A decision by the state Motor Vehicles Commission to send a mobile unit to expedite the issuance of non-driver identification cards to soon-to-be-released prisoners while some New Jerseyans face long lines to renew the driver licenses and vehicle registration triggered a sharp rebuke from all three potential Republican gubernatorial candidates.
“In case your motor vehicle line wasn’t long enough Governor Murphy is sending Motor Vehicle Commission mobile units to prison this week so the thousands of convicted criminals he’s letting out early can get their ID cards without having to wait in the long MVC lines all of us have suffered since June,” said Republican State Chairman Doug Steinhardt . “That’s Phil’s way. Crime pays. You pay for it. We can do better.”
Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick called it “Murphy madness.”
“In Phil Murphy’s New Jersey, convicted criminals are treated better than everyday citizens,” said former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli. “You know, the hard-working New Jerseyans that go to work, pay their taxes and observe the rule of law.”
Ciattarelli is the lone announced candidate for the Republican nomination for governor next year. Steinhardt and Bramnick are both considering a bid and are expected to make their decision sometime in the next two months.
“Phil Murphy is out of touch,” Ciattarelli stated. “This policy, like so many others of his, is just another reason he’s got to be One and Done in ‘21.”
After an extended closure during the coronavirus pandemic, state residents have faced substantial delays at Motor Vehicles Commission agencies.
On most days, there are reports that lines begin in the early hours of the morning.
Steinhardt said today that he and his son spent the night at an agency in order to renew their driver licenses.
Republicans are preparing to make the quality of service of the embattled and often tone-deaf agency an issue against Murphy in next year’s campaign.
In a New Jersey Globe 25th District State Senate debate on Sunday, Republican State Sen. Anthony M. Bucco (R-Boonton) called for the resignation of the state’s top motor vehicle commission executive, B. Sue Fulton.
Another Morris County GOP legislator, Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains), also slammed the Murphy administration’s move.
“Murphy’s MVC puts in express lane for prisoners, while we still wait in endless and long lines,” Webber said.
Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University, said that politics surrounds both sides of the issue.
“If the criticism is that seven or eight months’ worth of driver patience ought to be enough to get back to on-demand MVC services, that’s a fair policy question,” Rasmussen said. “But if the argument is that it should not be a priority to give people the tools they need for successful reentry into our communities, that’s short-sighted and misplaced.”
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