Leading with parental rights, public safety, and tax cuts, Senate Republicans today unveiled their legislative agenda if they take the majority in the November 7 midterm elections.
“A new Senate Republican Majority will be ready to get to work immediately to reverse Governor Murphy’s far-left progressive agenda and the damage it has caused to Garden State families,” said Senate Minority Leader Anthony M. Bucco, who would likely become Senate President if the GOP can pick up six Senate seats next month. “Despite Governor Murphy’s desire, we do not need to become the California of the East Coast.”
The “Republican Roadmap for a Better New Jersey” outlines an eight-point plan to share with the public what a GOP Senate majority might look like.
The plan includes: passing a comprehensive parental bill of rights; supporting law enforcement, enhancing public safety, and improving school security; providing property tax relief and enacting school funding reform; making state government more affordable; cutting taxes; and enacting a realistic and affordable state energy policy – a shot at the Murphy administration’s offshore wind development and long-term efforts to ban gas stoves and gasoline-powered cars.
The GOP plan also pledges to support senior citizens and veterans – something that would include a Senate probe of Covid-related deaths in state-run nursing homes – and a cessation of overdevelopment and court-mandated housing.
“Governor Murphy and Trenton Democrats have imposed extreme policies that have given us high taxes, taken away rights, and made New Jersey communities more dangerous,” Bucco said. “In contrast, a Republican majority in the Legislature would pass laws to make New Jersey more affordable, restore parental rights, and improve public safety and the quality of life for our families.”
State Sen. Michael Testa, Jr. (R-Vineland), who played a key role in writing the plan, said that a Republican majority in the State Senate offers a “rational alternative” for New Jerseyans.
“Whether you’re talking about their efforts to put radical ideologies into our classrooms, dangerous criminals onto our streets, or harmful wind farms off our beaches, Trenton Democrats have repeatedly failed New Jersey in every instance,” Testa argues. “They’ve copied every bad idea from other Democrat-run states, made them worse, and enacted the most extreme and expensive versions in New Jersey with disastrous consequences.”
While Republicans have a map that puts a majority within reach, they’ll need a perfect Election Night to get there.
Democrats have a 25-15 majority, although at least one seat will almost certainly flip: the 12th district, where veteran 88-year-old State Sen. Sam Thomson (D-Old Bridge) switched parties in February after losing party support for another four-year term. That really makes the GOP’s magic five seats – or four, if Republicans would settle for shared control of the upper chamber.
Still, the GOP will need to win an open seat in the 4th and unseat Democratic incumbents in the 11th, 14th, 16th, and 38th districts. At the same time, Republicans can’t afford to lose seats in the 2nd, 3rd, and 8th districts.
“Republicans have a practical plan to undo the damage by putting parents in charge, criminals in jail, and Democrats’ unrealistic and expensive energy plans on ice,” Testa said.
The plan outlined by Bucco includes a prohibition on school districts interfering with the rights of parents, including requirements to post curriculum plans on the Internet for review and written permission from parents before administering some student sexual activity surveys.
Republicans also want to restore penalties for underage drinking that were around before the cannabis law was passed in 2021. They pledge to cap state spending, rewrite the Democratic budget, address consolidation and shared services, reduce the corporate business tax, and block the implementation of Murphys’ Energy Master Plan.
“We have Republican candidates across New Jersey who are committed to enacting practical solutions to the most pressing problems facing our great state,” Bucco stated. “We want New Jersey voters to know they have a rational alternative this November to the increasingly extreme single-party rule of Trenton Democrats.”