TRENTON – It began with a short video extolling the virtues of Phil Murphy.

The governor has done this before, but even if you agree with Murphy’s accomplishments, the practice makes the state of the state address – a constitutionalized mandated event – look like a political ad.

When Murphy began his speech standing in an empty room, the governor quickly turned to COVID. He praised the state’s resilience and expressed pride in the fact about 90 percent of eligible residents have gotten at least one vaccine shot.

With COVID out of the way – at least speaking wise – Murphy pivoted quickly to what a state of the state address normally is about – “Look at how good we are doing.”

The governor’s overall theme on that score was that his administration is living up to its slogan of “stronger and fairer.”

Murphy painted a very rosy picture of a growing state with great schools, an educated workforce, improved mass transit and a robust commitment to fighting a changing climate.

He sought to avoid obvious partisan attacks, but at times could not constrain himself.

Like when he mentioned the state’s population growth over the last 10 years of about 500,000. Republicans like to talk about moving vans leaving the state.

“Turns out those moving vans are driving into New Jersey,” the governor quipped.

He took this same tact in talking about the minimum wage, which will reach $15 per hour in two years. It is now $13.

He said that some don’t want to acknowledge that one way to help make New Jersey more affordable is to pay people more money.

No mention of affordability can be complete without talking about property taxes.

Murphy was upbeat – even about this – saying that his administration has done more than most previous ones to hold down their rate of increase. One hates to be cynical, but most people want to see no increases at all, or even reductions.

Murphy had a very close election, but that got just about no mention.

There were no lines that said, “I know. I won reelection by a surprisingly small margin. I get it. This is what I’m going to do in response.”

Of course, Murphy does have another speech on tap in just one week when he is sworn for a second term. Curious to see what he says next week that he didn’t say this evening.

Speaking the day the state Legislature reorganized, Murphy paid the customary lip service to bipartisanship. He congratulated the new Republican leaders – Steve Oroho in the Senate and John DiMaio in the Assembly – and said, “Let’s stop shouting down each other and get back to talking with each other.”

The governor said ever so hopefully that now that the Nov. 2 election is history, it’s time for elected officials to remove the “R” and “D” from their names.

It’s a nice gesture, but in these times, easier said than done.