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Democratic warfare whacked Scutari's attack on transparency

By: Charles Stile
Political Stile
USA Today

..... It probably want the smartest idea for a low-profile state lawmaker and functionary of the Camden Count political machine to publicly bully a sitting United States senator.
..... But that drama, which played out during a combative, five-hour hearing in Trenton on December 1, [2025] probably did more to doom a bill to strip the state's Office of the State comptroller of its power than any of its controversial provisions. On December 9, [2025] the state Senate President Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, withdrew the legislation, which had been on the fast track for passage in the Legislature's lame-duck session.
..... The political theater on December 1 [2025] drew national attention. If featured Kim, the buck-the-machine Democrat from Burlington County who succeeded "God Bar" Bob Menendez, now sitting in a Pennsylvania jail on bribery charges. New Jersey's junior senator was forced to wait nearly four hours to testify on the measure steeped in Trumpian arrogance.
..... Kim has fashioned himself as a reformer waging a David-versus-the-Goliath of-the-corrupt-and-calcified-New-Jersey-party-boss-system battle. He has promised to lead a movement.
..... But that movement leader was forced to sit in his seat and stew for nearly four hours before being permitted to testify by sate Sean tor James Beach, the Camden County Democrat who refused to extend Kin the courtesy to testify early so he could catch a 1 PM train back to Washington.
..... When Kim finally got his chance, Beach refused to let him go beyond an alloted three minutes. Beach gruff as a modern-day Tammany Hall operative, scolded the senator.
..... "Why do you think you're special?" Beach asked Kim. "You;re not."
..... When Kim told Beach he had been waiting for hours and that he was mission votes in Washington, Beach dismissively replied with a shrug and a "so what?" reply.
..... And then, in a bid to humiliate Kim, Beach, an ally of George E. Norcross III, the Camden County Democratic Power broker whose insurance business was targeted by the comptroller, began interrogating Kim over votes he took in favor of a couple of Trump administration Cabinet members.
..... "Why did you vote with [Trump] so many times? Tell me. why didn't you tell me? Beach asked the senator, generating gasps and catcalls from a committee room packed mostly with people opposed to the bill. That exchange was dripping in irony" Scutari's bill mirrored President Donald Trump;s dismantling of independent watchdog through his administration.

Conduct 'unbecoming'

..... LaRoy Jones, the state Democratic chairman believes that the discourteous treatment of Kim - who testified alongside Kevin Walsh, the crusading acting comptroller first appointed by Governor Phil Murphy but never confirmed by the state Senate, and state Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin - probably "tanked" the bill's chances.
..... "The conduct was unbecoming," Jones said. "Nobody deserves to be treated that way. When you come into the halls of the state Legislature, you are expected to be treated with respect and diplomacy."
..... This scolding created a stunning tableau: Her was a representative of the old-guard machine Democrats, rarely challenged in the Statehouse halls, cornered and fighting back against a progressive voice who will not be easily controlled.
... It also garnered national coverage. The incident drew the attention of CNN's Jake Tapper, who interviewed Kim and replayed footage of Beach's stunning upbraiding.
..... "What was that about?" Tapper asked Kim, puzzled by the encounter.
..... In a statement Tuesday, [12/09/2025] Kim hailed the decision to scuttle the bill.
..... "This is a win for the people of New Jersey and a signal of the power of a growing anti-corruption movement throughout our state and this country," Kim said. "As I've said before, the opposite of democracy is apathy. do not feel helpless about fixing our broken polities. It isn't just possible, it's necessary. Now let's get ready for the next fight."

A bad bill dies

..... The legislation would have merged the comptroller's office with the State Commission of Investigation and placed the operation under the thumb of the Legislature.
..... It would have effectively stripped independence form the comptroller, a position created 15 years ago that reports to the governor and has been led most recently by Walsh, a crusading former civil rights attorney, who took aim at some of the state's most powerful political fiefs.
..... Walsh revealed improper COVID-19 vaccination contracts in Essex County and improper padding of paychecks by employees in Union county, Scutari's home turf, and, most notably, took aim at Norcross.
..... Walsh had powerful enemies. This bill would have made sure that there would be no more Walshes roaming into Democratic machine power brokers' operations with impurity.
..... But the machine's reactive decision to browbeat and humiliate a U.S. senator backfired. It made the debate over other controversial aspects of the bill, such as a plan to endow the SCI with wiretap powers and the ability to investigate prosecutors and the Attorney General's Office, almost a secondary consideration.
..... Kim came to testify and take a train back to Washington. Beach turned him into a martyr for a cause. And, eight days after their December 1 [2025] fracas, Beach made Kim a successful martyr.
..... "The bill might mot have made it out of both houses and been signed into law, but once the Senate president stated whipping votes, it thought the senate," said Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics.
..... "The mistreatment of Andy Kim is the only thing that changed that, and it was a bombshell," he continued. "It scrambled all the battle lines beyond the members of the Democratic caucus."

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