Gov. Phil Murphy made little news during a tele-town hall Monday evening.
The Democratic State Committee-sponsored town hall lasted for roughly an hour and saw Murphy fielding questions on a variety of topics, ranging from marijuana legalization to property tax relief to student loan forgiveness.
“I continue to think, Rebecca, first of all it came very close. It looks like the votes were there in the Assembly, and we were within a couple of votes in the Senate,” Murphy said when asked why Democrats failed to pass their marijuana legalization package in March. “I don’t say this as a complete yes or no, but it’s a hard thing for folks to get to particularly, in a generation that I’m in or older. I’m in my low 60s, you don’t grow up thinking this is a natural step to take.”
By The New Jersey Globe’s count, the bill package had between 16 and 18 affirmative votes in the legislature’s upper chamber, well short of the 21 votes needed to advance the measures.