Nia Gill is known for speaking her mind, Save Jerseyans. I don’t often like how she votes, but the LD34 Democrat’s July 2020 Senate floor rant calling out her own party over a backroom borrowing deal remains one of my favorite Trenton moments of the past 10 years.
Now she’s signed onto her Republican colleague Joe Pennacchio’s long-languishing proposal to investigate mass nursing home deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic. Yes, it’s coming waaaaay too late, but again, it’s 99.9% more than we get from most Trenton Democrats.
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Gill has another distinction at the moment: she’s refusing to say how she’ll vote on acting Attorney General Matt Platkin’s confirmation.
If Gill is serious about getting to the bottom of the Murphy Administration’s botched response to protecting Covid-19’s most vulnerable victims?
She should press her senatorial courtesy and hold up Platkin’s nomination. For those who aren’t familiar with how all of this works: a New Jersey state senator can indefinitely hold-up a nominee who resides in their home county. It’s not written anywhere in statute, rule or the state constitution but it’s a time-honored tradition. Gill and Platkin share not only a home county (Essex) but a town (Montclair).
Yes, Platkin resigned his position as Murphy’s chief counsel in early 2020. This isn’t about what “he knows” for the most part; it’s about what he’ll do if he’s allowed to continue serving as attorney general which, spoiler alert, is whatever the administration that’s responsible for 10,000 nursing home deaths wants him to do. He’ll be a Murphy stooge-in-chief, not an independent guardian of the law.
The Governor also needs to know that the legislature will play hard ball. Anything short of 100% transparency concerning one of the nation’s worst nursing home Covid-19 nightmares won’t be tolerated. There are still active federal and state investigations into New Jersey’s nursing home bungling.
Until we have justice for our long-term living facility victims?
Murphy should know that his nominations aren’t going anywhere. It’s our best hope of achieving justice for those who deserve it.
