With first Sherrill budget, Senate and Assembly GOP split paths

When Gov. Mikie Sherrill and legislative Democrats hammer out a budget this summer, Trenton Republicans will hold little control over the process. They can ask probing questions in upcoming budget hearings, but they lack the numbers to block a budget or make demands. 

Instead, Republicans resort to the pulpit, where they can criticize Democratic handling of the state’s finances and make their case to New Jersey’s voters. In recent years, for example, state Senate and Assembly GOP budget leaders hosted joint press conferences after former Gov. Phil Murphy’s budget addresses to criticize his ballooning appropriations.

But late last month, a split emerged. Gov. Mikie Sherrill held a press conference to warn that spending cuts must be considered to address the state’s $3 billion structural deficit. State Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-Little Silver), the Senate GOP’s budget officer, interpreted her warning as an opportunity, saying Republicans “are prepared to help” find cuts in the budget. Assembly GOP Budget Officer Brian Rumpf (R-Little Egg Harbor), meanwhile, attacked Sherrill after her press conference, accusing her of wanting to deplete the state’s surplus.

Then, as Sherrill’s address approached, Assembly and Senate Republicans announced separate, competing press conferences for after her speech. Rumpf and Assemblyman Christopher DePhillips (R-Wyckoff) spoke from their typical room across from the Assembly chamber, while O’Scanlon and Senate Minority Leader Anthony Bucco (R-Boonton) took questions from the floor of the Assembly after the address.

Rumpf and O’Scanlon downplayed the differing venues. The former said he believed the senators chose to stay on the Assembly floor, but said it’s “a little more difficult to have a good conversation when you’re on the floor with all the inherent distractions.” And the latter signaled unity, saying, “We’re all pissed off.” But one source told the New Jersey Globe that Assembly Republicans held a separate gaggle out of concerns the Senate Republicans would be meek in their response.

The Republicans offered many similar critiques, including of the governor’s proposal for an increase in total spending. They accused Sherrill of deflecting blame to President Donald Trump and criticized her plan to scale back the Stay NJ property-tax relief program.

But the two responses differed in tone, at least to a small degree. Rumpf said Sherrill’s budget was the “same old song” as Murphy’s proposals, while O’Scanlon offered some hope, including that she would take a hard stance against last-minute “Christmas tree” spending that has drawn ire from Republicans.

O’Scanlon’s more conciliatory approach and Rumpf’s attack-dog style represent the varying paths for a party trying to regain its footing after last year’s Democratic landslide. Legislative Republicans hoped that Jack Ciattarelli, one of their own, would be delivering today’s address; instead, Sherrill defeated him by 14 percentage points last fall.

Assembly Republicans lost five seats last fall, and their membership now stands at just 23, their lowest since the Watergate years. Still, they re-elected John DiMaio as minority leader, even as some in the caucus push for stronger leadership.

Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, said the dynamic wasn’t necessarily surprising. He said that, as in Congress, New Jersey’s upper chamber is considered a slower, more calculating body, while the lower chamber is younger and busier.

“The approach of the Senate Republicans is often more deliberative and not quite as knee-jerk,” he said. “And that’s not to denigrate the approach of the Assembly Republicans. If you talk to anybody who observes the Legislature, they will tell you there are differences between the two caucuses.”

In some ways, Sherrill’s approach to this year’s budget has allowed for the divergence. Her decision to sound the alarm about the structural deficit granted Republicans the opportunity to declare their concerns were correct; Rasmussen said her press conference created two options for the minority party.

“I think Governor Sherrill is throwing a curveball at legislative Republicans,” Rasmussen said. “She’s talking about a lot of the same things that they have talked about. So what’s your approach going to be? Is it going to be ‘Let’s find some common ground,’ or is it going to be to come up with a more partisan response to that?”

It’s unlikely that either option will make a substantial impact on the final budget. Given Democratic control of the budget and Sherrill’s proposal to continue many GOP-maligned programs, it’s difficult to see a scenario where a majority of Republicans are happy with the final numbers. The “mess,” as O’Scanlon describes it, could be here to stay.

“The Assembly Republicans and the Senate Republicans are outrageously frustrated by that and by the fact that now we’re left with this mess to deal with that’s going to be so much more dramatically difficult to deal with,” he said. “That sucks, and we both agree on that.”