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Bergen County Democrats have selected Tammy Murphy, the wife of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, over US Representative Andy Kim for the Bergen County line to run in the June primary to replace the now twice-disgraced Bob Menendez for US Senate. It doesn’t mean Murphy, who currently holds no elected office, is the Democrat candidate, but the Monday night victory does give her an edge as the race heats up. Menendez, meanwhile, still has indicated he’s primed to run for re-election and has given no indication that he intends to step aside.
But what message does Murphy leapfrogging over Kim--or, for that matter, Menendez being charged for the second time with misconduct--send to New Jersey’s residents and voters? WOR street reporter Natalie Migliore went to the NJ Transit section of Penn Station to find out. She appeared on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program to ask Garden State commuters what they thought.
The state of affairs in New Jersey means that having to replace Menendez is merely “business as usual”. That was the sad sentiment conveyed to Migliore by one commuter: “It’s not shocking, it’s politicians, but it sucks. I mean, it shouldn’t happen, but I’m not shocked at all because you probably find a lot more like that, too. He just got caught. But you know what, a lot of them are like that… I think a lot of them are shady. And they may not start that way when they go in, but it seems like they turn out that way.”
Despite her pessimism, that commuter told Migliore she still holds on to the hope that change and decency triumph in the end. “You get to the point where you say, forget this. No matter who you’re trying to vote for, it seems like sometimes they’re wishy-washy. They say this and they do something else, and then you end up hearing about, oh they were crooked and they got money for this. So that’s why I’m saying, I hope whomever it is, even though I’m a Republican, whomever it is, I want someone to get in there and straighten this mess out.”
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