By Matt Rooney
We’re living in morally relativistic times, Save Jerseyans. Ask that lone holdout on the Lindsay Clancy jury all about it!
But there’s another increasingly (and related) familiar phenomenon in New Jersey politics: the Mikie Sherrill version of “transparency.”
The pattern is becoming difficult to miss. Something politically inconvenient happens. The public doesn’t hear about it for weeks or months, and certainly not from Sherrill or those working for her. Reporters, federal officials or some other outside force eventually drag the issue into daylight. Only then do New Jerseyans get an explanation… of sorts.
The latest example involves Lieutenant Governor Dale Caldwell.
New Jersey learned last Friday before the holiday weekend that Caldwell — Sherrill’s handpicked No. 2 who also serves as secretary of state, and sometimes as acting governor when Sherrill is away — is under investigation over allegations of inappropriate behavior toward women and potential ethics violations. The investigation reportedly began in late spring, and Caldwell met with investigators approximately two months before the story became public.
Sherrill’s administration didn’t announce it. Reporters discovered it.
Now the story has gotten worse.
The New Jersey Globe reported Tuesday that a Centenary University employee actually reached out to a Sherrill campaign staffer in September 2025, when Caldwell was still Sherrill’s running mate, seeking to discuss concerns about his tenure as Centenary president. The staffer scheduled a telephone conversation, allegedly failed to show up, and subsequently blocked the employee. The campaign says counsel reviewed the correspondence at the time and concluded it involved internal Centenary matters.
Why did New Jerseyans learn about the investigation from the press instead of their governor? Long after the votes were counted and the probe began?
We’ve seen this movie before.
Remember the state’s voter-registration disaster?
In July, Sherrill revealed that approximately 6,600 people who had identified themselves as noncitizens at the MVC were nevertheless registered to vote during 2023 and 2024 because of a motor voter “glitch.” A preliminary review found approximately 400 had cast ballots. While the underlying problem predated Sherrill’s Administration, the information had existed inside state government long before the public was told. Sherrill herself blasted the previous administration’s “lack of transparency,” declaring that when her administration finds a problem, it investigates it, fixes it and tells the public.
Of course, Sherrill’s decision to disclose the “glitch” came about only AFTER the Trump Administration wrote to New Jersey mere DAYS earlier with a warning that fraud likely existed and investigatory cooperation was necessary.
Then there’s Sherrill’s own Naval Academy controversy.
During last year’s gubernatorial campaign, voters learned that Sherrill had been prevented from walking at her Naval Academy graduation amid the institution’s infamous cheating scandal. Again, not from Sherrill but from others. Sherrill initially framed the episode around her failure to report classmates; subsequent comments supplied additional detail, including that she had taken a test she said she did not initially realize had been stolen and later learned about the situation through the “rumor mill” but didn’t come forward.
Each controversy raises the same transparency question: why do voters need an outside disclosure before getting the full story – or any story at all – from their governor?
That’s the issue here.
Politicians don’t get credit for “transparency” merely because they eventually explain something after someone else uncovers it. Transparency means volunteering important information when the public has a legitimate interest in knowing it.
And an investigation of the sitting lieutenant governor facing serious misconduct allegations certainly qualifies.
Caldwell is entitled to due process, and allegations are not findings of wrongdoing.
But New Jerseyans are entitled to answers, too.
