Republican Assembly candidates condemn Murphy’s budget and tax hikes
LD 11 Assembly Candidates Matt Woolley and Mike Amoroso
Matt Woolley and Mike Amoroso, the presumptive Republican nominees for Assembly in the 11th legislative district denounced Governor Murphy’s “reckless state budget proposal”in a statement released on Tuesday evening.
“Despite Governor Murphy’s characterization, there is nothing ‘responsible’ or ‘fair’ about his budget proposal. His irresponsible plan will continue to force residents to flee from New Jersey to low-cost states, amplifying the financial burden for those who remain and already struggle to live here,” said Woolley, 29, of Ocean Township. “$1.2 billion in new spending, in addition to last year’s $2.7 billion budget increase, only hurts the state’s middle class.”
“New Jersey taxpayers should be very worried today,” said Amoroso, 50, the President of the Freehold Township Board of Education. “Instead of adding more taxes on the backs of hardworking residents, our leadership in Trenton needs new, creative talent to finally work toward solving the current tax and spend frenzy.”
In an email to his Republican colleagues in the NJ Senate on Monday, Senator Michael Doherty said that the Assembly Republican leadership’s support of increasing the gas tax is what led to the loss of four seats in the lower chamber in last week’s election.
Rutgers-Eagleton conducted a poll in October on the gas tax. See attachment and an extract of the results below.
Why did Republican Assembly leadership come out in support of a gas tax increase?
R Assembly candidates should have all come out 100% against a gas tax increase.
66% of voters oppose a gas tax increase.
We had 69% of Independent voters and 73% of Republican voters on our side.
Even 57% of Democrat voters oppose the gas tax increase.
We wouldn’t have lost any seats if R’s campaigned on being 100% against a gas tax increase.
“We didn’t have to lose any seats and could have picked up a few,” Doherty said told MoreMonmouthMusings, “We had no message.”
Doherty said that he has not heard back from any of his Senate colleagues.
Two weeks ago MMM gave the Trenton GOP a head slap over their idiotic strategy of trying to pick up seats in the Legislature by running against Corzine Democrats.
Evidently, someone heard us.
The Assembly Republic Victory Fund is paying PolitickerNJ to run their video, The New Republicans-Coming to a Voting Booth Near You
Call that a good first step. But it’s far from a winning strategy.
Monmouth County Legislator Has A Message That Republicans Badly Need To Win
Gannett’s New Jersey newspapers and websites published a list of New Jersey’s political “Rising Stars” yesterday. The editorial says those on the list are young (most are under 40, all are under 50) politicos that are likely to emerge as the “next generation” of leaders on the regional or state levels of New Jersey government and politics.
Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande is the only Monmouth County leader who made the top twelve of the list. As a three term Assemblywoman seeking her fourth term and the Assembly Minority’s Policy Co-Chair, one could argue that Casagrande is in the current generation of leadership. But at 36, her star is still very much “rising.”
If you are fortunate enough to talk to Casagrande about policy and politics, you will quickly realize that the real power of her ‘light’ is largely ‘hidden under a bushel.’