TRENTON, NJ – For New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, the decisions he makes over the next 12 hours will have both political and health consequences for himself, the state and the Democrat party. On Monday, state Democrats left the governor hanging, putting the pandemic powers ball back in his court.
According to Trenton insiders, Murphy can declare a new pandemic state of emergency, which he would have to dig deep into the depths of constitutional darkness. On top of that, the Governor will have to prove that the state of the pandemic is much worse and dire now, than it was during the height of the first two waves of the outbreak and that could be a hard constitutional sale to make.
In addition to public health concerns, Murphy, a political creature by night and public health advocate by day will have to walk a tightrope. The decisions he will make during the remainder of the day could set up huge Republican wins in New Jersey in the 2022 Congressional Midterms and the 2023 state legislature midterms.
Democrats will be wary of supporting the governor’s quest to continue his indefinite pandemic health emergency knowing that supporting such decisions as school face masks, mandatory vaccinations and vaccine passports could open the door for Republicans to remove them in 2023.
It’s probably why the Murphy extension never made it to a floor vote on Monday. The Democrat party has made one thing clear, this mess is Phil Murphy’s to clean up, and Phil Murphy’s alone from this point forward.
Although New Jersey is a blue state, New Jerseyans are tough and for the most part independent of party fanaticism. In essence, New Jersey can be described best as a “Don’t f–k with me” state and that’s what Murphy has been doing for two years now. New Jerseyans are sick and tired of being told what to do, based on ever-evolving and sometimes inaccurate and flawed science.
Now that the CDC has officially declared that the existing suite of COVID-19 vaccines are ineffective at stopping the transmission of the omicron variant…and admitted that 75% of all COVID-19 deaths are among ‘extremely unhealthy’ people, Murphy’s push to declare a new state of emergency is nearly without merit at this point.
It has been proven that vaccines are not stopping the spread of the omicron variant, only offering therapeutic protection from more serious symptoms and side effects.
On top of that, the CDC and other health professionals have declared that only N95 masks are effective at stopping the omicron variant from spreading and that cloth masks by themselves offer little protection. Today, the CDC said it will be looking into whether or not it needs to increase the mask guidance to strongly recommend N95 type respirators instead of cloth face masks and even fiber-based surgical masks.
One of the leaders in the state against Murphy’s latest power grab, Senator Michael Testa told Shore News Network that the governor is in a tough spot, but Republican legislators are unsure what the governor’s next move will be. Testa was instrumental in rallying bipartisan support in the Senate when he called upon his fellow legislators to deny the Governor his requested 90-day extension.