By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Front-running Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy and three of his rivals for the party’s nomination campaigned Sunday in Princeton, offering similar views on social issues and other challenges facing the state while taking turns criticizing Republican Gov. Chris Christie and President Donald J. Trump., Murphy was joined by state Assemblyman John S. Wisniewski (D-19), state Sen. Raymond J. Lesniak (D-20) and former Clinton administration official James Johnson at a meeting of the Princeton Community Democratic Organization. The organization later endorsed Wisniewski in a vote of the party rank and file., The event, which drew a crowd of roughly 300, was the first time all four challengers faced off in the same venue together. They weighed in on abortion, health care, education, immigration, criminal justice reform and other issues during a moderated question-and-answer session., Murphy assailed “failed special interest politics that have failed this state and failed us.” He called for raising the minimum wage to $15, providing paid sick leave for employees and making college affordable., “I want to be the governor that funds Planned Parenthood, that doesn’t have to be dragged to fund lead remediation programs, that will sign sensible gun safety laws again, that will accept the sad reality of climate change and then put in place a series of programs to push back against it …,” Murphy said., Wisniewski offered his credentials as a state lawmaker representing parts of Middlesex County for 21 years. He helped lead the charge into investigating the politically motivated closure of the George Washington Bridge lanes by allies of Christie. He tried to make the case that his experience in Trenton was an asset, as he contrasted himself with previous occupants of the governor’s office., He said “twelve years of outsiders trying to make Trenton better, it hasn’t worked and it won’t work again.”, On finances and the economy, Lesniak said he favored having a millionaire’s tax, while Mr. Murphy supported creating a public bank to provide student loans at “more reasonable rates,” fund “small-scale infrastructure projects” and work with other lenders to support small businesses., On the state contributing to the government employee pension system, Murphy said: “The employees, the public sector unions, have done what they’ve been asked to do. The state has not, dating back now to the ’90s. Chris Christie has kicked that can hard and far down the road, but he’s not the first governor to do so.”, Wisniewski said that, as governor, he would ensure that state government paid its “entire share.”, Wisniewski, the chairman of the Assembly transportation committee, charged that New Jersey Transit has become one of the worst transportation agencies in the country because it is not been funded “properly.” He said he would complete the proposed Gateway Tunnel into New York City., “As governor, I would make sure that we’re not only funding mass transit as a priority [but] that we are expanding the opportunities,” he said., Lesniak said the “worst mistake” Christie had made during his two terms was cancelling the tunnel project. He later pointed to how New Jersey spends “three to ten times more in road construction than any other state in the nation.”, On the topic of criminal justice reform, Lesniak said he worked to eliminate mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug offenses, resulting in fewer people behind bars for such crimes. He said he favors ending solitary confinement., “My goal is to change the culture of corrections in our society,” he said, “so that a prisoner comes out of prison as a better person than when they went in.”, Murphy said he favors legalizing marijuana in the state, what he called “the right thing to do” to get “at this extraordinary incarceration reality.” He, too, favors ending solitary confinement., Without elaborating, he said the state also needed to decriminalize a whole “range of other offenses.”, Murphy waded into a local issue, voicing opposition to the proposed enrollment expansion of the Princeton Charter School. “It doesn’t have local support, as far as I can tell. And without local support, I don’t think there’s a rationale to pursue it,” he said., Meanwhile, Christie and Trump were not far from the candidates’ thoughts. Wisniewski called the president “the sad reality of Washington D.C.”, “We will stand up to President Trump and whatever else he throws our way that we deem, collectively, to be un-American and unconstitutional,” Murphy said., On immigration, Murphy has proposed giving illegal immigrants statewide identification cards and driver’s licenses and access to financial aid for college., “Among the most vulnerable people in our society are the people that are undocumented,” said Johnson, “which means that the rest of us should be standing up for them.”, Lesniak proposed making New Jersey a “sanctuary state” and vowed to fight the Trump administration in court if any federal money is cut to towns or the state., “The federal government cannot commandeer resources of the state to enforce federal laws,” he said., On health care, Wisnewski drew applause as he proposed a single-payer medical insurance plan. “We can fund it here in New Jersey, we can do it here in New Jersey and make sure that there’s nobody who goes without the healthcare they need,” he said., Johnson, who backs abortion rights, promised to fully fund Planned Parenthood and make sure women have “full access to full reproductive freedom.”, Murphy is seen as the favorite to win the party nomination in the June primary, leading Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno in a recent Quinnipiac University poll by 16 points. The former Goldman Sachs executive and ambassador to Germany under President Obama had $11.3 million in his campaign coffers – of which $10 million was a personal loan to the campaign – spent $10.6 million and has locked up endorsements around the state., But Wisniewski, sitting next to Murphy during the event, said his campaign is about “Main Street versus Wall Street.”, “My campaign,” he continued, “is about making sure that the ordinary citizens of this state have somebody speaking for them, not listening to the party bosses.”
