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.