Power & Politics: Combating ghost guns; 1:1 with oversight committee co-chair State Rep. Lucy Dathan

Local authorities need more resources to handle drone issue, Rep. Smith says

Will Connecticut’s version of Obamacare survive under Trump? Some are nervous.

Pro-Palestinian protesters file federal lawsuit against SUNY New Paltz, police

Advocates call on Gov. Hochul to sign LICH Act ahead of deadline

Sandy Hook survivors travel to Capitol Hill as shooting anniversary approaches

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News 12 Staff

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Welcome back to New Jersey Power and Politics. I'm Eric Lanser. A race for governor heating up as you know, and this week we have another conversation with one of the candidates in what is a very crowded field. I'd like to welcome Republican Guber is very hopeful and New Jersey 11.5 host, Bill Spady at Bill. Pleasure to have you here in the studio. Great to be here. All right. Listen, we got a lot to talk about. It's been a busy Newsweek as always. Uh, you're joining us at a time when New Jerseyans are still very much in the dark about what's going on with these drone sightings. You've been crisscrossing the state. What are you hearing from people? So, you know, not only are we doing four or five events a day and we're talking to people, one on one and we're doing these meet and greets and small business events, uh law enforcement events. But, you know, I'm on the radio every day and I'm hearing literally for two weeks, this is the only subject that people want to talk about. And of course, and I, you know, there are really two schools of thought, uh, one that our government knows exactly what's going on and they're just lying to us or worse. They don't know what's going on. And, you know, as my friend, Congressman, Jeff Andrew pointed out, he said, hey, we have no idea where this Iranian drone mothership is. And I, you know, and then the Pentagon was quick to shoot that one down. Well, they shot it down but, but they didn't offer any explanation and, and the problem is then the White House came out and doubled down. And, uh, you know, from what we heard from Kirby, it sounded like a lie to me. He said, we can't even corroborate or verify that there are drones at all. So here, we've got the New Jersey State Police. We've got thousands of listeners and viewers and people corresponding. We've got the US Coast Guard saying sure the drones were over our coast Guard cutter and then the White House comes out and says, well, we're not sure that there are drones at all. So people here, people are right to be frustrated. And I think the lack of information, the lack of transparency and quite honestly with Governor Murphy, the lack of leadership. Where's the action? He didn't even show up in his own meeting. Unreal. Let's talk about your plan if elected governor, one of the things that you've spoken about it was right in your launch video. Also, you said you wanna restore common sense to the states. All right. So where do you start? What, what would be your first, maybe two or three items? Day one. Well, let's start with number one, we've got, we've got to solve the illegal immigration problem. I mean, this is something that impacts every New Jersey family, every New Jersey business, law enforcement. Uh The estimate is we have somewhere close to 900,000 illegals here cost the state $7.2 billion. So from a cost perspective, we have to deal with illegal immigration. And how do we do that? Number one, eliminate the Sanctuary State day one. The minute. When I'm finished with that speech after the inauguration, we're gonna sign an executive order to rescind the 2018 Sanctuary State that Governor Murphy signed number two. the 2019 immigrant trust directive. That is a complete disaster that was put into place by the last Attorney General Gray Wall. These are things that to me are common sense. You can't have almost a million people who are here illegally, many of whom are wanted on federal detainer orders that this state does not enforce. So you've left law enforcement without the ability to enforce the law. It's a huge problem. The current Attorney General Platkin, his solution is to sue the state police and go after them for what he says, not pulling enough people over and endangering public safety. Yeah, but he has got an entire office dedicated to going after the cops. You know, these are the guys that go after qualified immunity, they go after the cop budgets, they go after their pensions. So enough is enough, we're going to restore common sense by ending the Sanctuary State and supporting law enforcement. Where do you draw the line? Do you draw a line between people who are committing crimes versus people who are contributing to society? Well, it depends on how you define that. I think that in this day and age there absolutely are two different sets of folks. But let's deal with the fact that we have had more than 7 million illegal border crossings over the southern border since Joe Biden took office. Totally unacceptable. Anyone that is here who came across the border illegally in the last four years has got to be sent back home and I'll tell you this, I support 100% President Trump's deportation strategy and as governor, we'll work with Tom Holman and President Trump and JD Vance and the administration to help facilitate Trump's plan, which was his main campaign promise has to be done. How do you distinguish yourself? Where do you draw the line between yourself and the other republicans in the field? As you know, you're running against some, some well known people who've been in New Jersey politics for a long time, Senator John Brand Mick, one of thems, Jack Ctel, former assemblyman who only came within three points of Governor Murphy last election, the difference between me and my two opponents is I'm an actual Republican. You've got two guys that supported Murphy's lockdowns. They uh Jack Celli for his part, he supports driver's licenses for illegals. And when you are a Republican supporting driver's licenses for illegals, the main problem is we all know this is a pathway to voting. So that is not a Republican principle. That is not in line with President Trump. It's an enormous problem, but it goes a little deeper than that. You know, John Bramnick is anti Trump and he says it, he says, look, I'm not going to vote for him. I'm going to write somebody in if that's what it takes. And Jack Celli for his part has been anti Trump. His entire career called him a Charlatan said that he actually said he would not be voting in the presidential election. That last go around in 16 said Trump should be taken off the ballot and replaced by uh by Paul Ryan. So you've got two opponents who are not pro Trump are proud to not be pro second amendment and both are pro abortion. So, you know, I'm pro life, I'm pro gun and I'm pro Trump. Uh listen, we're running out of time. I wanna get to cost of living in the state property taxes. This is something that every Democrat in the race has been talking about trying to bring down the cost of living. What would you do. Well, first of all, we have to decrease or better yet. What would you do? That hasn't been done already or tried? Well, you know, what hasn't been done? We haven't truly cut spending. I'll go back to illegal immigration $7.2 billion costing the taxpayers Medicaid, which is impacted by illegal immigration. 6.2 billion Rutgers University, $5.1 billion budget. They've got dozens of staffers making in the 809 $100,000 range. I would cut that billion dollars out of Rutgers on day one. But most importantly, we have to make sure because they can survive on 4 billion. Let's face it right, because the cost of going to Rutgers in state was more expensive than my wife and I sending our daughter to London school board room tuition. Unbelievable. So you've got to cut spending and we have to structure the way we fund education. It has to be fair. What hasn't been done in New Jersey was done in Wisconsin. It's called Act 10. We're gonna bring that here to New Jersey. So we have a detailed plan, Bill Spady. We have to leave it there. Thanks so much for coming into the studio here. Thank you and keep it right here on power and politics. Much more coming up, changing the guard over at the beleaguered New Jersey Transit. Chris Kor is going to be the agency's next president and CEO. That's next

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Welcome back to New Jersey's 2025 primary election could be moved from June 3rd to the 10th. This is to avoid conflict with the Jewish holiday of Shabu where those who observe can't use electronics, write or drive. Governor Murphy Senate President Nicholas Kari and assembly speaker Craig Coughlan released a joint statement support the day change saying in part the right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy and everyone deserves the freedom to have their voice heard at the ballot box. We cannot allow deeply held and legitimate religious beliefs to become a barrier to voting a bill to move the primary has already been introduced in the State Senate. New Jersey Transit is getting a new leader. Chris Koi was voted to take over as the president and CEO next month by the transit agencies board. Koi is a former CEO of the Gateway Development Commission news. 12 New Jersey's Amanda Lee introduces us to the new person in charge. The New Jersey Transit Board of Directors voted unanimously for Chris Kori to become the new president and CEO following the resignation of Kevin Corbett on Monday, I know Chris just, he knows the system. He knows infrastructure inside and out and he knows the state inside and out and our region. Koi who will assume the role starting January 16th stated in a comment over next year, I look forward to working with the governor and the board to continue putting NJ transit on a pathway to carry out the improvements that customers expect and deserve. Koi is known for overseeing construction for the new Hudson tunnel project and his role as President and CEO of the Gateway Development Commission. He was nominated by Governor Murphy who stated Chris Koi has played a vital role in strengthening our region's transit infrastructure. And I am confident in his ability to lead New Jersey transit NJ transit, took away real time bus arrival times, new Jersey transit riders also called into this meeting citing their concerns among them issues like real time updates on arrival times through third party apps like Google, I wish Kevin Corbett well in his new position. But at the same time, I hope that Chris Koi's incoming administration will show more concern for those of us who depend on transit than this agency currently. Demonstrates. Other riders say they'd like Koi to implement things like bus lanes and an easy way to report their concerns directly to New Jersey transit officials without long wait times. Amanda Lee news. 12 New Jersey. Oh, do you have a question about NJ transit, the MTAS congestion pricing tax or the recent drone sightings be sure to join us on Thursday this coming Thursday at four for our final ask Governor Murphy Show of the year only on news. 12 New Jersey because local matters and that'll do it for this week. I'm Eric Lanz Kroner. As always we thank you for watching New Jersey Power and Politics. We'll see you again next time.

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Rep. Chris Smith and gubernatorial hopeful Bill Spadea join the show this week. 

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Power & Politics: Drones over New Jersey latest with Rep. Chris Smith; 1:1 with Bill Spadea

Rep. Chris Smith and gubernatorial hopeful Bill Spadea join the show this week.

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