Will Phil Murphy’s grand offshore wind adventure sink his own party in 2023?
The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) hopes so. They’ve launched two five-figure ad buys on Thursday in three New Jersey legislative districts which focus on the impact of offshore wind development along the Jersey Shore coast including scores of whale deaths. The RSLC’s mission is providing support for state legislative campaigns around the country, and New Jersey’s odd-year cycle when every legislative seat is on the ballot presents an opportunity for the GOP to claim momentum heading in 2024. The NJGOP is hoping they can flip at least one house of the legislature this year on a new redistricting map or, at the very least, significantly chop into the decades-old Democrat majority’s margins.
Ad #1, shared first exclusively with Save Jersey, is running in battlegrounds LD2 and LD4; Republicans are on defense in the 2nd (Atlantic County) after flipping two Assembly seats in 2021, while neighboring LD4 (Gloucester, Camden and Atlantic) is considered the top GOP pick up opportunity of 2023 following the retirement announcement of long-time Democrat State Senator Fred Madden.
Ad #2 is running in LD11 and zeroes-in on the hypocrisy of state Senator Vin Gopal; the RSLC accuses the vulnerable incumbent of prioritizing his career over standing up to the Murphy-Biden offshore wind push. LD11 is a rare “split” district where Gopal, a Democrat, serves alongside two Republicans in the Assembly.
Notwithstanding repeated denials from the Murphy Administration and its allies, there is a growing body of evidence linking marine mammal deaths to offshore wind development activities. Nearly four dozen dolphins and whales have beached across the Jersey Shore since December 2022. Meanwhile, the Democrat legislature recently adopted a $1 billion offshore wind industry bailout mere days before the Biden Administration signed off on “Ocean Wind 1,” a 98-turbine farm situated only 13 nautical miles from iconic Cape May County beach resorts.
“Trenton Democrats care more about their political careers than addressing why offshore wind projects are causing whales to wash up on New Jersey beaches. Democrat’s green new deal policies are harming marine life but they don’t seem to care. New Jersey Democrats would rather stay quiet than speak up for what they make us believe they stand for,” said RSLC Deputy Executive Director Edith Jorge- Tuñon, herself a veteran NJGOP operative.
The RSLC ads follow on the heels of Engineers Labor Employer Cooperative (ELEC825) 30-second spots which went up in LD4, LD6, LD16, LD36, and LD38 just last week.
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