{"id":30096,"date":"2025-01-09T22:48:47","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T22:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/09\/laken-riley-act-roils-nj-governors-race-as-2-dems-skip-roll-the-more-someone-campaigns-the-less-they-vote\/"},"modified":"2025-01-09T22:48:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T22:48:47","slug":"laken-riley-act-roils-nj-governors-race-as-2-dems-skip-roll-the-more-someone-campaigns-the-less-they-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/09\/laken-riley-act-roils-nj-governors-race-as-2-dems-skip-roll-the-more-someone-campaigns-the-less-they-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Laken Riley Act roils NJ governor\u2019s race as 2 Dems skip roll: \u2018The more someone campaigns the less they vote’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Democrats in the 2025 race to succeed term-limited New Jersey Gov. Philip Murphy<\/a> did not cast votes this week in Congress on the Laken Riley Act, leading them to be lambasted by gubernatorial candidates from both parties.<\/p>\n

The House Clerk\u2019s office recorded Reps. Mikie Sherrill of Essex and Josh Gottheimer of Bergen County recorded as “not voting” on the landmark bill, which would require illegal immigrants convicted of theft-related crimes be detained by municipal and state authorities.<\/p>\n

The bill takes its name from a young woman murdered by an illegal immigrant in Georgia who had been previously arrested and released on lesser charges.<\/p>\n

Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop exclaimed, “This is cowardly,” in an X post.<\/p>\n

NEW JERSEY USED AS \u2018TRANSIT POINT\u2019 FOR MIGRANT BUSES HEADED FOR NYC AFTER NEW EXECUTIVE ORDER, GOVERNOR SAYS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“We lose elections when we don\u2019t have any core convictions\u2026 when we can\u2019t explain why we have a view and why we believe in it. Hiding is not an answer that wins elections,” the Democrat said.<\/p>\n

“Mikie and Josh are the same again \u2013 If you don\u2019t have the courage to vote for a bill then what does that say about your courage to lead as Governor?” Fulop added.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, former Republican Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli slammed the two lawmakers from their right.<\/p>\n

“Shame on [Josh and Mikie] for gutlessly ducking a vote on the Laken Riley Act today,” said Ciattarelli.<\/p>\n

On X, Ciattarelli said Riley “fought till her last breath against a murderous illegal immigrant, but Josh\/Mikie didn\u2019t have the courage to stand up to their extreme far left base.”<\/p>\n

Ciattarelli ran against Murphy in 2021 and nearly defeated him by Garden State standards, losing by less than three points. In November, President-elect Trump only lost the state by four points, leading the GOP to signal their optimism about flipping Trenton red this fall.<\/p>\n

When the bill last came up for a vote, Gottheimer voted “yea,” and a spokesman told the Philadelphia Inquirer he would have supported the bill this week if he had voted.<\/p>\n

New Jersey\u2019s<\/a> three Republican congressmen \u2013 Reps. Christopher Smith, Jeff Van Drew and Tom Kean Jr. \u2013 all voted for the Laken Riley Act.<\/p>\n

Democratic Reps. Nellie Pou, Frank Pallone, Herbert Conaway, LaMonica McIver, Donald Norcross and Rob Menendez Jr. all voted against it.<\/p>\n

NJ RESIDENTS HIT WITH DOUBLED BILLS AS LAWMAKERS FUME AT MURPHY’S \u2018ENERGY DISASTER PLAN\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Republican Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia \u2013 who is not running for governor \u2013 torched the pair on Wednesday with a quip:<\/p>\n

“The Road to Drumthwacket is paved with flat squirrels who couldn’t make a decision,” she said, referring to the historic governor\u2019s mansion near Princeton.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Jon Bramnick<\/a>, a GOP gubernatorial candidate, told Fox News Digital on Thursday that a lawmaker\u2019s first responsibility is to their constituents, not their next campaign.<\/p>\n

“I think you have to have campaign activities come secondary to your responsibility,” Bramnick said when asked about Gottheimer\u2019s and Sherrill\u2019s non-votes.<\/p>\n

“The key question is \u2013 if you\u2019re going to run \u2013 campaign activities must be secondary to your voting,” adding that systemically it seems “the more [someone] campaigns the less they vote.”<\/p>\n

Bramnick, who is also an attorney in Plainfield, added that he couldn\u2019t assume what was on the two Democrats\u2019 minds in terms of their vote, but that immigration is a hot issue and often difficult to navigate.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

With the Laken Riley Act scoring 48 Democratic “yea\u2019s,” Bramnick said immigration is a bipartisan issue.<\/p>\n

If elected governor, he said he would “follow the law” when asked how he would approach President-elect Trump or border czar-designate Tom Homan.<\/a><\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, the Congress hasn\u2019t done anything to [create] a path to citizenship for people who may have an opportunity to stay here,” he said, discussing those who have lived in the U.S. for many years as otherwise law-abiding members of their communities.<\/p>\n

“If America doesn\u2019t like the law, change it, \u00a0but state-by-state shouldn\u2019t change the law based on how they feel on the issue.”<\/p>\n

Sherrill and Gottheimer did not immediately respond to inquiries made via their campaigns.<\/p>\n

Another Democrat in the race, Ras Baraka \u2013 mayor of the state\u2019s largest city, Newark \u2013 also did not respond.<\/p>\n

Baraka, however, separately indicated he would have voted against the Laken Riley Act if he were in Congress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two Democrats in the 2025 race to succeed term-limited New Jersey Gov. Philip Murphy did not cast votes this week in Congress on the Laken Riley Act, leading them to be lambasted by gubernatorial candidates from both parties. The House Clerk\u2019s office recorded Reps. Mikie Sherrill of Essex and Josh Gottheimer of Bergen County recorded … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30096\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}