Lisa McCormick – who ran against Senator Bob Menendez in 2018 and who could not be reached to provide conformation or elaboration – this afternoon released the following statement (in part) via email blast from an account validated in the past as hers.

The statement appears here on her website.

As a nation, we cannot adequately respond to, and recover from, COVID-19 if we do not protect all of our neighbors no matter what they look like, or what they think or where they came from.

We are all in this together.

After 40 years of ‘limited government & low taxes,’ Reaganomics made almost everyone in America poor, it exploded the national debt & let China’s economy & military surpass our own.

I will make sure every voter understands simple economics, so they understand why it is crucial that we reverse Reaganomics. Trickle down theories do not work.

Of course, much of the mainstream media will ignore me. When I ran for US Senate in the 2018 Democratic primary, I got almost the same percentage that Joseph Kyrillos got when he ran against the same incumbent in the 2012 general election. I do not have to be for sale to be serious. I am appealing to voters who understand what is at stake, asking them to tell neighbors, family and friends about my campaign.

If it is just about talking, there are lots of things Phil Murphy and I sound like we agree upon:

A woman’s right to choose what is best for her body, her family, and her health is a right guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution, according to the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. Congress must codify that decision to protect women’s freedom.

Too many Americans die in gun violence, and there are things we can do to stop senseless slaughter that do not infringe on Second Amendment rights, like requiring background checks on all firearms sales.

The deadly hazards of crude oil shipments on trains and underground conduits conveying fossil fuels over long distances are endangering residents of New Jersey as thousands of rail cars and miles of natural gas pipelines now pass through our most densely populated communities.

After New Jersey wasted $11 billion on corporate welfare, Gov. Phil Murphy said: “For the same price as these tax breaks, we could have rebuilt the entire portal bridge, on our own, seven times.”

We could be said to agree on that but then, Murphy went and signed a $15 billion corporate welfare package with no public input or oversight., a measure strongly condemned by Jeff Tittel, of the New Jersey Sierra Club, and others.

Gov. Phil Murphy and lawmakers announced a plan to codify the right to an abortion into state law, amid a growing concern that Roe v. Wade could be overturned by former President Trump’s Supreme Court apointees. But the Reproductive Freedom Act has languished in committee since it was introduced in October of last year.

We must transform how abortion is treated in this country and ensure meaningful access to abortion for all—especially for those whose abortion rights have been most obstructed. People of color, people with low incomes, LGBTQ people, young people, people with disabilities, immigrants, and people in rural areas have all faced significant barriers to accessing essential reproductive health care—including abortion care.

After voters voted to legalize marijuana, Phil Murphy signed a law that says: Any person who possesses more than 25 pounds of marijuana, 50 or more marijuana plants, or more than five pounds of hashish is guilty of a crime of the first degree.  First-degree crimes carry a sentence of ten to 20 years’ imprisonment, with a 15-year presumptive sentence.
https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2020/Bills/PL21/16_.HTM

I am not alone in recognizing the Wall Street millionaire’s dishonesty and duplicity.

“Governor Murphy criticized Christie’s corporate subsidies, but now he is pushing even higher subsidies than Christie did,” said Jeff Tittel. “They are spending $14.5 billion, but only about $50 million is going to Main Street and small businesses. This is a Christmas gift to big corporations and the wealthy. Meanwhile, it is peanuts for small businesses and coal in our stockings for the rest of us.”
https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/14-5-billion-corporate-subsidy-bill-released-committee-today/

Murphy also failed to curb abuses at the local level. Public school students in the U.S. suffered poorer schools—as local and state taxpayers paid $2.37 billion higher taxes—in 2019 due to corporate tax breaks. Corporate welfare cost $77 million that year, to students in 121 New Jersey school districts.
https://www.goodjobsfirst.org/sites/default/files/docs/pdfs/Abating%20Our%20Future.pdf

Worst of all, he displayed terrible judgment, hiring a rapist and a convicted criminal who was banned from public office after being found guilty of accepting bribes. I made headlines when I challenged a Democrat who took bribes, and now I am running against one who pays them out. I do not believe there is any moral superiority in paying bribes then there is in pocketing them. And it is disgusting that people are not more intolerant of our corrupt political system, because that is the only way we are going to regain control over this republic.

I harbor no delusions, but I also know that uncontested elections are pointless. I know that people need a choice if we are to ask them to rise up to the responsibility of citizenship.

Gov. Phil Murphy is going to run some polls and then he is going to tell people exactly what they want to hear, but he lacks the courage, confidence and conviction to stand up for those ideas. He will capitulate at the first sign of resistance, so he is unreliable as our champion.

He caved in on corporate welfare. He surrendered on legalizing marijuana. He gave up on a $15 minimum wage and allows New Jersey’s poorest workers today to take home $4.13 an hour. Phil Murphy is never going to fight for us because he can not grasp the faintest understanding of our problems.

He is a Wall Street millionaire who lives in a world alien to our own.

He created a toxic work environment for women employed on his 2017 campaign. One woman reported that a male campaign staffer threw a chair but she was exiled and he is now deputy chief of staff in the Governor’s office.

Murphy’s campaign manager called a top female strategist the C-word, so she got fired while he is still collecting big checks for running the Governor’s dark-money super PAC. …

The arrogance, the cowardice, the betrayals, the capitulation and the misogyny are all unacceptable but these are the defining characteristics of Phil Murphy, who went to the White House and sat with President Donald Trump, without mentioning his many flaws, his incompetence or his inhumanity.

I am not only willing to point out the problems, and I will endeavor to solve serious problems confronting our state if I am entrusted with this office. I won’t quit when the power brokers tell me to stop pushing for justice. I won’t surrender when the political establishment tries to obstruct our progressive plans. I will fight to achieve what must be achieved because I know that together, we have the power to change our society and fulfill America’s promise of liberty, prosperity and justice for all.