Attorney General Matt Platkin on Wednesday criticized unnamed officials for “creating a system or enabling a system of corruption” in New Jersey. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
One day after Attorney General Matthew Platkin took aim at New Jersey politicians for creating and enabling “a system of corruption,” Platkin denied that his comments were politically motivated or part of an effort to distance himself from the Murphy administration.
Platkin told reporters Thursday that his prior comments, made during a Wednesday press conference, weren’t directed at “any one person, and they certainly were not directed at the governor.”
But he stressed that anyone who disagrees with his characterization of New Jersey’s political culture must “wake up.”
“We are caricatured in this state in a way that is unfair to the 9.3 million people who live here and the incredible public servants that I’ve seen throughout the state because of the acts, frankly, the embarrassing acts of a relative few. When you have a United States senator literally stuffing his pockets with gold and cash and you think that’s OK, then we have a problem,” Platkin said Thursday.
Former Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat, was convicted in July of accepting gold bars and other gifts as bribes.
Platkin’s newest comments came one day after he delivered a blistering message to Democrats smarting from their electoral losses on Election Day. Citing recent state laws overhauling access to public records and revamping the campaign finance system, plus the controversy surrounding a ballot design that critics call unconstitutional, Platkin said it’s “no wonder” why young people he talks to believe politicians work for themselves instead of for the public.
“It’s time for people in positions of authority in this state to spend a little more time questioning their own role in creating a system or enabling a system of corruption, and a little less time threatening those of us who are trying to do something about it,” he said Wednesday.
Platkin on Wednesday did not criticize the Democratic Party or any Democrats by name, but he cited the Elections Transparency Act and the public records overhaul, which were both pushed by Democrats and signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat. Platkin’s critique of county-ballot ballots — a ballot design unique to New Jersey that groups party-backed candidates together — was first aired in March during a court proceeding on the ballot design’s constitutionality, and were seen largely as a broadside against first lady Tammy Murphy’s then-active campaign for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.
Platkin’s critique of Trenton was shared by voters who expressed their apathy last week by not showing up for Democrats at the ballot box, said Antoinette Miles, head of the New Jersey Working Families Party (in New Jersey, Vice President Kamala Harris nabbed about 440,000 fewer votes for president than President Biden did in 2020). Miles agreed with Platkin that ordinary people do not see elected officials working for them.
“They see it seems too often that the political establishment is focused on issues that are not affecting people’s pocketbooks and just focused on whatever the next engineering or legal contract is going to be, and that’s what takes place in New Jersey,” she said.
One of the bright spots for Democrats on Election Day was Rep. Andy Kim’s election as Menendez’s replacement in the U.S. Senate. Kim painted himself as a fresh-faced outsider who is willing to take on the Democratic establishment and break from his party when reform is needed.
Though Platkin denied his Wednesday comments were directed at Murphy, political observers and Trenton activists said his messaging showed he wants to be seen as more of an Andy Kim Democrat than a Phil Murphy Democrat. Ashley Koning, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University, said Platkin may be staking a claim at a political future beyond the Murphy administration.
“He certainly seems to be separating himself out, at times, from the administration, and also trying to separate himself out from the general corruption that follows New Jersey politics in general — showing he’s on the right side of history and trying to reform politics,” she said.
Miles said Platkin expressing frustration with the status quo is not dissimilar to Kim presenting himself as someone who is fed up with politics as usual.
“There is an anti-establishment sentiment among New Jersey voters that New Jersey Democrats need to be paying attention to right now,” she said.
It’s uncommon for attorneys general to criticize the administration they work for, Koning said, adding that it’s a smart strategy to take if Platkin is angling for a future political career.
“That was kind of Andy Kim’s strategy as well, through all of this in the past year of separating himself not just from corruption writ large, but corruption in particular that was happening within his party with a Democratic senator,” Koning said.
Platkin on Thursday didn’t rule out a future run for elected office, and vowed that as long as he has “the privilege of holding this office, trust me, I’m going to do it.”
Spokespeople for Murphy, Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex) declined to comment for this story.
Christopher Porrino, who served as state attorney general during former Gov. Chris Christie’s administration, said he wasn’t surprised by Platkin’s comments, recalling that the two men spoke briefly at Platkin’s 2022 swearing-in.
“I said then that Matt Platkin would be an attorney general who would be unafraid and would not be intimidated by or influenced by the media or anyone else, and he would do what he felt was best and was right. And I think now, a few years later, what we’ve seen is verification of what I said at his swearing-in, and that is that he’s not afraid,” Porrino said.
Assemblyman Lou Greenwald (D-Camden), a sponsor of the Elections Transparency Act, said he disagrees with Platkin’s characterization of the campaign finance law’s impact and welcomes a conversation about it with the attorney general. He defended the law — which sharply raised campaign donation limits and curtailed investigations by the state’s election law watchdog — as one that provides “tremendous transparency” around who can contribute to political campaigns and aims to shed light on dark-money political action groups.
“I think the general is absolutely entitled to his position,” Greenwald said. “I think he’s missing what was a national trend within the Democratic Party on a failure to talk about kitchen-table, pocketbook issues that affect people day in and day out.”
Assemblyman Joe Danielsen (D-Somerset) sponsored the bill that overhauled public records, which critics warned would gut transparency and weaken press access in New Jersey. When asked Thursday if that bill contributed to the Democratic Party’s performance at the polls, Danielsen said, “That’s not true.” He did not reply to further questions.
Dana DiFilippo contributed.