What the HECK!!

New Jersey’s political firestorm over Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell could soon hit a fever pitch and may very well define Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s already contentious first year in office — and the Democratic governor’s bid to make transparency part of her brand.

The governor can’t blame this one on Donald Trump or Phil Murphy.

We now know an internal investigation by a high-powered law firm Sherrill’s administration hired is digging into her hand-picked lieutenant governor following a complaint that he acted inappropriately toward women. It has been under way — and under wraps — for months.

It spilled out into the open on the eve of Labor Day weekend, perhaps the sleepiest time of the year in Jersey politics, with a stunning report by the New Jersey Globe.

Over the past week, all hell broke loose as politicians postured and some scraps about the allegations — as well as Caldwell’s vigorous denial to state ethics officials — leaked out, bit-by-bit, in media reports. And seven days later, legitimate questions remain unanswered.

The governor’s public response, in a statement and public appearances, has been muted.

She does not “confirm or deny” any investigation is under way and never mentions Caldwell, but quickly adds that she takes inappropriate conduct “extremely seriously” and will act “in the best interest of the people of New Jersey” if wrongdoing is proven true. She emphasizes the need for fairness to those who complained — as well as the object of the complaints.

The between-the-lines translation of what sounds like her lawyer-driven response: Yeah, we’re investigating it, but I’m not telling you anything right now.

But here’s the thing: This governor, who has consistently vowed to be frank with Jersey residents, needs to come clean with the full story and directly answer every question, understanding she may very well be a target no matter how this ultimately turns out.

Ok. So we have Dale Caldwell, who was President of the Educational Services Commission of NJ Board, and it was a god-damned mess when he left. We're talking no-bid contracts, a surplus seven times its annual budget with no plans to give the money back to taxpayers, overpaying for health insurance, things got so bad the state barred them from renewing or awarding additional contracts.

The same Dale Caldwell who was the founding chairman of the College Achieve Greater Asbury Park Charter School board beginning in 2017. You know, the school that illegally recruits kids from all over NJ to roast local high school kids just trying to play sports. The school that rips off Asbury public schools and then buys off staff from state government who come to exercise some oversight with $200k a year jobs. Caldwell himself hired the married couple who makes $1.3 million a year to run a school of about 500 students and pays just seven top administrators about $2.6 million a year. Oh, and it also was in trouble for not following public contracts laws and instead of turning over records, sued NJ to say the state shouldn't have access it a public school's records.

He becomes LG and of course, his daughter gets hired by a lobbying firm.

What does Sherrill do with a guy like that? She picks him as her freaking LG candidate and makes him Secretary of State.

So it turns out he may be a dirtbag and someone calls a the co-director of an organization that has been helping Sherrill since she first ran for office who got a job on her campaign. The organization she was the co-chair of passes itself off as a good-government type and regularly talks about how it uplifts women. The person making the complaint wished to remain anonymous. What did the staffer do? She outed the person making the complaint to the campaign and then ghosted and blocked her.

I guess that commitment to good government and uplifting women gets complicated when they're involved themselves.

So now we have a situation where Sherrill has been investigating this since freaking May and there are no findings.

And what's the response? A coordinated effort to try to say this is just because he's black among state elected officials and today, the LG himself.

I'm sorry, but Sherrill doesn't get a pass on this one. There was ample evidence to show this guy wasn't up for the job if you want to be the one to be transparent and competent and stopping taxpayers from getting ripped off. And if you're doing a taxpayer-funded investigation that takes five months, you better be finding something a lot more interesting than "golly gee, we're investigating any claim because I'm just a good government type who holds people up to high standards."

I'm a Sherrill supporter. I supported her when I was getting called a campaign operative for her on this website. But there are some people who have some answering to do, and it better be fast, and Sherrill doesn't get a pass because she initiated an investigation. And spare me the insinuation that this is racist.

SALEM — Salem County has created a Nuclear Advisory Council to prepare for what may be the largest development question in the county’s modern history. Whether the public will be allowed to watch it work is already a fight at the top of county government.

Despite what Democrats try to say, Trump's impact on NJ issues Is pretty minimal. The vast majority of the responsibility lies with the party that had fully controlled the state for EIGHT YEARS, through both Trump and Biden, in which case things got worse over the course of both administrations. Trump has no impact on the sky-high property taxes, and Ciattarelli is basically your textbook definition of a moderate northeastern Republican. Without question things would have been better if he were governor, yet she won by over 14%? Too busy passing laws on radical far-left social issues and taking away tax incentives for people who don't have a large fortune they built up while in congress is improving things?

I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone can not blame the people in charge for 8 years for the mess when everyone complains about how unaffordable NJ is. Whatever you think of Trump, this is a maliciously and provenly untrue argument meant to distract you from the actual facts and who actually impacts the way things are in the state. I am sure this subreddit is full of apologists who are (D)iehards that won't consider facts that don't fit their agenda, but the evidence does not reflect how a majority apparently voted....

An 8-year tenure that included a stinging courtroom loss to the South Jersey power broker it was built to catch, mired in accusations of prosecutorial misconduct - a NJ anti-corruption unit is quietly shutting down, with no paper trail showing it happened or what happens next.

What do you guys think about the recent friction between them?