Bramnick jabs challengers over Murphy tax comments

Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick attacked his Democratic challengers over comments on taxes Gov. Phil Murphy made three weeks ago Monday.

“Lisa Mandelblatt and Stacey Gunderman either don’t understand that taxes are the number one issue in this state or they are hiding their support for higher taxes,” Bramnick. “Either way, taxpayers deserve to know if they are just indifferent or support Governor Murphy when it comes to endless tax hikes.”

At an event at Rowan University on Oct. 1, Murphy said that New Jersey may not be the state for voter’s whose single issue was taxes.

Republican candidates across the state have leveraged the comments into attacks against their opponents, though those attacks have drawn little in the way of response from Democrats.

That trend held true Monday—the Democrats said Bramnick was trying to distract voters from controversy spawned by his website, which advertised its willingness to discredit sexual assault accusers, among other things.

“It makes sense that Jon would want to create, by his own admission, a three-week-old distraction because he’s feeling the heat on his law firm scandal,” Mandelblatt-Gunderman campaign manager Alex Koran said. “He’s clearly getting scared that voters will discredit him on Election Day, just like his law firm does to victims of sexual assault.”