Murphy to coronavirus council: I’m flying solo
Here’s the ultimate political insult to a Democrat: Gov. Phil Murphy, right now, is no better than former President Donald Trump.
Allow me to explain.
Back in early May, at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown, Murphy announced the formation of the “Governor’s Restart and Recovery Advisory Council,” a group of over 200 leaders in the state. It included people who work in government, tourism, social services, health care, construction … basically, every corner of the economic spectrum was covered.
“As we begin the difficult task of restarting New Jersey’s economy and recovering from the damaging effects of COVID-19, this advisory council brings together leaders from all walks of New Jersey life,” Murphy said at the time. “This group will not only help us gather the local intelligence we need to get our economy running again, but also will help us create the framework for coping with our new long-term economic realities.”
Great stuff, right? Here’s Murphy, who by virtue of the state constitution, is legitimately the most powerful governor in the nation, doing the right thing: Bringing leaders from across the spectrum to the table to help get New Jersey through the pandemic. So how’s that going? “We haven’t met in
months,” said one member of the council who reached out to me after my admittedly juvenile, though also pretty darned devastating, column last week that called out Murphy for his foolishness in limiting outdoor gatherings to 50 people, whereas 150 people can gather indoors.
Again: The council that Murphy himself put together has been put on ice.
“A lot of us went into this knowing we weren’t going to be making decisions, but we all assumed we’d have input and that the final decisions regarding the economy would be consensus-based,” the member told me. “From the start, though, we didn’t have much input. In the beginning, there were a series of briefings at the sub-committee level, but it quickly turned into the governor’s office simply asking us for support for what they were doing, to bring his ideas back to our constituencies. It was basically presentations from the governor’s office.”
In short: This council was there to simply carry
water for the administration.
“It just waned over time,” the council member said. “By the third or fourth one, we were just being talked to. Less interaction and more presentation. We realized we were being asked to roll out messaging on our own. It seems like we were being enlisted to carry on the battle instead of strategizing how the battle should be fought.”
A far cry from what Murphy said the council was there for. Again Murphy, at the time: “We understand that we need a smart, granular approach to recovery. How you reopen a restaurant at the shore is different from how you restart a factory in South Jersey,” Murphy said.
Um, yeah. Not only has Murphy abandoned this granular approach in favor of a one-size-fits-all, he’s also stopped listening to anyone except those in his most inner circle.
“His decision-making has clearly become more and more insular as we’ve moved on,” the council member said. “It’s an increasingly smaller circle of people making these decisions, and they certainly seem more reactionary.”
Hence, the Trump comparison. Numerous articles were written about how Trump went it alone, increasingly relying on a smaller and smaller circle of people to help guide his decision-making.
Murphy, despite being the political polar opposite, has clearly gone down the same path.
And as a result, we’re dealing with things like gathering limits of 50 people outdoors, but limits up to 150 people indoors. Senseless, silly, and economically ruinous, especially due to the fact the pandemic portion of the program is clearly coming to an end, and, more importantly, there have been zero worldwide incidences of outdoor coronavirus transmission resulting in superspreader events. Heck, there has only been a handful of confirmed transmissions between people outside, period.
So here we are, near the end, and Murphy isn’t convening, never mind listening, to the people he brought in to help re-open the state. And so when he makes ludicrous decisions like banning 50+ person outdoor family picnics but allowing 150+ indoor political rallies, it becomes increasingly clear we have reached chicken-withouta-head territory.