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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now we turn to New Jersey with our Nancy Solomon, who hosted last night's monthly edition of Ask Governor Murphy, the call-in show that airs once a month here on WNYC and public radio stations in Philadelphia and elsewhere in Jersey. Nancy joins us the next morning, each month typically, for excerpts and analysis and your calls.

This month, Nancy and Governor Murphy covered whether New Jersey is ready to host the 2026 Men's World Cup soccer tournament, including the championship game. They also talked about First Lady Tammy Murphy who was running to replace Senator Bob Menendez this year. How much nepotism or whatever you want to call it?

We're going to play some excerpts. We'll take your calls. We'll talk to Nancy. New Jersey listeners, 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Call or text. Good morning, Nancy. Thanks for working the morning after, after you worked the night shift for Ask Governor Murphy last night.

Nancy Solomon: Good morning, Brian. Thanks for having me.

Brian Lehrer: What did the governor have to say about the World Cup?

Nancy Solomon: He's thrilled, as you would expect, because not only he sees this as, of course, a big economic boom for New Jersey, but he also happens to be a very big soccer fan and a very big World Cup fan. This was particularly exciting for him. Of course, it raises lots of issues, but he's all in.

Brian Lehrer: One big issue, as our transportation reporter, Stephen Nessen, has written and talked about, is whether NJ Transit is going to be able to handle all these spectators. Here's about a minute from last night's Ask Governor Murphy, where the governor explained some of the challenges as he sees them.

Governor Murphy: The customer experience is dramatically different and better today, even while still being beholden to two tunnels built in 1911. Shame on the prior administrations that we have not gotten to these new tunnels which we're finally getting to. Notwithstanding we're beholden to Amtrak issues. There was a fire in one of the tunnels on the New York side today, which led to delays this morning.

In the context of the fact that we are beholden to a lot of exogenous stuff, the progress that's been made is remarkable. You see it in the customer satisfaction. It's never been higher than it is now, but it's not perfect, understood. The experience, and the answer that I think I would point people to is the Taylor Swift experience. I could also point you to Blackpink, Bruce Springsteen, et cetera. The almost flawless execution by NJ Transit around those three, about 72,000 person-a-night concerts, the World Cup, by the way, will be about 80,000 a night.

Brian Lehrer: That's relatively a lot of words, Nancy, from the governor on NJ Transit handling the crowds. I don't know what's the takeaway there, yes, there might be problems, but it's not my fault?

Nancy Solomon: [chuckles] Yes, I think so. It is true that the agency was starved of resources during the eight years of Chris Christie. Advocates tell me that they don't think Murphy has invested enough to overcome what those eight years did to the agency both in terms of capital investments on rolling stock, or upgrading the catenary wires so there isn't a problem anytime there's bad weather, things like that.

Advocates want to see a dedicated source of funding in the state budget. Roads get that funding from the gas tax which funnels through the transportation trust fund. New Jersey Transit, it's a battle every year to get the funding that it wants. This year, there's a big deficit that they're dealing with. How many years, Brian, can the governor say, well, it was Chris Christie? We're into the sixth year of his term. I think at this point, he owns NJ Transit.

Brian Lehrer: By the way, were you surprised to hear the governor name-check Blackpink there? [chuckles]

Nancy Solomon: He is a big music fan. Not just is he a major sports guy, but he is also very avid music listener. Goes to lots of concerts. The governor has a box at the MetLife Stadium. I've seen him when we do the show, he often is blasting music and playing pool with his sons after the show. He's a real music guy.

Brian Lehrer: That's hilarious. Blackpink, who thought he would know a big K-pop band. For those listeners who don't know, that's not Black Sabbath. It's not Pink Floyd. It's Blackpink, a K-pop band that I guess also sold out MetLife Stadium. That difference, I don't know if it's such a big difference. You tell me, as the governor said, 72,000 was capacity for that concert and Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen. The World Cup would be about 80,000 a night. If they handled 72,000, can't they handle 80,000?

Nancy Solomon: I think that's his point, is that a sold-out stadium is a sold-out stadium. Yes, everybody points to the Super Bowl meltdown, but there have been many, many sold-out stadiums since then that have gotten people in and out without too much of a disaster.

I think this is a little different in the sense that there are so many games that get played over the course of the summer. To what extent does that really stress the infrastructure? I don't know. I think me and Stephen Nessen, our transportation reporter, and many of us are going to be trying to understand this and figure this out in the coming two years. I think there's a reasonable expectation that the state can get people to and from the stadium without causing too much of a meltdown.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we can open the phones for your Jersey calls on the other idea that the governor was suggesting in that clip, which is that customer satisfaction has been increasing with respect to NJ Transit. 212-433-WNYC. If you are an NJ Transit rider, how does it look to you compared to seven or eight years ago before Phil Murphy became governor of New Jersey? 212-433-WNYC-433-9692. We have a call like that already. Let's talk to Rob in Montclair. You're on WNYC. Hi, Rob.

Rob: Hello. Thank you so much. There has been something bothering me. I was a long-time NJ Transit train rider into New York City from Montclair. Lately, post-COVID, there is just a lot of what I would call ghost trains where I can see and I'm stopped at the train crossing, say on a Friday at 7:00 PM now with work from home. You will see 13 cars with maybe two people on the entire train line. That's a huge waste of energy, resources, and expense for NJ Transit. When will Governor Murphy look at usage and ridership and make things more efficient since I'm sure New Jersey taxpayers are paying a pretty penny for that opportunity?

Brian Lehrer: Rob, thank you. Plus the fare hike that the governor recently announced. I know Nancy, one of your lines of questioning last night was whether the governor was hampering affordability in New Jersey by raising fares and tolls at this particular time. What do you think about that and what Rob was saying?

Nancy Solomon: I totally understand what Rob is saying as someone who now commutes much less than I used to. He mentioned, the governor said that the metrics show that rider satisfaction is up. I am just not sure about those metrics precisely for that reason that we're in this very strange moment where we went through a year of nobody commuting, and now commuting is way down. It stands to reason that complaints are down. People probably don't go into the New Jersey Transit office and fill out a form when they're happy with the service.

It makes sense that complaints would be down since commuting is still reduced. I've ridden on some of those empty trains. I think it's an interesting point like at what point do they adjust. Is this a new normal and how do they adjust to it?

In terms of the 15% fare increase, the governor says that the fares, typically, would go up every year, and he suspended that. That's why he needs to raise them by 15% now. New Jersey Transit is facing a very large deficit. The agency has been told to come into the budget process with cuts.

What the governor didn't say is that, between the COVID relief funds running out and the end of the business tax surcharge, which is a tax on all profits over $1 million a year, so those are just the wealthiest, biggest companies that pay that extra tax, he's cut that tax. He added it and he sunset it, so he let it run out. Now that money has to come from somewhere, and a 15% fare hike and a 3% adjusted rate an automatic rise that will go into effect every year after that, that's a big hit for commuters.

Brian Lehrer: Last thing on this before we move on to some other topics from your Ask Governor Murphy Colin last night, listener writes, "Wasn't Murphy talking about Trump not providing funds for the tunnels too?"

Nancy Solomon: Is that a question?

Brian Lehrer: Yes, that was a question. Wasn't-

Nancy Solomon: I'm sorry.

Brian Lehrer: -Murphy talking about Trump not providing funds for the tunnels too?

Nancy Solomon: True. It took a long time to get the gateway project up and funded. Exactly.

Brian Lehrer: New topic. We're going to play a clip of a caller asking the governor a question last night and the governor's response. It's on the topic of expungement. I wondered, Nancy, if you would just quickly define expungement so listeners get the context here.

Nancy Solomon: Yes, sure. There's always been a process by which some people who have been convicted of a crime can get their records expunged. What happened when marijuana was legalized in New Jersey is that it came with a commitment from the state that they would expunge all the marijuana arrests going back through time. What happened is that that created a backlog. There were a ton of them. We got a call from someone who said he's been waiting two years to get his record expunged, and that he can't get a job and he's nearly homeless because of that.

Brian Lehrer: That's what we have. Let's hear-

Nancy Solomon: Oh, go.

Brian Lehrer: -Gene from Passaic calling Governor Murphy last night.

Gene: What is being done to help the 50,000 New Jerseyans whose life has stopped waiting for expungement to process? I'm one of those people, and I'm in the verge of being homeless because I can't find a job until the state police erase the record that I'm entitled to be erased because the judge signed it. I've been waiting almost for two years. The last time, they told me that my record will be expunged since the next two years from now. I understand they got $15 million allocated to help process expungement and make it easier. What is being done for us?

Governor Murphy Colin: Gene, this is one that, on the one hand, I'm proud that we have this expungement program in place, and it's the right thing to do. I've, from moment one, wanted New Jersey to be America's second chance state. We all make mistakes. Let's pay whatever price it is for that mistake, but be given a shot at a fully lived life thereafter. On the other hand, I've been frustrated by how long this has taken. I know that the state police have made some moves of late.

Brian Lehrer: Nancy, he obviously supports the idea of expungement regarding marijuana convictions, but it's so slow.

Nancy Solomon: This is an issue that comes up a lot with all kinds of things, that people are frustrated with the inability to get the New Jersey State Government to do things that they say they're going to do. With expungement, I was curious this morning what the backlog is about besides just the extra requests because of the marijuana legalization.

I spoke with Amol Sinha, who's the director of the New Jersey ACLU, and he told me that the Office of the Public Defender in New Jersey has filed a lawsuit against the state. That, basically, it claims that the state police are holding up this process. That they're not putting enough staff on it, they're not making it a priority, and that they don't have the drive and the mission to want to get this done. The public defenders are suing the State over this. That didn't come up last night, but I thought I'd add that. I think there really is. Maybe reporters like me need to start digging into what this backlog is really about. It was a great call from Gene, and I think the governor, he expressed his frustration, but he didn't really say what the delay was about.

Brian Lehrer: Somewhat related to the topic of expungement is the topic of clemency. You noted last night that the governor has not granted clemency to anyone during his tenure, and his response was a little confusing. I see you followed up with some reporting with the ACLU, who I heard him cite as working with him on clemency. What is clemency at the state level? Why hasn't Governor Murphy given it to anybody?

Nancy Solomon: The governor has constitutional authority to release anyone from prison, to declare that they've served their time for any reason. Could be health. Could be the length of the time the person served. Of course, there's a whole unit looking at exonerations that has also been a little bit slow in getting those out the door.

I spoke with Amol Sinha again at the ACLU about this, this morning as well because I was really mystified by the governor's response. I just didn't quite understand. He said he was looking at taking a categorical approach, and I didn't quite understand what that means. What Sinha told me is that they're looking at categories such as age, health, overly long sentences that are disproportionate to the crime. This is totally within the governor's constitutional power. No legislation is required.

President Obama did a little bit of this at the end of his presidency by the category of low-level drug offenses, and granted clemency to many of those. The ACLU doesn't think that that would make enough of a dent in the prison population in New Jersey, and that they're very excited about the fact that the governor is talking about doing something much, much bigger. There have been many times where Murphy has really shown some of his progressive bonafides. I think this is one where I think he really seems to like the idea. I think we could see something major coming from him in the next year between now and the end of his tenure, where large groups of people are released.

Brian Lehrer: Right now with our Nancy Solomon, who hosts Ask Governor Murphy once a month. Last night was the February edition, and Nancy is here with some excerpts and analysis, and taking some of your calls. Here's another NJ Transit call. O'Brien in East Orange, you're on WNYC. Hello, O'Brien.

O'Brien: Hello. Recently, I traveled to Japan, and the transit system there is night and day compared to New Jersey. One thing with New Jersey is the lack of cleanliness. Most of the times you're on the train, you can't even see out the window. Why wouldn't they just do regular maintenance of cleaning the cars? I'm not sure why we should be expected to pay a 30% raise in fares for what I consider inferior service.

Brian Lehrer: O'Brien, thank you very much. Nancy, how big of a fare hike is it? Is there a lot of public backlash?

Nancy Solomon: Well, it's 15% fares would go up. It ranges. Of course, what you pay is what the ticket is. It really goes by distance, pretty much. People pay more the further they are out from New York, so 15% is a pretty big hit. I've certainly experienced some dirty New Jersey transit trains. There has been purchasing of new rolling stock, and the new trains are really quite nice. When you get an old train, which you do, you do get the old trains on a regular basis, they're pretty bad, the old trains, much worse than anything on, say, the Metro-North or the LIRR.

It would be a great thing if they could replace all of the old rolling stock with newer ones. I'm not sure if it's that they don't get cleaned enough or whether that grime is just so baked on that there's no way of getting it off.

Brian Lehrer: New topic. After months of you asking about where the First Lady Tammy Murphy would run to replace Senator Bob Menendez, she has, in fact, thrown her hat in the ring. Last night, you asked this pointed question about how the governor can convince voters to vote for his wife without throwing too much of his weight around in a way that would be inappropriate. Here's a minute of his response.

Phil Murphy: Judge her on her own two feet. By the way, the first woman, it would be in our state's history, would she make an outstanding United States Senator? That to me is the litmus test and there's no other relevant litmus test. If this were a guy, I don't think you'd be asking that question or not. Not you personally, but I just don't see it that way. What folks need to judge is, does she had the talent to be an outstanding representative and US senator from New Jersey, and folks may say no to that. I know where I am, but folks should judge that independently and I have no quarrel with- We live with the results, good, bad or otherwise, but that to me is the only basis upon which she should be assessed.

Brian Lehrer: Nancy, what have we seen so far regarding the governor's support for his wife's campaign? Is his influence being used inappropriately, according to anybody, and is it having an effect?

Nancy Solomon: We've seen a lot. This has become a huge story in New Jersey. I have to say, listening back this morning, I'm frustrated that I didn't ask a follow-up because he didn't answer the question. The question is, are you throwing your weight around and are you worried that voters might see you and there might be a perception of you throwing your weight around, even if you're not? He didn't answer that question at all.

The main issue here is that the governor of New Jersey is the most powerful governor in the country constitutionally, so that means, line-item veto power over the budget. That means he can go in and strike out one job in thousands of employees in the state. He has incredible power with the budget. He, of course, like all governors, signs every bill or vetoes it so that's, of course, a tremendous amount of power.

He's one of three statewide elected officials in the whole state. Most states have between five and seven, so it's the governor and two senators. What I was asking him is, is this really the right thing of those three positions have two of them be husband and wife, the Murphys, and then Cory Booker, the other senator? He didn't really address that.

Where the power of the governor comes in, I think it's been called a form of soft corruption by some national news outlets that have been looking at this. Now, this is drawing attention to our system in New Jersey, because the governor--

Endorsements by the Democratic Party are made by the county committees, and the chairs of the county committees are really dependent on the governor for numerous things: funding for their counties, funding for their local officials to get projects so they can get reelected. Many of the county chairs are lobbyists who are able to market their influence with the governor.

You have these county chairs, sometimes I call them the party bosses, making endorsements that will give Tammy a leg up. It's not just that they're saying, "Oh, we like Tammy Murphy. Vote for her." They're putting her in an advantageous position on the ballot. This has been shown by research to give a huge leg up to candidates who have that endorsement. You have the money, you have the power, and you have this broken ballot and broken county endorsement system that of course is related to the money in the power. Personally, this is not a Republican Democratic thing, it's a problem with democracy.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, it's a good [crosstalk]--

Nancy Solomon: Both parties can do it. For the first time since I've been covering New Jersey, there is a lot of attention now being paid to this. I did not hold the governor to the fire there.

Brian Lehrer: Isn't that the big news in the race the fact that the Monmouth County Democratic Party over the weekend did not endorse Tammy Murphy, they endorsed Congressman Andy Kim?

Nancy Solomon: Yes, that has been the big news, and I was there. Most of the top political reporters in the state were there. In Monmouth County, for Democrats is a pretty small state. I'm sorry, County. It's not one of the big camped in Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Bergen where the Democratic votes are really concentrated. Here, you have Monmouth County, but it's the home turf of the Murphys. Although Murphy, the Governor, did point out last night that Andy Kim has one little corner of the county as part of his district so Andy Kim clobbered her.

What was interesting and why there were so many reporters there and why it's such a big story is because it was actually a secret ballot vote and the rank and file. These are huge committees with 500 to 1,000 people. Monmouth more in the 500 range. The rank and file actually got to take a secret vote and so there was no pressure to bear on them.

Brian Lehrer: That's so interesting. Monmouth County, for those of you who don't know, the northernmost part of the Jersey Shore, and a little bit inland from there. All right, we have one minute left. Last topic, the governor was asked about bike signs. Set this up real quick.

Nancy Solomon: We got a caller from someone who is in a bike club. I knew nothing about this. Apparently, there was a law passed in, I believe, 2022 or sometime around then that requires drivers to make accommodations for bicyclists on the road. New Jersey is not an enormously bike-friendly state, I will say that and so this law changed, but nothing has been done to support the law.

This fellow said he bikes into Pennsylvania and as soon as you cross the bridge, over the Delaware River, you start to see signs, give bicyclists this much room and that kind of thing. He was saying this is an orphan law. It gets no support. Drivers don't understand, and he asked the governor to do something about it, to invest in signage.

Brian Lehrer: The governor said this in eight second.

Governor Murphy: It's hard to say no to that, man. Again, I want to be leading the nation and stuff, and I'm happy to say we do win a lot of stuff. It sounds like we're not leading on this one.

Brian Lehrer: I guess not. Well, I enjoyed biking last summer down in the Lambertville area on the Jersey side and it was very nice, but that's where they have the big off-road path.

Nancy Solomon: Along the canal there, right?

Brian Lehrer: Yes, that's right. Here to good bicycle signage. We leave it there for today with our Nancy Solomon, who hosts Ask Governor Murphy once a month on the station and comes on with us usually the next morning like today with clips and analysis. Nancy, thanks as always.

Nancy Solomon: Thanks, Brian.

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