Matt Friedman

Important news about the future of NJ Playbook

New Jersey political insiders have been getting anonymous emails resembling news publications that are trashing George Norcross' foes, including AG Matt Platkin. URL Registration records show at least one of them is linked to Norcross-aligned operative subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...

Here's the summary of the bill. Small-time dealers would also be severely punished.

The main argument NJ Dems used to legalize weed was that criminalization hurt minorities communities. Meanwhile, NJ's legal weed market has been criticized for high prices.

Under the proposal, buying weed from an unlicensed source would be a disorderly persons offense. Selling even a small amount would be a third-degree crime. Currently, if you're caught selling less than an ounce, you face only a warning for a first offense.

POLITICO Pro: Scutari seeks to re-criminalize buying small amounts of cannabis from unlicensed dealers The Senate president said "we want the public to be safeguarded."

Four years after NJ legalized weed, @SenPresScutari
just introduced legislation to re-criminalize buying weed — any amount — from an unlicensed source. 🔒 subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...

Consider yourselves owned, lefties nj1015.com/three-reason...

The Assembly Judiciary Committee today is scheduled to consider a bill that would make it a more serious crime to pay for sex than to sell it. www.njleg.state.nj.us/bill-search/...

How Trump Steered Supporters Into Unwitting Donations (Published 2021) Online donors were guided into weekly recurring contributions. Demands for refunds spiked. Complaints to banks and credit card companies soared. But the money helped keep Donald Trump’s struggling cam...

This is a controversial practice the Trump campaign used before. There have been efforts to ban it, but they haven't advanced.
www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/u...

How's that happening? One possibility: Fundraising emails and texts from Spadea's campaign and PAC have an automatically-checked box to make the donation recurring. Donors have to opt out instead of opting in.

‘So dirty and rotten’: Candidate for NJ governor’s fundraising tactic confuses some donors Bill Spadea uses a fundraising strategy that’s come under scrutiny in recent years

Many out-of-state retirees are funding Bill Spadea's gubernatorial campaign and PAC with recurring small donations. We reached out to a bunch. Most didn't know who Spadea was. Just two knew they were making frequent donations. www.politico.com/news/2025/02...

Many out-of-state retirees are funding Bill Spadea's campaign and PAC with recurring small donations. Madison Fernandez and I reached out to a bunch. Most didn't know who Spadea was. Just two knew they were making frequent donations. www.politico.com/news/2025/02...

Close!

Today in NJ Playbook: What do Phil Murphy and Bill Spadea have in common? www.politico.com/newsletters/...

This is pretty typical politician speak. Structuring your sentences to make one clear impression but also giving yourself a plausible out.

The New Jersey GOP debate could have used a steel cage

www.politico.com/newsletters/...

Bill Spadea said at a debate "I’m going to commit to you tonight to serve one term as your governor." The "common sense" meaning was plain, like Murphy's migrant remark. But if you parse the words, as I did, you'll see it could actually mean nothing. See Spadea's comment today.

I want to ban the Super Bowl because I don't like to watch football. I am a crackpot.

Some NJ schools are delaying opening Monday because of the Super Bowl. www.politico.com/newjerseypla...

It's an idea pushed by The Heritage Foundation that has been floated in several far redder states. There's virtually no chance of passage in NJ now, but it could be a sign of things to come if GOP momentum in NJ continues.

POLITICO Pro: Lawmaker moves to charge public school tuition for undocumented students The measure adds to what far more conservative states have done in trying to overturn a U.S. Supreme Court decision

A NJ lawmaker wants to charge tuition to families of undocumented immigrant public school students or face expulsion. The point is to overturn a 42-year-old U.S. Supreme Court decision that these kids have the right to an education. 🔒 subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...

Judge dismisses NJ's climate change lawsuit against oil companies.

It's now harder to get on the ballot in NJ. Gov. Murphy just signed a bill increasing the number of petition signatures required.

Justice Dept. Is Said to Discuss Dropping Case Against Eric Adams Senior officials under President Trump have talked with prosecutors in Manhattan about the possibility of abandoning the corruption case against New York City’s mayor.

If the feds drop the charges against Eric Adams and Bob Menendez gets the clemency he seems to be gunning for here, it could usher in a golden age for corruption.
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/u...

BREAKING: New York Federal Judge Sidney Stein just said he's sentencing Bob Menendez to 11 years in prison for engaging in a sweeping bribery scheme while head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

“Somewhere along the way, you became, I’m sorry to say, a corrupt politician”

The continuing credulous coverage of the drone situation, along the unskeptical reporting on Trump's statement that raises more questions than it answers, doesn't give me faith in our information ecosystem.

Since December 9, the Absury Park Press has used photos of two helicopters and an American Airlines jet over its "drone' articles. No matter how hard I rag on them. The airplane, at the very least, is painfully obvious.

An incredible injustice

Great. Now congestion pricing is causing heart disease. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/26/n...

Delhi, NY