State Sen. Joe Pennacchio (R-26) renewed his call for the “immediate formation” of a State Senate Oversight Committee with subpoena powers to investigate the Murphy Administration’s pandemic decisions. “In response last night, the residents refused to reward many of those silent Democrats with another tenure in office,” said Pennacchio a day after the election. “Instead of engaging and representing constituents, legislators circled their wagons and defended a governor instead of protecting the people against his arbitrary rules and edicts.” North-JerseyNews.com
Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli urged supporters to remain patient and not fall for online conspiracy theories, as results show he’s falling short in the closest race in New Jersey in a quarter-century. “There are still tens of thousands of vote-by-mail and provisional ballots yet to be counted,” Ciattarelli said. “And so, the governor’s victory speech last night was premature. No one should be declaring victory or conceding the election until every legal vote is counted.” NJ1015.com
Meanwhile, the Ciattarelli campaign sent out a fundraising appeal on Nov. 4 that it said was needed to help continue the fight. In a mass emailing with the subject line “Our next steps,” the campaign wrote that “This race is far from over….Our team is making sure every legal vote is counted and the will of the people is heard loud and clear. To make our path to victory as smooth as possible, we rely on assistance from grassroots supporters, like yourself, to help us get there.” NJ.com
State Senate President Steve Sweeney is not conceding in a race The Associated Press called for Edward Durr, a virtually unknown Republican challenger, on Nov. 4. “The results from Tuesday’s election continue to come in, for instance there were 12,000 ballots recently found in one county,” Sweeney said. “While I am currently trailing in the race, we want to make sure every vote is counted. Our voters deserve that, and we will wait for the final results.” PoliticoNJ
Hours after Edward Durr was declared the winner over State Senate President Stephen Sweeney, xenophobic and anti-Muslim social media messages surfaced that were posted from his accounts. A post from his Twitter account in September 2019 labeled Islam “a false religion” and its prophet, Muhammad, a “pedophile;” a pair of tweets from called Sen. Bob Menendez a “pedophile” in 2017 and 2018; and multiple posts from his Facebook account downplayed the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — one called it “not an insurrection … (but) an unauthorized entry by undocumented federal employers!” NJ.com
Craig Coughlin (D-19) was selected as Assembly Speaker for a third term by his caucus with a promise to what voters said on Nov. 2. “There was clearly a message that was sent by voters last Tuesday. We’re going to sit down and figure out what that was,” Coughlin said, after his party lost six seats in his house. “Although I think in many respects it’s clear. We need to probably listen, and we need to make sure we have an agenda that people understand is being done in their best interest.” NJ1015.com
The Assembly’s agenda in the lame duck session will include easing the tax burden on New Jerseyans, expanding child care and mental health services along with campaign finance reform and other transparency measures under consideration, said Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-19). While the chamber’s lame-duck agenda has yet to be finalized, lawmakers are weighing a set of measures encouraging municipal shared service agreements, pension and benefit reform, and various other changes meant to reduce New Jersey’s high taxes. New Jersey Monitor
John DiMaio (R-23) will be the new minority leader of the New Jersey State Assembly after defeating Nancy Muñoz (R-21) in a legislative leadership election Nov. 4. Muñoz appeared to secure enough votes to win the post several weeks ago after two of her opponents, when DiMaio agreed to run on a slate with her. But Muñoz’s campaign began to unravel days later when conservative activists began objecting to a pro-choice Republican with positions on guns and vaccinations that are inconsistent with the GOP caucus to become their leader. New Jersey Globe
The apparent defeat of Senate President Steve Sweeney has resulted in a battle to see who gets the top spot. With the party’s current number two—State Sen. Loretta Weinberg—retiring, names being flaoted up to lead the Senate include State Sens. M. Teresa Ruiz (D-29), Paul Sarlo (D-36), Joe Lagana (D-36), Nellie Pou (D-35), Joe Cryan (D-20) and Nick Scutari (D-22). InsiderNJ
State Sen. Steve Oroho (R-24), a five-term Republican from Sussex County, was elected Senate Minority Leader on Nov. 4. Oroho will succeed Thomas Kean, Jr., who did not seek re-election to the Senate this year and will challenge Rep. Tom Malinowski in a 2022 congressional run. North Jersey lawmakers that will serve in leadership include State Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-25) as minority whip, State Sen. Kristin Corrado (R-40) will again be the Republican Conference Leader and Holly Schepisi (R-39) will serve as deputy conference leader. New Jersey Globe
Voters in Montclair have chosen, by a large margin, to move to an elected school board from a mayor-appointed board. Unofficial referendum results showed 8,340 had voted to change to an elected board, versus 3,466 choosing the status quo, with some mail-in and provisional ballots still outstanding. Mayor-appointed school boards exist in a dozen or so mostly small school districts in the state. NJ Spotlight News
Passaic County’s Democratic and Republican camps urged voters to ensure that their votes were counted, as they seek to close out tight races at the top of the ballot. With fewer than 100 votes separating third and fourth place in the race for three seats on the Board of County Commissioners, according to unofficial numbers released by the Passaic County Clerk’s Office on Nov. 4, officials from both parties said the election is still too close to call. Attorney Zoila Cassanova, meanwhile, closed the gap in the county surrogate race to 224 votes — a swing of roughly 200 votes from Wednesday. Republican Aisha Mamkej, a senior election official for the county, held the lead for the Republicans. The Record
The timetable for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to bring up the Build Back Better Act was delayed to Friday over the state and local tax (SALT) deduction. The SALT talks found lawmakers closing in on an agreement that would further raise the cap to $80,000 but let the $10,000 cap fall back into place after nine years. Meanwhile, a trio of House Democrats had threatened to withhold their support for the legislation unless it included more expansive immigration measures. The Wall Street Journal
Sen. Bob Menendez lauded the prescription drug deal reached by Congressional Democrats as part of the ongoing budget reconciliation process. “Throughout the ongoing negotiations to address the high cost of prescription drugs as part of the reconciliation package, I had one guiding principle—ensuring that New Jerseyans and Americans all across the country finally see a meaningful reduction in the rising cost of drug prescriptions while protecting innovation on life-saving treatments,” said Menendez. North-JerseyNews.com
Tens of millions of Americans who work at companies with 100 or more employees will need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 4, 2021 or get tested weekly under government rules that took effect Nov. 4. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said companies that fail to comply could face penalties of nearly $14,000 per violation. The new requirements, which were first previewed by President Joe Biden in September, will apply to about 84 million workers at medium and large businesses, although it is not clear how many of those employees are unvaccinated. NJ.com
Pfizer’s experimental antiviral pill for COVID-19 cut rates of hospitalization and death by nearly 90% as the drugmaker joins the race to bring the first easy-to-use medication against the coronavirus to the U.S. market. Patients taking the company’s drug along with another antiviral had an 89% reduction in their combined rate of hospitalization or death after a month, compared to patients taking a dummy pill. Fewer than 1% of patients taking the drug needed to be hospitalized and no one died. In the comparison group, 7% were hospitalized and there were seven deaths. News12 New Jersey
Amazon is apparently close to a deal for office space in Downtown Jersey City. The second-largest Fortune 500 company is acquiring approximately 400,000 square feet of office space in Harborside on the Jersey City waterfront, a building which recently finished a $100 million renovation. The Jersey Journal
And finally…The clocks fall an hour Sunday morning for Daylight Savings Time, meaning an extra hour of sleep or another hour at the bar depending on the stage of your life you are in. NJ.com
