Murphy undecided on whether DSC meeting should be open press

Gov. Phil Murphy declined to say whether he would urge the Democratic State Committee to make a meeting next week to elect Democratic National Committee members and national convention delegates open to the media.

“It’s a good question on the Democratic State Committee. I haven’t been asked it before,” he said. “I’m not sure what the norm is, historically, honestly, but let me noodle on that. We’ll come back to you.”

Still, the governor suggested he would back making the meeting open to public scrutiny.

“When in doubt we lean on the side of transparency,” he said. “But again, I’ve got no experience as governor with this process, and I take the question under advisement.”

Democratic State Chairman John Currie has scheduled a DSC meeting for July 23 to elect at-large and PLEO delegates to the Democratic National Convention and fill five seats on the Democratic National Committee.

It’s not clear how the state’s delegates will be split, as election results won’t be certified until after it is held. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, currently has 85.97% of the vote in New Jersey, while U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders has 13.6%. He’ll need at least 15% to qualify for at-large delegates.

Though Sanders dropped his bid, he remained on ballots in New Jersey and other states in an attempt to amass delegates and influence the party platform at the DNC’s July 27 convention.

That convention’s date is the impetus behind the July 23 meeting. Put simply, it’s not clear there’s enough time to allow the party to wait for results to be certified.