Hundreds descend on Trenton for ‘March Against Murphy’ protest

Hundreds of New Jersey residents came to Trenton Tuesday for the “March Against Murphy” protest against Gov. Phil Murphy.
About 400 demonstrators marched from the New Jersey State House to the governor’s temporary office and then to Trenton’s World War II Memorial to express their disapproval of many of the Democratic governor’s policies. Many wore yellow construction vests as a nod to protesters in France who wore similar vets in their protests against higher fuel taxes.
“What am I going to get taxed on this week? And there's always something new. Every week it's something new,” says protester Rob Bermudez. “Last week it was the rain, before it was God knows what. It's hard to keep track of it all.”
Grievances that the protesters spoke out about include various new taxes the Murphy administration has implemented, such as expensive property tax bills, gun reform laws that the governor has signed and the governor’s policies that benefit undocumented immigrants living in New Jersey.
“People are sick and tired in the state of New Jersey. It's chaos, it's high taxes, it's sanctuary states, it's gun grabbing,” says Joseph Rudy Rullo of Little Egg Harbor.
The demonstrators say that they hope to see Murphy gone by 2022 – when his first term is up. They also say that they want to vote out General Assembly members who aren't interested in addressing their concerns.
“They act like the ruling class, where they get to impose their will on everyone else and it's not like that,” says Bermudez.
But Shelia Reynertson with the left-leaning group New Jersey Policy Perspective says that more tax revenue allows New Jersey to fully fund budget items like New Jersey Transit and higher education.
“New Jersey is in a tough financial situation. It’s 30 years in the making,” she says. “Murphy has started a new trend in terms of responsible governing when realizing we cannot just cut our way out of this problem.
In addition to the march, there is also a recall effort underway against the governor. In order for that to happen more than 25 percent of registered voters would have to sign a petition.
New Jersey is an overwhelmingly blue state, and political experts say that recalling Murphy seems to be unlikely.