Phil Murphy for Governor

Murphy is an American financier, diplomat, and a politician running for the Democratic party. Murphy’s main goal for New Jersey is a better economic situation. He suggested that he not raise taxes over the 1.3 billion hike. He has also proposed the idea to the wealthy, large corporations, as well as potential marijuana users. He says even though this money might not cover all his initiatives, he refuses to make the economy worse because of the greed in government officials. Phil Murphy spent 23 years at Wall Street Investment bank, Goldman Sachs.  He retired in 2006, and in 2009 President Obama appointed Murphy as U.S. Ambassador to Germany. Murphy held this job until 2013. Before that, he was the national finance chair for the Democratic National committee, for three years.

When Phil Murphy entered the early stages of the election, he came in with money and a plan. Murphy uses his money to create ads and partnered with New Way New Jersey. This organization was focused on helping middle class families with issues of state. In the beginning months of the election, may people probably did not know who Phil Murphy was. He began popping up in television campaigns. Throughout the election Mr. Murphy used the slogan “Let’s end the Chris Christie era!”

A poll taken by The Record shows that most people were reluctant to vote for the Republican candidate, Kim Guadagno. They wanted Chris Christie’s era to end. New Jerseyans are not against Guadagno, per se, but are against who they suspect her second command will be, Christie.

Phil Murphy’s “plan” for the economic system has been a controversial topic since the first debate. Some say that Murphy’s plan is not going to make the economic situation better. Middle class families fear that he does not understand the financial situation they are in, due to the fact that Murphy is not a middle-class citizen, and the lower class fears his judgment for property taxes among other things.  The other side of this understanding of Murphy’s “plan” is businesses will flourish. He wants to use tax money to reduce taxes on small and major businesses in the state of New Jersey, as well as lower property taxes. However, to do this, taxes would be raised on the middle and upper class.

When the election was coming to the end the polls were leaning towards Murphy. Shortly before 9:40 p.m., when the elections were to be closed, Republican Kim Guadagno appeared on stage to concede the New Jersey governor’s race to Democrat Phil Murphy, saying she made “the best possible case” to voters in her efforts to succeed Governor Chris Christie. Murphy will become the first Democrat in the governor’s office since Jon Corzine, another former Goldman Sachs executive who spent millions of his own money to win the seat in 2005. When Murphy is sworn in as the state’s 56th governor on January 16th, Democrats will likely control both the governor’s office and the State Legislature for the first time since Corzine’s four-year term.

In Asbury Park, NJ, where Murphy’s victory speech was made, he was seen jumping and dancing on stage. In his speech he says, “Tonight, we declare the days of division over, we will move forward together. … We have each other’s backs.” He is referring to New Jersey standing up against Washington, D.C and its corruption. Towards the end of his speech he states that New Jersey will have steel spines when it comes to health care, taxes, public education, and deportation of immigrants. Murphy says, “We will have to tell Donald Trump respectfully and firmly say, with all due respect Mr. President you will not do that in the great state of New Jersey.” The crowd then erupted into applause as he said his final remarks about the election. He referenced his plan to make NJ a sanctuary state and that New Jersey now than ever needs a strong governor, because of Donald Trump is in office, his attorney general, and the corruption happening in the head of public education. Murphy finishes by saying he cannot fix New Jersey alone; he needs the state to stand tall as he makes it the place where people can come to dream.