By Matt Rooney
Is it too much to ask, Save Jerseyans, for a New Jersey governor who actually wants to govern New Jersey?
Not use Drumthwacket as a temporary mailing address. Not treat the State House as a glorified presidential campaign headquarters. Not spend the first year in office auditioning for a promotion.
Just govern.
Apparently, that’s a tall order in the Garden State.
According to the New Jersey Globe, Governor Mikie Sherrill is hitting the road again this week, traveling to Illinois and Ohio for political events. Thursday’s itinerary includes a Chicago appearance before a pro-abortion organization, followed by a Friday fundraiser for Ohio Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton. Senate President Nick Scutari is assuming acting-governor responsibilities in her absence.
How nice for Ohio and Illinois!
Meanwhile, New Jersey taxpayers are still waiting for the affordability revolution they were promised and almost one new business daily announces it’s pulling up stakes and leaving. Oh… and right before she left, Sherrill tweeted the news that our voter rolls are STILL populated by voters who shouldn’t be voting. So it’s not like things are exactly “handled” or under control here at home.
The timing is remarkable for another related reason.
Sherrill’s out-of-state political travel largely stopped after the Dale Caldwell scandal became public in September. Her handpicked lieutenant governor, you’ll recall, had been serving as acting governor during previous trips even as allegations about his conduct were under investigation.
Caldwell resigned September 25th after an independent investigation substantiated sexual harassment and ethics violations. He disputes the findings.
Now that Caldwell has been politically put out to pasture, Sherrill is apparently free to resume her national political itinerary.
Funny how that works.
But this isn’t exclusively a Mikie Sherrill problem. It’s a New Jersey problem, and one that transcends party affiliation.
Chris Christie spent a significant portion of his second term pursuing the Republican presidential nomination. The guy who built his brand as a straight-talking Jersey executive increasingly became a fixture in Iowa, New Hampshire and national television studios.
Phil Murphy never formally launched a presidential campaign, but his national Democratic ambitions were hardly a state secret. Between his Democratic Governors Association leadership, national appearances and political positioning, New Jersey once again had a governor with one eye on Trenton and the other on Washington.
Now Sherrill has barely gotten comfortable in the governor’s chair, and we’re already discussing her possible place in the 2028 presidential conversation.
Sherrill has publicly pushed back on speculation that she’s looking to return to Washington. If you believe her? I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
There’s a pattern here, folks.
And New Jersey keeps paying for it.
Christie spent all or part of an astonishing 261 days outside New Jersey in 2015, according to contemporary reporting. Murphy chaired both the National Governors Association and Democratic Governors Association while his name circulated in presidential speculation.
Governors have legitimate reasons to travel from time to time. But there’s a difference between representing New Jersey on the national stage and treating New Jersey as a steppingstone to that stage.
We have enormous property taxes. Sky-high electricity bills. Businesses struggling with the cost of operating here. Families wondering whether their children will be able to afford to live in the communities where they grew up.
These problems require sustained attention, not occasional check-ins between fundraisers.
The larger issue isn’t whether a governor can technically manage state business from another time zone. Modern communications make that possible. It’s whether the governor’s political incentives and priorities are aligned with the people who elected her.
A governor thinking about the next national opportunity has an incentive to chase headlines, cultivate donors, build relationships in early presidential primary states and prioritize issues that excite national activists.
A governor focused on New Jersey has a different incentive: fixing problems that might never earn a segment on MSNBC but matter enormously to the family opening its electric bill in Cherry Hill.
New Jersey is not a small state. We’re home to more than nine million people and one of America’s most complicated state governments.
Being our governor should be the destination, not the layover.
Christie didn’t need the White House to make a difference here. Murphy didn’t need national Democratic leadership posts to leave a legacy. And Sherrill doesn’t need to become a fixture on the 2028 political circuit to prove she’s accomplished something.
She needs to deliver on the promises that got her elected in 2025.
Maybe that isn’t glamorous enough for today’s political class.
But here’s a radical thought: What if our next governor, Republican or Democrat, approached the job as the highest honor of his or her professional life instead of the opening act of a presidential campaign?
What if success meant making New Jersey more affordable, more competitive and more livable instead of becoming more recognizable to voters in Des Moines?
That’s a political ambition I could get behind.
Until then, I suppose New Jerseyans can take comfort knowing that while our problems remain stubbornly close to home, our governors are getting plenty of frequent-flyer miles.
Someone should remind them that Trenton is supposed to be their workplace, not their departure gate.
