Gov. Phil Murphy said at a briefing today that he has taken a hands-off approach to determining the next leader of the State Senate after Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford)’s apparent loss last Tuesday, though he did add he has a “lot of respect” for frontrunner State Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Linden).
“I did a lot of listening and asked questions, so that was my job,” he said of his meetings with Senate Democrats last week. “This was not something for me to put my thumb on the scale… I don’t want to imply that I can control a process which is not mine to control.”
Scutari’s lone opponent so far is State Sen. Nia Gill (D-Montclair), who has a steep hill to climb in a caucus that has mostly aligned behind Scutari.
Asked whether the fact that New Jersey’s three top officials will likely continue to be white men bothers him, Murphy said that he’ll support diversity in any way he can, while also conceding that he has personal relationships with the legislature’s white male leaders which can’t be diminished by demographic realities.
“We’re the most diverse state in America. We should have a state that reflects that in terms of the leadership, there’s no question about it,” he said. “[But] I’ve enjoyed a great relationship with both Senate President Sweeney and Speaker [Craig] Coughlin… I have to separate what I think about these folks as individuals, versus an overall passion for diversity.”
There also technically remains the question of whether Sweeney lost re-election at all. He almost certainly did – the Associated Press has called the race for his Republican opponent Edward Durr – but he has yet to concede, and Murphy said he’ll respect Sweeney’s wishes.
“I also think that Senate President Sweeney deserves – I don’t know his race in terms of the numbers of votes, but I think he thinks he does have a mathematical shot,” Murphy said. “We should have the respect to let that play out.”