Time for Sherrill to spill

Good morning!

Gov. Mikie Sherrill has some explaining to do about her recent out-of-state travel.

Sherrill let Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell serve as acting governor for at least 18 days even as her administration was investigating him, reports Daniel Han from Politico New Jersey. Han got public records showing the internal investigation into Caldwell dates to at least May 21, when the state hired an outside attorney to handle the probe.

Sherrill has been tight-lipped about the Caldwell investigation even as rumors fly about what exactly he’s accused of doing. Perhaps an understandable legal strategy for the first few days after news broke about the probe, but her decision to depart the state to promote Democratic candidates nationwide and leave Caldwell in charge means either a) the charges against Caldwell aren’t that serious; or b) they are but Sherrill believed it was more important for her to build a foundation for her political future by fundraising for Democrats elsewhere.

It’s long past time for the governor to tell us what she knows about Caldwell, when she first learned it, and what she plans to do about it. Preferably today.

Courts: There’s a case before the New Jersey Supreme Court that could prove costly for the state’s municipalities. Back in about 2018, East Orange sold a foreclosed home for $101,000, as much as $76,000 more than the city was owed in taxes and fees, and it kept the profit. The homeowner, Lynette Johnson, sued in 2021, about two years before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a separate case that what East Orange had done was a violation of the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause. Johnson wants the excess money back, but attorneys for East Orange and the state argue that she shouldn’t get it because that would mean towns statewide would be on the hook for potentially millions for the excess equity they illegally took. The justices seemed skeptical of that claim during a Wednesday hearing. “The polestar, as this court has said, is fairness,” Chief Justice Stuart Rabner said. “How is it fair to take and keep surplus equity that rightly belongs to the former property owner?”

Voting: The Republican National Committee is suing New Jersey and a handful of county clerks alleging the committee was denied public records related to voting, requests it made after July’s revelation that the state mistakenly registered thousands of noncitizens to vote. “Garden State voters deserve the truth, and we’re taking these left-wing officials to court to demand answers,” said Joe Gruters, the committee’s chairman. Sherrill spokesman Steve Sigmund blasted the GOP for the suit: “While Gov. Sherrill is working to clean up the voter rolls and protect our elections, Republicans are still following the same Trump MAGA playbook.”

Media: Pete Genovese, the longtime food writer for the Star-Ledger and NJ dot com, said yesterday he was unceremoniously canned with no notice. Earlier this month, NJ dot com announced a new Genovese newsletter where he would uncover “Jersey’s greatest culinary secrets,” so his apparent termination after nearly 30 years is quite a shock. This comes after NJ dot com lost one of its star reporters, Sue Livio, to the Philly Inky, and is losing another big name that isn’t public yet.

Immigration: Henry Savage and Jeff Gammage at the Philadelphia Inquirer report that Moshannon Valley Processing Center, the largest detention center in the northeast, could be sold to the federal government, a move immigrant advocates fear would further shield the facility from state regulation. Lots of immigrants arrested in New Jersey are sent to Moshannon Valley to be detained pending deportation.

D.C.: On Capitol Hill Wednesday, Republicans on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee used a hearing to continue voicing opposition to transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, which the top Democrat on the panel called a distraction from cost-of-living issues voters are more concerned about. Meanwhile, senators on one of the committee’s subpanels said a vast and growing network of artificial intelligence-driven Flock cameras could violate constitutional privacy rights.