The Governor's race in New Jersey is he

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday Morning, New Jersey. What the heck is going on? What is this morning? Is Eric Shuffler, a Democratic strategist, a businessman, a baseball owner, so many other things. Eric. With President Trump’s edict of whatever you want to call it, have we saved the whales?

0:24 Speaker 2 Well, John, I’m also a friend of yours, which is one of my better titles in life. Yes, you know, I think we can debate whether the whales were ever in danger. But Donald Trump has clearly put the offshore wind industry more in the graveyard than’s been done in a long time.

0:39 Speaker 1 So better the windmills in the graveyard than the whales in the graveyard.

0:45 Speaker 2 It is interesting how offshore wind became such a hot political issue, to the point that it was one of President’s Trump’s top priorities. So it’s been that way in New Jersey too, very controversial. Governor Murphy’s been very aggressive.

0:57 It’s been a hallmark of his renewable energy policy. And now you have a state like New Jersey confronting what do you do? How do you proceed in this environment where you want to do something and the President has said not so fast.

1:10 Speaker 1 Do you think, I know, you don’t have a Democratic. Oh, you’re don’t have elections, will governors soon? Do you think the Democratic mayors should cooperate more? I mean, he is the president is a very powerful position.

1:24 Speaker 3 He is the most powerful position.

1:25 Speaker 2 I think, you know when Governor Murphy has really set a very interesting tone and different than a lot of Democrats, and he deserves credit for that. He was planning to go to the inauguration, but you know, the weather made it unable for him to do that. But he said, I’m going to support the president when it works for

1:40 New Jersey, and when it doesn’t and threatens our values, I’ll oppose it. You know, opposing the president just because you don’t like him, that’s not good politics. It’s not being good American. It has to be when he is not acting in New Jersey’s interests and when he’s doing something that really threatens your values as a governor to

1:56 step up on that. So I think you’re going to see a lot of Democrats that’s looking to do that, but there’s always going to be some who it’s going to be knee jerk. I’m going to pose him because there’s political gain they believe to do that.

2:08 Speaker 1 Now Sunday morning and there’s so many things happening, and what do you recommend the rest of the Democratic governors do in California. I mean, you’ve seen the problems for every California. I mean, I can’t understand how Javin Newsom wants to spend fifty million dollars to oppose President Trump then spend fifty million dollars having more fire engines. Yeah.

2:40 Speaker 2 You know, if I’m a Democratic governor, right now, he is the president, and when you work with the president, when it helps your state, you know, state, country come first. So simply deciding to oppose him for the sake of a press event or release is not good politics. It’s not helping the people you serve. So I think the

2:56 Democratic governors who get it are going to be finding ways to work with the president. When it comes to infrastructure, getting federal relief, Disaster aid’s always been bipartisan, and there are going to be issues that probably relate to social values.

3:09 Speaker 1 You know.

3:10 Speaker 2 I think the January sixth pardons are one that’s going to be a dividing line for a lot of people where Democrats are going to step back away from them and be willing to call the president out. But right now, people need jobs. We got to get the economy moving again.

3:22 We got to make people feel safe, law and order, and Democrats should be working with the administration when they can on those issues. There’ll be plenty of things to fight and oppose the president on.

3:33 Speaker 1 And if the positions were opposite, my number one issue would be the quality of life in US cities and our states, and the quality of life in New York City, especially not getting a run over by a bicycle or motorcycle.

3:47 Speaker 2 Yeah, being able to cross the street without worrying about whether it’s going to be your last one, or get on the subway and feel safe about it really important. I think what’s really interesting about New Jersey, John is we just had this election where Trump, you know, overperformed everywhere in New Jersey. He only lost by five points,

4:05 he picked up over a half a million net votes from the last election. And what people in New Jersey are taking from that is an intense focus on affordability and quality of light. So we have a governor election in eight months nine months in November, and these themes that Trump put front and center are now dominating the

4:26 gubernatory election, including a very crowded Democratic primary where some people are coming from the progressive left, others are in the moderate and it really is a microcosm where the Democratic Party is going to be fighting to see who emerges in the post Trump world.

4:39 Speaker 1 Tell us how many Democratics candidates so they are going to be running in the primary, and how many were publishers.

4:46 Speaker 2 We have a really robust primary with six very real, very legitimate candidates who have all held major office, all have fundraising appeal, all have statewide recognition. And we have three on the Republican side very similar someone who ran for governor and almost beat Governor Mercy, Governor Murphy, a radio show host that is very closely aligned with President Trump.

5:11 And we have a new Jersey state senator who’s really running as more of an anti Trumper and trying to capture that moderate vote.

5:17 Speaker 3 So watching on the Democrats.

5:19 Speaker 1 The anti Trumper, my opinion, he’s got three chances. It starts with slim, very slim, slim and slim.

5:29 Speaker 2 It is definitely swimming up stream in this environment to do that.

5:34 Speaker 1 The Democrats hate him and the Trump people hate him.

5:36 Speaker 2 You know, whether Democrats hate Trump or not, you’re seeing Democrats co opt his message, yes, and really focus on quality of life and affordability and less and moving away from some of these very reactive social issues that have been problematic for parties. So we’re going to see a Democratic party where that’s going to get fought out and

5:54 that’s really interesting to watch. And then does President Trump engage in New Jersey. He has a lot of ties business personal to New Jersey. Does he decide to get involved in the New Jersey governor race and make a statement.

6:06 Speaker 1 Something tells me that President Trump is going to be involved in every state.

6:10 Speaker 2 He seems to get involved in everything, and you know, elections have consequences. America voted overwhelmingly for him. We knew what we were getting. And President Trump, whether you like his policy or not, is delivering on what he told the public he was going to do and he’s doing it decisively in a way that reflects the confidence from

6:30 having had the job before. And I think that’s from a purely governmental political science perspective, Watching that unfold is really interesting.

6:39 Speaker 1 Eric Chuffluck, thank you so much for the update on New Jersey, and let’s catch up again real soon.

6:45 Speaker 3 More to come. Enjoy Sunday, Enjoy all the football today.