Thread by @LizzieKFoley

So, in my first Somerset Democratic Convention thread, I talked about the very strange letter that chair Peg Schaffer sent to the delegates.

Now I'm going to talk about what Peg Schaffer describes as her non-existent conflict of interests with her support of @TammyMurphyNJ 🧵

https://twitter.com/LizzieKFoley/status/1765628648772542861

In her interview with @danieljhan_, Peg Schaffer makes a claim that her support of @GovMurphy's wife's campaign is fine because there is "there is no quid pro quo"

I'm no lawyer, but do we just take her word on that? Is that how this usually works? 2/12

subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2024/0…

So, a quid pro quo is "the specific intent to give or receive a “thing of value” in exchange for some future action that the public official will take (and may already have determined to take), or for a past act that he has already taken." 3/12
.law.cornell.edu/wex/quid_pro_q…

And while I cannot prove such exchanges took place, I can say that @GovMurphy has given Peg Schaffer a number of things of value in her time as chair.

And Peg Schaffer will try to give @TammyMurphyNJ the Somerset line tonight, which gives an appearance of impropriety 4/12

And again, @GovMurphy used his elected office here, not his personal fortune.

For example, @GovMurphy gave Bergen Chair Paul Juliano a $280K job as CEO of the NJ Sports Expo Authority.

And then he put Somerset Chair Peg Schaffer on the NJSEA Board 5/12

And frankly, Peg Schaffer shouldn't have accepted, because she had a potential conflict of interest as a cannabis lobbyist.

But no worries. Union Chair Nicholas Scutari simply fast-tracked a new law to accommodate her.

So totally normal 6/12
nj.com/marijuana/2024…

And of course, @GovMurphy signed this law because apparently there was no one else available in all of NJ?

Or maybe he just gives patronage jobs to county chairs for–uh–reasons....

Then he took Peg Schaffer on a trip to Japan, South Korea & Taiwan 7/12

nj.gov/governor/news/…

Now @GovMurphy is free to invite whoever he deems appropriate on these trips. But I'm curious as to why he thought cannabis lobbyist Peg Schaffer was an appropriate choice.

For one thing, cannabis is pretty much illegal in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea. 8/12

Secondly, the appearance of impropriety is not great here. This trip took place from Oct 14-23, 2023. This is after @AndyKimNJ declared he was running for Senate (Sept 23rd), but before @TammyMurphyNJ declared (Nov 15th).

@TammyMurphyNJ was on the trip with Peg Schaffer 9/12

And then, the day @TammyMurphyNJ announced her candidacy, Peg Schaffer issues a statement backing her Senate run in which she specifically mentions having seen @TammyMurphyNJ on the world stage AND the international stage (Yes! Both of them!) 10/12:

insidernj.com/schaffer-backs…

And she's been running down @AndyKimNJ by complaining he doesn't come to her political events.

Which is not surprising, given he doesn't represent her county. He's the congressman for CD-3. Somerset is in CD-12 (Coleman) & and CD-7 (Kean). 11/12

politico.com/news/2024/03/0…

Interestingly, polling data seems to suggest that an @AndyKimNJ senate run is more likely to flip CD-7 from red to blue, which Peg Schaffer should want

And CD-12's Bonnie Watson Coleman has called for reforming the county line, which Peg would hate 12/12

subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2024/0…