The best thing about being a candidate — even an undeclared candidate — is that you can speak the truth, noting the all-so-obvious shortcomings of politics and politicians.
U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill did that Tuesday afternoon before a packed house of business leaders and community members during her moment in the Fairleigh Dickinson University series of discussions with key candidates.
“The New Jersey budget system, the way it’s done, just is a disaster,” she said. “The lack of transparency, and the fact that things just seem to all come together, two weeks prior, and then legislators are pretty much forced to vote on something where they have no idea what they’re voting on — it’s not a way to run a railroad.”
Sherrill (D-11th Dist.), who repeatedly stressed the need for greater transparency in government, offered an alternative — pointing to how money is appropriated in the House of Representatives, where she has served since flipping the seat in District 11 in the 2018 midterm elections.
“I have to certify that I am going to put this money into things that I don’t have any economic interest in,” she said. “There’s no self-dealing.”
She noted how her website details all the funding she fights for — and that all of the things she and other members of Congress fight for have to be supported by a statute indicating a need.
“This seems like the bare minimum that you would demand from how you’re spending taxpayer money,” she said. “So, I do think we need to do more to create transparency.”
Sherrill was not asked about the STOCK Act, a proposal that would ban members of Congress from owning and trading individual stocks. (Sherrill, to be clear, has been a supporter of the idea.) She figures to have more time for that. Sherrill, after all, is easily expected to win reelection for her seat this fall.
Of course, that’s not why she was invited to speak in the FDU series. It is widely believed that Sherrill will announce a run for governor after the November election.
It’s why she spent most of the hour-plus conversation with Peter Woolley, the founding director of the School of Public and Global Affairs at FDU, discussing state issues — including many others built upon transparency.
She supported the change in the ballot and questioned the recent “reforms” done to ELEC (the Election Law Enforcement Commission) and OPRA (the Open Public Records Act).
“I don’t know that anyone feels a great deal of confidence that (ELEC) is protecting our election system from any sort of corruption in any way — it seems very weak,” she said.
“I know that you’ll have a lot of people that felt like there were problems with OPRA requests being used to overwhelm offices with paperwork. But, at the same time, I think the supposed reform that was made out of OPRA feels as if a state that very much needs transparency in government, and very much needs to have oversight over government for various reasons, has now been undermined in a really unserious way.”
Sherrill’s thoughts drew applause from the approximately 150 in attendance, which is approximately twice as many as the series usually draws. Her reputation as a rock-star candidate certainly was on display.
Sherrill, who has proven to be a formidable fundraiser, also called for more transparency in campaign financing, much to the delight of the audience.
“I just am for almost ruthless transparency at a minimum, understanding who’s funding what,” she said.
Sherrill — as well as fellow House member Josh Gottheimer (D-5th Dist.) — is expected to be part of arguably the deepest collection of candidates for governor the state has ever seen, joining a list that includes Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, state Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield), former state Senate President Steve Sweeney and former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, among others.
She showed Tuesday why she would be a strong candidate.
By now, almost everyone knows her overwhelmingly impressive résumé: Graduate of the Naval Academy, nearly a decade of service as a helicopter pilot in the Navy, a graduate degree from the London School of Economics, a law degree from Georgetown, time spent as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.
And, while Sherrill regaled the audience with tales of her Navy days — and why Rebecca Michelle became “Mikie” at a very early age — she also displayed deep knowledge of issues impacting the state, items a gubernatorial candidate would be expected to address, including:
- New Jersey Transit: She’s fighting for — wait for it — more transparency in how money appropriated to Amtrak and NJ Transit is spent. “How do we know that the maintenance is going to be routinely done so that we can count on better commutes?” she asked.
- Atlantic City: Sherrill discussed the potential of wind power and gaming — as well as working to ensure the airport is in a better position to handle bigger events. She questioned why there is a fight to allow smoking — something she feels hurts the city’s ability to attract the next generation.
- Development: She talked about the need for more housing — of all types — for everyone.
- Environment: Sherrill pushed for more permitting reform — done in an environmentally friendly way. “I don’t think that, too early, economic development and preserving open spaces have to be in conflict,” she said.
- Education: As a parent of four, she said she’s good with limiting phones in school. As a resident of Montclair, she said she has seen firsthand the impact of having more school choice and magnet schools — it’s something she said she would push for. “I think it would be very interesting to consider a magnet school system in several of our counties,” she said.
- School segregation: Sherrill acknowledged that New Jersey schools were the best in the country — but did so while acknowledging that there is a great disparity in school systems, which have been proven to be as segregated as any in the country. “The South has done a much better job actually desegregating schools than New Jersey, which is appalling to me,” she said.
- The pension problem: She said she is a big believer in continuing to fully fund the pension, saying that failing to do so would detract from the state’s ability to spend money in other areas because of the need to service the debt.
Sherrill did not specifically discuss the presidential race, though she did mention the energy she felt in Chicago during the recent Democratic National Convention.
And, while she’s an obvious supporter of the party, she was willing to be transparent about what she feels is the party’s biggest shortcoming: messaging.
“We don’t communicate our ideas well,” she said.
Sherrill rattled off key Democratic priorities: infrastructure, education, STEM and innovation, support for NATO and Democratic values abroad, health care, climate change and resilience/sustainability.
“I think these are all things that are that are widely popular,” she said. “If I went around to each individual in New Jersey and said, ‘This list of issues, do you like it?’ I think 80% of people would say ‘You’re focused on the right things.’
“And then, if I turn to them and said, ‘Well, do you like Democrats?’ I think a lot of them would (say), ‘Not really.’
“So, we’re not communicating what we do very well.”
Sherrill said she feels the Kamala Harris and Tim Walz ticket is staring to change the narrative, focusing on the right things.
“And I think that’s going to be very powerful,” she said.
