State senator Ronald L. Rice (D-28) of Newark isn’t willing to denounce the all white male triumvirate of Murphy-Sweeney-Coughlin, noting that former Governor Thomas Kean, Sr. was better on black issues than others. If Phil Murphy becomes the next governor of New Jersey and has a leadership team that hinges on South Jersey power, though, he will have to be prepared to fight, and that will test Murphy and demonstrate whether he has the good to be governor, Rice said.

“I’d like to think Murphy can tell people to go to hell,” Rice told InsiderNJ. “I have stood up over the years and spoken out, even when my party told me I should express such views, and I was willing to express myself in the knowledge that if I lost an election because I spoke the truth, I would go on my merry way.”

Murphy has to be prepared to buck the entrenched power structure in Trenton, the senator argued.

Having said that, he refused to concede that the deal with Middlesex County to return Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3) to the throne of upper chamber power is absolutely set in stone.

“It’s not all over,” he said of the leadership fight. “The elections aren’t over yet. People say one thing today, and tomorrow another. Everybody knows if George Norcross controls both houses the governor is in a weak place. But Murphy – if he is elected governor – doesn’t have to accept that. Through my senate career I’ve made the point thjat I am not going to sit there and be dictated to. Whoever the next governor is, he or she will have his or her hands full.”

But the test to not content oneself to have his hands tied is ultimately the true test of leadership, Rice added.

“It was an error of first principle that [Essex County Executive] Joe D. got in bed with George Norcross, because it has weakened Essex in Trenton,” the veteran senator noted. “Working with Steve [Sweeney] is not a problem for me, but Joe working with George stood up our delegation.”

Faced with the possibility of a Sweeney-Coughlin tandem, Murphy will have to diversify his cabinet if he becomes governor, Rice said. As for a running mate, “He should pick a black woman,” he added.

While not condemning it, Rice said the Murphy-Sweeney-Coughlin trio resembles the Democratic ticket in LD2, which purports to represent a minority district and does not have a minority on the slate.