There’s nothing I’d rather do than serve up heartwarming anecdotes filled with wisdom and political courage. But this is Jersey where we get the political medley we deserve.

WTF

Whenever I wrote about the Bridgegate saga back in the day, I took great care to bring nuance to an explosive story that’ll forever taint Chris Christie and his entire administration. I resented how Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, aka the gay guy and the woman, faced real consequences while all the (straight) guys involved walked away with TV contracts and White House gigs.

I wrote an article called “Five Reasons You Should Donate to Bridget Kelly’s Legal Defense Fund RIGHT NOW” because I resented how Chris Christie threw her under the bus. He used Bridget to dodge any culpability after his team weaponized the busiest bridge on the planet to punish a political rival.

I’m all about second acts and reinvention, but Ms. Kelly’s announcement that she’s running for office in Bergen County left me dumbstruck. Instead of any contrition whatsoever, Bridget Kelly still wants to blame the press (like me) for her (not great) reputation.

Ms. Kelly had a chance to serve the people of New Jersey and she and her crew blew it in the most colossal way imaginable. Because of her track record, she has IMHO foreclosed her right to run for office for the time being.

Never say never. But definitely not now.

America loves a redemption story, but Ms. Kelly still has amends to make before the rest of us decide to forgive her or not. There won’t be anything like contrition from anyone involved in the Bridgegate scandal. So here’s an excerpt from the apology we always deserves but never got:

I screwed up big time. And whenever I think about my role in Bridgegate I’m still embarrassed and ashamed all these years later.

The people of NJ deserve competent people running their bridges and they got partisan hackery instead. So I want to say sorry to everyone whose lives were disrupted by my selfish choices. Bridgegate caused a week of mayhem for thousands of people and I’m especially ashamed thinking of the schoolchildren whose first week of school we ruined. 

Actions like Bridgegate are why people don’t trust Government. I’ll spend the rest of my life working to restore trust and to repair that breach.

I believe everyone deserves a second chance but it must be earned. And until we hear something along those lines from Bridget Kelly, she hasn’t really earned that second chance yet.

Middlesex 

Last September, a NJ Superior Court judge ruled “Middlesex County gender party posts are unconstitutional.”

“Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson, sitting in Mercer County, ruled Sept. 2 in favor of a lawsuit brought in April 2019 by the Central Jersey Progressive Democrats that a state statute requiring county committee seats be filled by a male and female from each district violated federal and state constitutional rights to equal protection.”

A long and entrenched practice in NJ party politics, these gender quotas discriminate against anyone who’s non-binary and, in this case, against two women who ran off-the-line for a Middlesex County Democratic committee post.

The Central Jersey Progressive Democrats were forced to litigate the matter when Middlesex County’s Clerk ignored Judge Jacobson’s order to draft ballots “in a nondiscriminatory manner, without regard to the sex or gender of candidates.”

They litigated and they won against a Middlesex machine with a track record of upholding the status quo. And then, Middlesex Clerk Nancy Pinkin wanted to bill the Central Jersey Progressive Democrats for forcing the issue.

And that’s illegal.

Thanks to the NJ Civil Rights Act, it’s against the law for the those in power to use the tools of the state, in the case the Middlesex Clerk’s office, to oppress anyone trying to crash the gate.

Yael Bromberg, Esq, council for Central Jersey Progressive Democrats, explains.

 “The NJ Civil Rights Act provides for shifting attorney fees and expenses to prevailing parties who suffered a deprivation of their substantive rights,” Ms. Bromberg, told InsiderNJ. “The purpose of fee shifting is to ensure that those most likely to suffer constitutional harms – grassroots groups and the indigent – can access competent counsel to avail themselves of their rights. Attorney fees is a key component of the NJ Civil Rights Act. Without it, there would be no civil rights litigation in New Jersey.”

Just remember: if the Middlesex County clerk simply complied with the law to begin with, there wouldn’t be any legal expenses.

Today Judge Jacobson agreed that Central Jersey Progressive Democrats have the right to attorney fees. Today’s ruling only happened because the clerk’s office repeatedly ignored the rules. Flouting the civil rights laws isn’t cheap. Middlesex County taxpayers are now on the hook for $57,000 to pay for their county clerk’s negligence and/or incompetence.

Jay Lassiter was not-that-long out of rehab (for meth) the only time he voted for Bob Menendez back in 2006. He’s makes his amends on Twitter @Jay_Lass.