By Matt Rooney
New Jersey has a new lieutenant governor, Save Jerseyans. Her name is Shirley Emehelu.
If you don’t know much about her, you’re probably not alone.
That’s arguably part of the problem with this pick.
Emehelu, appointed Monday by Governor Mikie Sherrill to replace the disgraced Dale Caldwell, isn’t exactly a household name. She hasn’t been a prominent statewide political figure, and most New Jerseyans have had little opportunity to evaluate her leadership firsthand.
Her résumé is certainly impressive — at least by the standards of the political and legal establishment. Yale University. Yale Law School. Federal prosecutor. Senior positions in the Attorney General’s Office. State comptroller. Secretary of state. Throw in stints at prestigious corporate law firms, and you’ve got an impressive collection of ivory tower credentials.
I don’t care that she isn’t a famous name. Prominent might be nice in this context. But here’s the real question: Has Emehelu ever run a business? Met a small-business payroll? Created private-sector jobs?
There’s no indication of those experiences in her publicly available biography. To be fair, she’s practiced law in the private sector. That’s meaningful professional experience, but it’s a considerably different perspective from that of a small-business owner struggling with New Jersey’s taxes, regulations, and cost of living when AFFORDABILITY is the number 1, 2 and 3 concerns of every New Jerseyan.
And that’s the larger point.
The lieutenant governorship is devolving into a political balancing exercise — an opportunity to round out an administration’s demographic profile rather than recruit someone with a distinct set of practical qualifications. Indeed, much of the coverage of Emehelu’s appointment has emphasized the historic nature of New Jersey’s first all-female executive leadership team and its first immigrant lieutenant governor. Sherrill herself celebrated those milestones, although she said gender was not a prerequisite for her selection.
Cool? But DEI priorities shouldn’t substitute for a serious discussion about what experience New Jersey actually needs in its executive branch.
When diversity, equity, and inclusion become the headline, practical economic experience risks becoming an afterthought.
New Jersey doesn’t suffer from a shortage of Ivy League lawyers, government administrators, or career public servants in positions of power. What it desperately needs is leadership informed by the experiences of people who operate businesses, employ workers, and live with the economic consequences of Trenton’s decisions.
Instead, Sherrill selected a relatively unknown longtime friend and former prosecutorial colleague with a résumé heavily concentrated in government and elite legal institutions. The clear political goal: appoint a female prosecutor to counterbalance the fact that Sherrill’s former male LG is an alleged pervert.
Emehelu may prove capable. I hope she does because I pay taxes here, too. But wouldn’t it be refreshing if the state’s second-highest executive office went to a successful entrepreneur or business leader with some actual skin in the game? Someone who understands the difference between administering government programs and keeping a business alive?
New Jersey’s economic problems won’t be solved by checking demographic boxes or collecting prestigious diplomas. They’ll require an understanding of how the real economy works.
And until Trenton places greater emphasis on that experience, its persistent affordability and business-climate problems shouldn’t surprise anyone.
