It’s doubtful that recreational marijuana will become legal in New Jersey anytime soon, with Senate President Steve Sweeney waving the white flag on passing cannabis legislation this year. The fractured Democratic Party in New Jersey is stemming from a fight between two people—George Norcross and Governor Phil Murphy—and not from two ideological points of view.
Unfortunately for the national Democratic Party, a family fight in New Jersey is taking an important state out of play when it is needed most for the 2020 election. New Jersey’s Democratic donors and centrist political leadership backed by strong primary numbers give the small state a lot of influence that could have been used to bring the national party together.
The struggle within the national Democratic Party is not between two or three people like it is in New Jersey. It is a national political party leadership hiccup. Simply stated, no one is telling the left-wing minority faction of the party that they are being used by Fox News to project the story line that all Democrats are socialists. Even worse, no one is telling the public that the left wing of the party has been, and remains, a minority faction since Bill Clinton was president.