Jersey Gonna Jersey
By 
Democratic lawmakers who control the State Legislature in New Jersey advanced a bill on Monday that would severely weaken a watchdog agency responsible for investigating fiscal misconduct by state leaders and scrutinizing government contracts.
The legislation would defang the Office of the State Comptroller by removing its subpoena powers and would instead rely entirely on the troubled State Commission of Investigation to lead inquiries into misuse of taxpayer funds and political self-dealing.
The bill is advancing weeks before Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat who campaigned on a commitment to government efficiency and transparency, is set to be sworn in as governor. The comptroller is appointed by the governor and cannot be removed from office by state lawmakers, imbuing the agency with investigatory independence.
The bill’s lead proponent, Nicholas Scutari, the Democratic Senate president, said he sponsored the legislation to streamline the roles of the two watchdog agencies and to bolster the investigatory muscle at the commission, which he said was better equipped to police state employees and agencies.
The effort to dilute the comptroller’s power led to a nearly five-hour committee hearing Monday at the State House that drew a room filled to capacity, mainly with opponents of the bill, including Senator Andy Kim.
Mr. Kim, a first-term Democrat who was elected to replace Robert Menendez, a longtime Democratic power broker in New Jersey now serving an 11-year prison sentence for taking bribes, had arrived in Trenton at 9 a.m., and was among the first three people to request to speak at the hearing. He was instead called to address the committee dead last, more than four hours after the hearing began, prompting objections from several other speakers, who attempted to cede their time to him. They noted that he was trying to catch a train to Washington, where voting was set to start Monday evening.
Senator James Beach, the Democratic chairman of the committee on state government, refused the requests.
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Mr. Kim told state lawmakers that elections last month across the country showed that voters were craving a new, more responsive governing approach. “You live in the time of the greatest amount of distrust in politics in modern American history,” he said. “People want a politics that isn’t some exclusive club for the well-off and the well connected.”
He said he could not criticize actions taken by President Trump to eliminate inspectors general and gut government agencies if he did not also call out problematic actions proposed in New Jersey, even by fellow Democrats.
“What we have come to see here in New Jersey must be fixed, and the people demand it,” Mr. Kim said. “The people of New Jersey are sick and tired of this.”
Mr. Beach cut him off, noting that his three-minute speaking window had ended.
“Sir, I have been here for five and a half hours,” Mr. Kim said. “Give me 30 seconds.”
“Why do you think you’re special?” asked Mr. Beach, who throughout the afternoon allowed other speakers to extend their time.