Greetings! Welcome to the Parkway South political blog here at The Press of Atlantic City. My name is John DeRosier, and I will serve as the gatekeeper-of-sorts for this page that will bring you the latest South Jersey political happenings, whether they be in Trenton or here in our back yards.
April 10
Today we’re quickly going to cover the issue of gun control.
Those laws included expanding background checks for private gun sales, decreasing the amount of bullets allowed in a magazine from 15 to 10, making residents show that they have a justifiable need to carry a handgun if they want to get a permit, allowing the seizure of weapons from people dealing with mental health issues who may be a threat to themselves or others, and banning bullets that can pierce police armor.
The bills still haven’t been up in the senate.
According to a schedule put out by senate president Steve Sweeney, the earliest those bills could be posted is June 7, two days after the primary elections in New Jersey.
The bills easily passed the Democratic controlled assembly, and would seemingly pass the Democratic controlled senate with relative ease. So why wait until June to post them?
Will Cunningham, a progressive congressional candidate in the 2nd district, thinks it has to do with Senator Jeff Van Drew, who has an “A” rating with the NRA on gun control legislation.
For the past week, Cunningham has tweeted several times that he believes Sweeney is purposely slow-rolling the bills to protect Van Drew, who has been questioned several times this primary season about his record on gun control.
There is no concrete evidence that Sweeney is purposely delaying the vote, and a spokesman for Senate Democrats told Politico’s Matt Friedman that Sweeney is just following the legislative process and senate schedule.
Van Drew’s most ardent critics, opponents Tanzie Youngblood and Cunningham, have hammered him specifically on the issue of gun control.
And by the looks of it, he will not have to address it again until he is the only Democrat left standing.
April 9
Happy Monday! Hope the weekend treated you well.
Let’s quickly talk about sea level rise.
Whether or not you believe climate change and sea level rise are caused by humans, it’s happening and is a problem for those of us that live near the coast.
Here’s what New Jersey lawmakers are proposing to do about it. A little over a month ago, the state legislature passed a resolution that requires New Jersey to enter the United States Climate Alliance, which is a group of lawmakers from numerous states that pursue policies to keep commitments made in the Paris Climate Accord.
President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the climate accord last year, but now several states, including the Garden State, are bucking the president’s lead.
What that means for the state is to be determined, as the alliance hasn’t said how it’s going to achieve its goal of keeping the increase in global average temperature below 2 degrees centigrade in the next five years and limit the increase in average global temperature to 1.5 degrees beyond that.
South Jersey’s lawmakers. State Senators Chris Brown, a Republican, and Jeff Van Drew, a Democrat, both voted in favor of the resolution. Senator Chris Connors, a Republican, voted against it.
The Absecon Island, for instance, now experiences tidal flooding about 30 times a year, up from about five times a year in 1970.
Mid-range predictions say that number will increase to 240 times a year by 2045.
That’s it for today. Check back tomorrow for the next post!
April 6
A new poll conducted by Stockton University found that New Jersey residents are split on the idea of legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.
This is problematic for Gov. Phil Murphy as he tries to establish his agenda. According to multiple reports, Murphy planned on paying for some of his policies, including tuition-free community college and the renovations on New Jersey Transit lines, through revenue generated by legal weed and the implementation of a “millionaire’s tax.”
It’s still early (Murphy has only been in office for 3.5 months) but so far the agenda has stalled a bit in Trenton.
Murphy will need Sweeney to post bills in the state Senate if he hopes to get his agenda passed.
Murphy also touted legalizing marijuana as a form of social justice. Currently, there is a bill in the legislature that would take marijuana out of its “Schedule I” category in the legal system, which is a first step towards decriminalization.
Murphy also announced the expansion of medical marijuana, though there are concerns about the cost and how people can afford it.
That’s all for today. A new post will come on Monday at 4 p.m. Have a great weekend!
April 5
Let’s start with the elephant in the room: President Donald Trump. A new poll conducted by Stockton University found that the president is very unpopular here in New Jersey. Readers who support the president had plenty to say about this poll. Some accurately pointed out that the polls were wrong about Trump before the 2016 election, while others bashed the Stockton polling institute for doing it (and us for writing about it).
But the results shouldn’t come as a surprise. New Jersey is one of the bluest states in the country.
The real value in this poll is that it could give us a glimpse into how people may vote in the midterm elections this November.
And we have a big midterm here in South Jersey.
After two decades in congress, U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo decided that he will retire and not seek re-election this year.
Numerous Republican and Democratic candidates announced their intentions to run for LoBiondo’s seat. The eight counties in the 2nd Legislative District all held their conventions, and it looks like the match up in November will be against Democratic State Senator Jeff Van Drew, who swept all the counties, and Republican businessman Hirsh Singh, who won four of the eight counties and received an endorsement from Republican State Senator Chris Brown.
Speaking of Brown, the state senator just sent a letter to Gov. Phil Murphy officially asking that Atlantic County get its desired 13.5% share of the PILOT moneys that Atlantic City casinos pay every year.
That’s all for today, check back tomorrow for the latest on South Jersey politics.
credit:pressofatlanticcity.com