Paula Banasiak O’Connor, a former acting deputy chief of staff to Gov. Phil Murphy, will lead a new industry group to advocate for offshore wind in New Jersey, ROI-NJ reported today.
The New Jersey Offshore Wind Alliance comprises a group of offshore wind leaseholders and regional energy organizations.
The group’s formation comes at a time when some Democratic lawmakers had distanced themselves from the offshore wind after the 2023 debacle, where Osted canceled its New Jersey project a week before the midterm elections. Democrats had criticized companies involved in the project for failing to sell the public on offshore wind, especially after dead mammals washed up on New Jersey beaches.
Banasiak O’Connor had served as chief of staff to then-Assemblyman Raj Mukherji (D-Jersey City) and as legislative director to Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Englewood) before joining the governor’s office in 2018. She spent the last two years as a vice president at The Zita Group.
In Muphy’s office, she was the director of legislative affairs.