The price of Webber speaking up? Loss of committee seat, leadership post

Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains) has lost his seat on the influential Financial Institutions & Insurance Committee and his Republican leadership post after seeking to hold Assembly Minority Leader John DiMaio accountable for losing eleven seats over the last two elections, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed.

Webber will remain on the Appropriations Committee, but his position of Republican Appropriations Officer will no longer be included on DiMaio’s leadership team.

When Assembly Republicans reorganized on November 6 – two days after five of its incumbents were defeated – Webber sought a discussion on his party’s future and about whether a change in leadership was necessary.  Republicans wouldn’t permit a discussion and voted to table Webber’s motion.

Republicans Christian Barranco (R-Jefferson), Michele Matsikoudis (R-New Providence), Nancy Muñoz (R-Summit), Claire Swift (R-Margate), and Michael Torrissi, Jr. (R-Hammonton) lost their seats in 2025.  Six other seats flipped Democratic in 2023, the first election since DiMaio became minority leader.

DiMaio has not acted retaliatorily in the past.  After he defeated Muñoz for minority leader in 2021, 19-15, DiMaio kept Muñoz on his team as budget officer.

The 23-member Republican caucus is the second-smallest in state history, behind the 1974-75 caucus, which followed the Watergate landslide; after the Watergate landslide, Assembly Republicans were left with just 14 seats.

Webber, an assemblyman since 2008, is a former GOP state chairman.