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News 12 Staff

1212026NJrider_2026-01-21-06-31-49

And Governor Mikey Sherrill following through this morning on a campaign promise to freeze energy bills. Cheryl doing so right after taking the oath of office at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. Cheryl is the 2nd woman governor following Republican Christine Todd Whitman, and she signs. Or she says will freeze energy bills. Republicans say that's not enough. The costs are too high right now. Cheryl says though her administration will be about lowering those costs. Let's bring in Micah Rasmussen of Ryder University this morning. He was there yesterday for the swearing in. Micah, good morning. Good morning, Nick. Cheryl says New Jersey has an affordability crisis. Was that the right focus for her? Absolutely this is the it was the centerpiece of her campaign. We know that this is what's on Americans' minds. This was the centerpiece of the presidential campaign a year ago. So, uh, the Mamdami race in New York, this is very, very clearly what Americans are telling our public officials to work on. Some wondered if her tone on President Trump would change at all. It did not. She likened him to a king and launched several attacks. Let's listen to one of them. Unconstitutionally enacting a tariff regime to make billions for himself and his family while everyone else sees their costs go higher. Here we demand people in public service actually serve the public instead of buying themselves planes and cars and extorting money. She attacked Trump during the campaign, during the transition, and here now, your reaction to that approach? This is a very different tone than most inaugural speeches. This was really partisan, but you know what? She is looking at, we talked a minute ago about what Americans are saying. 71% of Americans think the country is out of control since Trump took office, and very clearly people want their states and their local. Governments to have to be a bulwark against, you know, this out of control that they feel to bring more sanity to government and so she really clearly feels she's on safe territory here even as it is this more partisan tone and it comes in stark contrast to the way Governor Murphy, at least through much of his administration, handled President Trump too. Absolutely, he made the case that you needed to have a relationship with the White House to get COVID funding during COVID, to have a good relationship because they have resources. Look, he has frozen gateway funding at this point, she's gonna have to get that going again, and she's gonna have to do it at a time she's striking this more partisan tone. I think we can expect incoming fire from the White House, we can expect, You know she's going to draw the ire of his tweets. She clearly wants that and isn't shying away from that. She did acknowledge the Republicans in the room again. It was in the context of a swipe at Trump, saying they can argue with her without fear of political payback. It seemed to fall short of an olive branch, olive branch. Your take on that? Should we expect a bipartisan administration? Well, I think there are some issues where if she does reach across the aisle, she will find receptive partners on affordable housing. We know that we have a lot of work to do. We know that we have an affordability crisis again that we just talked about, but we also know that these units are not getting built. We know that we don't want to do it in a way that burdens towns. A judge just said yesterday the towns that they can't delay it any further. We also have continuing situation over how we're going to handle immigration enforcement with those laws that Governor Murphy vetoed at the very end of his term. So I think there are areas where she can find some common ground. Mike Rasmussen of Ryder University, thanks for joining us live here on News 12 New Jersey this morning. Thank you

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/50adc6ba-46a5-4b02-9113-4c9f25261b5d/50adc6ba-46a5-4b02-9113-4c9f25261b5d.transcribe

1212026NJmicah_2026-01-21-08-11-12

Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, looks back at Gov. Mikie Sherrill's inauguration on Tuesday and looks ahead to the priorities of the new administration.

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