Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was among the Black New Jersey leaders to urge lawmakers to pass a raft of criminal justice and voting reforms before the end of the lame duck session. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
By Nikita Biryukov
Reprinted with permission
New Jersey Monitor
A group of Black New Jersey leaders called on legislators to pass a series of criminal justice and voting reform bills before the end of this year’s lame duck session and urged Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill to look to the state’s Black leaders when staffing her administration.
They said lawmakers should reject bills that would end the attorney general’s supervision of the New Jersey State Police and lower the bar to charge minors accused of certain crimes as adults.
“The easy part is over. We already elected somebody. Now, we’ve got to get down to it,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who ran against Sherrill in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, said during a speech at St. James AME Church in Atlantic City.
They urged additional assistance for Black first-time homebuyers and increased public contracting opportunities for Black-owned businesses, as well as action to close the state’s racial wealth gap.
And they called on legislators to pass, and Gov. Phil Murphy to sign, bills that would create a state-level Voting Rights Act, codify use-of-force policies issued by the Attorney General’s Office, allow for the early release of some seniors serving jail sentences, and end New Jersey’s lifetime jury duty ban to those with felony convictions.
“Our state in New Jersey is worse than Alabama’s. It’s a permanent disqualification on jury service of folks who have been convicted of a crime. That’s a population of more than 500,000 people. Nearly a quarter of them are Black,” said Ryan Haygood, president and CEO of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.
And they said Sherrill’s cabinet appointments and judicial nominations should reflect New Jersey’s diverse population, arguing the state’s non-white voters delivered her a 14-point victory on Election Day.
The state’s white voters narrowly backed former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli (D-Somerset) at the polls this month, chiefly due to support among white men, but Sherrill won non-white voters’ support by broad, sometimes overwhelming margins.
“This is why we are here today to correct the narrative that has largely ignored this truth: Black people delivered,” said Rev. Charles Boyer, the founder of Salvation and Social Justice.
The speakers praised Sherrill’s selection of Centenary University President Dale Caldwell, who is Black, to run on her ticket as lieutenant governor but warned the administration against turning him into a clearinghouse for issues affecting the state’s Black communities.
“Dale Caldwell’s responsibilities are vast and overwhelming. One of them is not the be the Black whisperer,” said Haygood, adding, “He works on the inside to effectuate the vision that she has because we hold her accountable to it, not that he carries it all, because as you all know, that’s a setup.”
The legislature’s lame duck session runs until new lawmakers are sworn in on Jan. 13. Sherrill will be inaugurated on Jan. 20.
