Dale Florio Examines the Future of the NJ Republican Party

Steve Adubato and Dale Florio, Republican Strategist, Princeton Public Affairs Group, discuss Governor Murphy’s first few months in office, his thoughts on the millionaire’s tax, and the future of the Republican Party in New Jersey.

5/19/18 #213

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"Welcome to State of Affairs. I'm Steve Adubato. Coming to you from the Agnes Varis NJTV Studio in beautiful Newark, New Jersey. We're pleased to welcome our good friend, Dale Florio, who is a Republican strategist, and he is with Princeton Public Affairs Group, which is? Best in class. [laughter] We don't do promotional stuff on public television. It is a firm that has clients that...? We are a public affairs lobbying firm and communications firm. Okay, you know Trenton better than most, you know politics better than most, describe the mood and the tenor as we tape this program in mid-April 2018, down in the Statehouse, how collaborative do things feel Dale? Well before I say "collaborative" I would say that there's just a freshness, there's a... you know, it's a transition period, so people... With a new governor? With a new governor, a new Speaker of the Assembly. A new Speaker...? Right. And a lot of new legislators so... and a changeover from a Republican administration to a Democratic administration, so there's an excitement, there's a newness, but that's starting to wear off, because we now have a budget the Governor has proposed a budget and the Legislature now has to respond to it. So people have to get down to business so that... that transition period is quickly getting into the politics of the budget. You know, it's interesting. People say, "Oh, well the Democrats control the executive branch of government, the governorship, they control the Senate, they control the Assembly, so they control everything, they can get whatever they want done." Why is that not true? There's more of a difference between being the governor and the Legislature than there is having a Republican and a Democratic split. What do I mean by that? I mean you look in Washington D.C. We've had presidents and Congress of all the same party and the battles are historic, you see the same thing in New Jersey, we've had governors and Legislatures of the same party, and the politics are, you know, on steroids, and I think we're gonna see that here. So I think to the outsiders, they think, "Oh, well it's a Democratic administration and everything's gonna..." All of those Democrats are the same? It's just not going to work. It's not? And by the way, today, as we're taping at NJTV Studio, we'll have the Senate President Steve Sweeney, a Democrat, but let's just say on... he's not in sync with Governor Murphy on every issue, fair to say? Very fair to say. And he will speak for himself. Governor Murphy's tax policies, I mean Governor Murphy's clearly got his heart in the right place, no one would..."