{"id":48019,"date":"2017-10-18T05:19:16","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T05:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=48019"},"modified":"2017-10-18T05:19:16","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T05:19:16","slug":"obamas-visit-new-jersey-caps-tour-democrats-supporting-murphy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/obamas-visit-new-jersey-caps-tour-democrats-supporting-murphy.html","title":{"rendered":"Obama’s Visit to New Jersey Caps Tour of Democrats Supporting Murphy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Obama’s Visit to New Jersey Caps Tour of Democrats Supporting Murphy<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Obama’s Visit to New Jersey Caps Tour of Democrats Supporting Murphy:- An Obama administration reunion tour is unfolding in New Jersey, as a cavalcade of Democratic luminaries has paraded into the state in recent days, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., former Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez and former Secretary of State John Kerry, urging voters to make Philip D. Murphy, the Democratic candidate, their governor.<\/span><\/p>\n

One by one, they have asked voters to treat the election for governor as a chance to preserve former President Barack Obama\u2019s policies at the state level, even as they are under assault in Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Obama himself is scheduled to appear with Mr. Murphy on Thursday at a rally in Newark, making his first public foray on the campaign trail in support of a Democratic candidate since leaving office. And Hillary Clinton will be a guest of honor at a closed-door fund-raiser for Mr. Murphy on Sunday in Harrison, N.J., her first campaign event since last year\u2019s election.<\/span><\/p>\n

The emphasis on a low-profile, off-year election for governor in New Jersey, where Mr. Murphy holds a commanding lead in recent polls to replace the Republican Chris Christie, reflects the Democratic Party\u2019s changing priorities with it out of power in Washington. As the party has poured energy and money into contesting special elections for federal offices this year, elections for governor in New Jersey and Virginia \u2014 the only two statewide races in the country this year \u2014 offer Mr. Obama and his allies perhaps their best chance to protect policy achievements at the state level.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Biden, at a rally in Edison last week, said Trenton might be the most potent venue to defend the Obama record, alluding to the muscular response liberal states and cities have mounted to pursue policies that President Trump is undoing, including the Paris climate agreement, which Mr. Trump said the United States would abandon.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s the deal, that mandate is going to fall on the governors,\u201d Mr. Biden told voters. \u201cYou saw when he walked out of the Paris accord. It was the governors led by Jerry Brown and others \u2014 it was the mayors who said we are not going to go back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Former Vice President Al Gore echoed that sentiment when he showed up in New Jersey last weekend to support Mr. Murphy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to create the jobs of the future, if you want a governor and a first lady who really get it and who care about clean water and clean air, and cleaning up the climate and provide the jobs in the process, this is a very, very clear choice,\u201d Mr. Gore said at the event in Ocean Township.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive and ambassador to Germany, has embraced the party\u2019s emphasis on focusing resistance to Mr. Trump in more liberal states. With Democratic power in the states at a low ebb \u2014 there are 15 Democratic governors in the country \u2014 Mr. Murphy has promoted a vision of New Jersey as a progressive bulwark, much like other heavily Democratic states, like California and Hawaii.<\/span><\/p>\n

The only thing standing in the way, Democrats say, has been Mr. Christie, the state\u2019s embattled governor, whom Mr. Murphy\u2019s campaign has targeted as frequently as Mr. Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Murphy has made trying to preserve Mr. Obama\u2019s accomplishments a centerpiece of his campaign. New Jersey, he said, would join other states in committing to the goals outlined in the Paris climate agreement and to other environmental regulations rescinded by the Trump administration, including rules on clean water.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Murphy also promised to promote enrollment in the Affordable Care Act after the Trump administration\u2019s move to slash the program\u2019s advertising budget, and he has pledged to defend young undocumented immigrants who might be imperiled by the president\u2019s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protected young adults who were brought to the United States illegally as children from being deported.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Murphy\u2019s Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, by contrast, has received virtually no help from national Republicans, and Mr. Trump and Mr. Christie are so unpopular in the state that their involvement in the race would more likely hurt than help. The disparity in political firepower has appeared to frustrate Ms. Guadagno, who accused Mr. Murphy on Sunday of treating the governor\u2019s race like a campaign for president.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s trying to become the leader of the Democratic Party nationwide,\u201d Ms. Guadagno said in a speech. \u201cHe\u2019s even further to the left than any Democrat in New Jersey.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With his return to retail campaigning, Mr. Obama follows the path of other former presidents, who have ventured out to varying degrees on behalf of candidates after leaving office. George W. Bush, who remained a polarizing figure after he left office, pursued a low-profile role in Republican politics. But Bill Clinton was less restrained, campaigning for Mark Green in New York\u2019s mayoral election in 2001, and going on the road for Democrats in the 2002 midterm elections.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Obama is unlikely to attack Ms. Guadagno, or to break from his practice of not feuding publicly with Mr. Trump, according to several Obama advisers.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Mr. Obama will probably stress a list of policy priorities \u2014 all stalled or reversed in Washington \u2014 that Mr. Murphy might pursue as governor, including stricter gun control laws, more generous health care benefits and additional protections for undocumented immigrants.<\/span><\/p>\n

In interviews this year, Mr. Obama said he was determined to help rebuild the Democratic Party outside Washington. He appeared at a fund-raiser for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a group led by Eric H. Holder Jr., Mr. Obama\u2019s attorney general, that is focused on state legislative elections.<\/span><\/p>\n

Michael Kempner, a New Jersey public relations executive and Democratic fund-raiser, said the New Jersey elections represented an opportunity for Democrats to play catch-up in the states. The party, he said, had plainly paid too little attention to state politics when Mr. Obama was in office.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats clearly had their eye off the prize,\u201d Mr. Kempner said. \u201cThe states are where things happen, and more and more people understand that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Murphy\u2019s election could make the state a model of \u201cdark blue\u201d policymaking, Mr. Kempner said, noting that the candidate has consistently expressed interest in \u201chow New Jersey and the policies of the state can impact the national agenda.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Obama will also campaign in Virginia on Thursday with Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam, the Democratic nominee for governor there. But New Jersey represents a distinct opportunity to press a liberal agenda. A victory for Mr. Northam would help Democrats retain a powerful governorship in a key swing state, but Republicans are likely to keep control of the Virginia Legislature, limiting the possibility of enacting an ambitious Democratic agenda.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Murphy\u2019s potential election, however, would give Democrats full control of New Jersey, making it the seventh state where Democrats hold the governor\u2019s office and both chambers of the legislature and can make policy without Republican input. There are 26 states where Republicans have control of the executive and legislative branches, which has allowed the party to push a sweeping agenda on the state level that has included tax cuts, restrictions on labor unions and new limits on abortion rights.<\/span><\/p>\n

David Axelrod, Mr. Obama\u2019s senior adviser in the White House, said he expected the former president to stress the stakes of the election to core Democratic voters and \u201cremind them about the hazards of taking elections for granted.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGiven his role, I would expect him to deliver positive messages about the candidates for whom he\u2019s campaigning rather than negative ones about the opponents,\u201d Mr. Axelrod said.<\/span><\/p>\n

If Mr. Obama is not expected to take on his successor directly, other visitors to New Jersey have shown no such restraint.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Biden, in his campaign stop, offered red-meat lines that also were a reality check for liberals seeking to recreate an Obama-era America in blue-state havens.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s the problem,\u201d Mr. Biden said, \u201calmost no matter what happens, for the next two and half years were going to have a man as president who doesn\u2019t understand America.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/10\/17\/nyregion\/obama-murphy-new-jersey-governor.html<\/span><\/p>\n

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