The 2018 Insider 100: Power Publication (With Interactive Linked Version)
Download the 2018 Insider 100: Power publication here (or view it below) and download the Interactive Linked Version of the publication here
On the heels of an historic New Jersey election, welcome to the 2018 Insider NJ: Power 100 publication, where we sort out the year’s main players, bosses, activists and influencers, across a broad range of political disciplines.
While we don’t include elected officials on the list (with one exception, see below), we do rely on campaigns and elections as a significant starting point to assess power. Gratefully, we had a highway jammed with broken heroes, with apologies to the Boss, including the usual local collisions in Paterson, Newark, Bayonne and Long Branch.
Of course, we also chronicled an extraordinary year of primary and general elections, characterized by the rise of new mid-term voters outraged by the presidency of Donald J. Trump, honed in a final fatal outcome for New Jersey Republicans: the reelection of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, but more significantly – the election of four new Democratic congresspeople to create an 11-1 congressional imbalance between Democrats and Republicans, the biggest in New Jersey since Watergate. Those victories contributed to Democrats nationally retaking the U.S. House of Representatives…
While you will find here new names and faces that emerged on the greens and marts of the public domain in a year when New Jersey voters decided to exercise their franchise. We have also continued to consider – and simultaneously prioritize – those inside game players in Trenton, who operate in the shadows and half shadows of government…
We tried to keep that balance in mind as we composed this annual list for your enjoyment, and for your continued consideration of those ever-shifting currents of New Jersey political power.
On a personal note, InsiderNJ thanks you for your support, as we posted our best numbers throughout the year and our best showing of all time on Election Day 2018, making us the undisputed number one stand-alone political news website in New Jersey.
We’ll see you in the halls of power, on the streets – and in the leafy greenery that is the enduring legacy of a mangled but still-great place called New Jersey.
Max Pizarro
Download the 2018 Insider 100: Power publication here (or view it below) and download the Interactive Linked Version of the publication here:
The 2018 Insider 100: Power
Insider NJ, it’s way past time for you to add women to your editorial board. This is not the first time you’ve erroneously compressed any assertion of women’s rights or power with “metoo,” a movement focused entirely on sexual assault. While I agree that Congresswoman-elect Mikie Sherrill deserves the top slot this year having proven herself to be a masterful campaigner and steller candidate. She galvanized a coalition that included powerful women-led grassroots groups and establishment political power (almost all men). She earned support of labor and police unions, veterans and environmentalists, fiscal “conservatives” and progressives; she won Essex, Passaic and Morris counties by margins even insiders did not predict, she beat her opponent not only in his hometown, but in his legislative district. Her win represents the largest 2-year swing of any congressional district in the country, and while she did keep focus on sexual abuse, particularly against women in the military, her success was not due to women fighting sexual assault. It was largely won by women and men working against chauvinism, racism, xenophobia, homophobia and working towards a community and government that does not divide with fear and ignorance.
Bill Bradley was a Rhodes Scholar, making Kim the 3rd one.