For effective representation, re-elect the district's two Democrats.
Incumbent Assembly members Paul Moriarty and Gabriela Mosquera are the better choices to represent the 4th Legislative District over the next two years.
Assemblyman Paul Moriarty While the two Democrats, particularly Mosquera, have some shortcomings, they are head and shoulders above Republican challengers Kevin Murphy and Jack Nicholson.
Moriarty, the former Washington Township mayor, is one of the Legislature's most dogged members. His personality can be abrasive, but he's more likely to offer well-thought-out bills than many of his counterparts.
In the current session, he turned personal adversity - a 2012 drunk driving arrest in his hometown that didn't hold up because of video evidence - into a law requiring police departments to put dashcams into newly purchased cruisers or equip officers with body cameras. Implementation was temporarily derailed because the law was determined to be an unfunded mandate imposed by the state on its towns. If the decision sticks, Moriarty vows to find a funding source beyond the law's original $25 surcharge on DWI convictions.
Nor has Moriarty given up on attempts to get New Jersey towns and school districts to combine or to share services, which can cut administrative costs and, in turn, local property taxes. It's been a long road with few successes, but we expect that the assemblyman will keep pushing.
Mosquera is not as accomplished a lawmaker as Moriarty. She's in just her second term in the Assembly, though she's held some related policy jobs.
Assemblywoman Gabriela MosqueraThe assemblywoman hails from Ecuador and has gotten endless mileage from a laudable immigration-to-master's-degree story. Nonetheless, her affinity for encouraging those in the district to repeat her success is genuine. Though legal, Mosquera's full-time job as Gloucester Township policy chief for Mayor David Mayer raises questions of whether the 4th District or her township constituents get full value for their tax dollars.
Mosquera's "double dipping" might loom larger if one of her GOP opponents, Murphy, were not a Washington Township High School vice principal and athletic director. Murphy's taxpayer-paid salary is more than twice Mosquera's township wages.
As might be expected, Murphy defends teachers and administrators, as well as New Jersey's too many school districts. OK, but where the logic goes off the rails is when he talks about the dire need to reduce property taxes in the same breath. Such views clash with making the biggest driver of taxes, school spending, more efficient. In addition, the Gloucester County Republican chairman oddly refers to himself as a non-political Assembly choice.
His GOP runningmate, Nicholson, is a former Clementon mayor who recently moved to Monroe Township. He's not in lockstep with Murphy's views on schools and consolidation. But he seems to be running for the Assembly mostly because he was asked by the Camden County GOP. You need more of a spark than that.
Voters should retain Moriarty, one of the Assembly's most valuable players, as well as Mosquera, in the expectation that she'll keep improving as a lawmaker.
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