By Matt Rooney
We knew it would be bad, folks! But this bad? Yes, it’s probably worse than anticipated, and our expectations were already in the toilet…
Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill dropped her first tranche of transition appointments today, and a few things immediately pop out at me (and probably you):
1. This is the least New Jersey transition for a New Jersey governor in state history. By a mile. A massive percentage of the names aren’t from the Garden State which, given that our next governor is a Karen from Virginia, shouldn’t really surprise anyone. Arguably the most disturbing part is that the energy working group – among the most important given New Jersey’s ongoing energy bill crisis – is being led by ex-Biden Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
“You are presiding over institutionalized corruption in your Energy Department, you have violated the Stock Act nine separate times. You have been referred by the Inspector General for violations of the Hatch Act. It is institutionalized corruption that you are now the face of,” Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri raged at Granholm during an April 2024 Senate hearing.
Granholm personally violated stock disclosure laws no less than nine times (!) in 2021 alone. Sure, she’s a perfect match for Sherrill’s lack of ethics given the Governor-elect’s own shady history with stocks, including in the energy sector. But does this transition pick give you confidence that your electric bill will drop anytime soon?
2. It’s radical. Very radical. The President of the NJEA is part of the education working group. Biden U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimond previously called for Americans to “extinguish” Donald Trump “for good” AFTER the July 2024 attempt on his life. She’s now Sherrill’s de facto economic czar! We could devote an entire post to the wacky resumes of these picks, but some might even make Mayor-elect Mamdani blush…
3. There’s no ideological diversity. The closest thing you’ll find to a “bipartisan” voice is Mike DuHaime, Chris Christie’s former top political guru and an avowed anti-Trump commentator. Sherrill’s promises of being a governor for all New Jerseyans is clearly just that… a promise, one which is certain to be unrealized.
We have to hope that the NJGOP’s legislators and leaders at the local and grassroots level develop some intestinal fortitude and push back against what’s coming. It won’t be good, and the veto-proof Democrat legisltive majority is more likely to enable Sherrill’s wacky impulses (at least in the beginning) than serve as a check.
