>> Good evening and thanks for joining us on this Tuesday.

>> Good evening.

I'm Brianna Vannozzi.

Tonight a few stories we'll get into later in the broadcast.

Raised voices, cut mics and accusations of silencing a U.S.

Senator.

Why a state house hearing over a New Jersey watchdog agency turned explosive.

Then we hear from Senator Andy Kim for his reaction to how the hearing unfolded and why he's concerned about eroding government accountability.

And later it's runoff day in Hudson County.

Two mayoral races and big stakes for Hoboken and Jersey City.

We'll have more on that in a moment.

But first a few of today's top headlines.

A messy wintry mix is still moving across the state.

Bringing snow, sleet, freezing rain and a tricky commute for some people today.

Governor Murphy declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm for five northwestern counties including Sussex, Warren, Hunterdon, Morris and Passaic.

That order took effect at 5 o'clock this morning.

The National Weather Service says those counties could see 1 to 4 inches of snow when it's all said and done, with a light layer of ice on top, just enough to create slick, hazardous roads tonight.

Meteorologists with the Weather Service say the rain/snow line tracked right along the I-95 corridor this morning before shifting north.

That means areas south and west of there got mostly rain, up to an inch and a quarter.

State officials are urging people on the roads to use caution as temperatures fall below freezing tonight.

It could cause black ice wherever the slush refreezes.

Also tonight, the field is set.

More than a dozen candidates vying to replace Governor-elect Mikey Sherrill in Congress have officially qualified to be on the ballot, with Monday marking the filing deadline for February's special primary election in the 11th District.

Now that spans parts of Essex, Morris and Passaic counties.

The Democratic field is the largest, with 13 candidates, the newest in the mix, Lieutenant Governor Tahisha Way and progressive activist Annalilia Mejia, who was formerly Bernie Sanders' national political director.

They joined big names like Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill, who has Governor Murphy's endorsement, and former Congressman Tom Malinowski, along with a mix of local officials and first-time candidates.

On the Republican side, Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway is the sole candidate to file there.

Each hopeful needed at least 500 valid signatures to make the cut, but petition challenges could still shrink the field.

And campaigning is well underway.

Candidates have just two months to make their names known to voters for the primary and secure their support for the special general election on April 16th.

And a heads up for air travelers.

The TSA is adding a fee for anyone flying domestically without a real ID.

Now starting February 1st, travelers who don't have a passport, real ID or other approved identification will be charged 45 bucks to get through security.

passengers have been allowed through without one until now with extra screening.

according to officials the new charge will go toward paying for the enhanced security system known as confirm I.D.

which travelers can access online and pay before arriving at the airport.

but the process can take between 10 to 30 minutes and transportation officials warn paying doesn't guarantee you'll be allowed to fly.

the real I.D.

has been on the books since 2005 following the September 11th attacks.

but enforcement only began in May.

the department of homeland security says 94 percent of travelers are already compliant and hopes the new fee will push the rest to update their I.D.s.

and coming up a hearing in Trenton to limit the powers of a government watchdog turns ugly.

that's next.

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A fiery showdown at the Statehouse on Monday where tempers boiled over during a bruising hearing on a bill critics say would gut New Jersey's top government watchdog.

The clash pitted state lawmakers against their own Attorney General, Comptroller, and sitting U.S.

Senator.

Senior Correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports.

This is the first time I've ever testified here at the State Capitol.

And I'm here today to voice my strong opposition to this bill that moves New Jersey in the wrong direction.

Senator Andy Kim got three minutes into his testimony against a controversial bill that critics claim would effectively gut a highly praised New Jersey government watchdog, the OSC, or Office of the State Comptroller.

Witnesses and lawmakers had tangled during the hours-long hearing with Senate Government Committee Chair Jim Beach, limiting the bill's opponents to three minutes, but allowing some supporters more time to speak.

He cut Kim off as Jersey's junior senator, joined State Attorney General Matt Plotkin and acting comptroller Kevin Walsh to condemn the bill.

Tempers flared.

The people of New Jersey are sick and tired of this.

They feel this way.

That's three minutes, so please conclude.

Sir, I have been here for five and a half hours.

I am missing votes at the Capitol.

So what?

So is everyone else.

Give me thirty seconds.

Why do you think you're special?

No.

What happened was you gave Mr.

Keller special privileges here.

He came at my request.

Yes.

You didn't.

Oh, okay.

I see.

Okay.

So there is someone that is special.

I would just note for the record that's a textbook First Amendment violation of viewpoint discrimination which the attorney general's office will be taking up.

Beach then ordered Kim to leave but relented when committee colleagues said they had questions for the senator.

Several other witnesses had offered to yield their time to Kim so he could speak earlier but Beach had refused them including Hoboken mayor and assembly elect Ravi Bala.

That is a slap in the face to your colleagues and that truly makes you special and this is a disgrace this is this whole hearing is a sham it's a farce it's an insult to the intelligence of the public the public is not stupid and we are not going to be fooled by this lack of transparency.

The bill as written would strip the comptroller's office of its power to issue subpoenas and investigate waste, fraud and abuse.

But the bill's sponsor, Senate President Nick Scatari, argued it aimed not to damage the comptroller but rather to revive a fellow watchdog agency, the State Commission of Investigation or SCI.

We are not eliminating any functions or responsibilities today.

We are simply relocating them and reallocating them to an agency whose core experience is long-form investigations.

The bill, S-4924, would also empower the Senate President and Assembly Speaker to appoint the SEI chair as Jersey's Inspector General and allow it to request wiretaps.

The consolation of investigatory responsibilities would eliminate duplication, streamline investigative functions, strengthen accountability, and create a more effective system for identifying fraud and abuse across state government and beyond.

Obviously, people have heard from their constituents that they want more transparency, more accountability, and an Inspector General with teeth, and that's what we're going to do today.

The SCI's new Executive Director, Bruce Keller, agreed.

A vote for 4924's reforms doesn't remotely resemble a vote for corruption.

It would be a vote for reinvigoration.

The reinvigoration of the one independent entity in all of state government designed to root out corruption.

But Attorney General Plattken raised red flags.

First, that the SCI isn't a law enforcement agency and so it can't legally wield wiretap powers.

And that it would make the SCI beholden to legislators for their jobs.

It creates a rogue prosecution agency reportable to legislative leadership with an executive director who as great as Bruce Keller may be, the legislature reaffirms can be fired at will with no notice.

Acting Comptroller Walsh spoke out vehemently against the bill, noting his office has recovered $530 million in taxpayer dollars over the last four fiscal years.

That's more than ten times the amount spent by his office and generated 25 reports this year compared to none from the SCI.

And he warned about the bill's impact on incoming Governor Mikey Sherrill.

The idea that a new governor who is committed to holding government accountable and to fighting corruption would not be able to appoint a state comptroller with investigatory, subpoena, etc.

powers hamstrings a governor coming in who has committed to reform.

Other opponents included some three dozen speakers, many from good government advocates, even other state watchdogs who would rather see the comptroller's office expanded, not reduced.

It's been the comptroller's office, not SCI, that has been working tirelessly to protect taxpayers and to improve the quality of life of the vast majority of nursing home residents.

It does appear to be an attack on one agency, not because it's doing a bad job, but because it's doing quite a good job, I think.

Independent oversight bodies have to be able to say the truth even when it's unpopular.

Senator Scuteri introduced the bill just before Thanksgiving.

The committee voted unanimously to release it, drawing more protests from critics appalled at its fast track through a lame-duck legislature.

Governor-elect Sheryl said she would not weigh in on pending bills, and Governor Murphy's office also had no comment, but Walsh said he'd be "surprised" if Murphy signed the measure.

I'm Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News.

Well, as Brenda mentioned, the hearing has ignited a political firestorm after devolving into personal attacks and public sparring.

Senator Andy Kim joins me now to talk about what happened inside that hearing room and what's at stake for accountability in New Jersey.

Senator Kim, thanks for being here.

What's your reaction to how this all unfolded?

What I saw in the hearing room at the state capitol yesterday is the broken politics that millions of New Jerseyans see all the time.

It was representation of the broken legislation, the bill that we're actually trying to stop.

It shows just how out of touch our state politics are, our political leaders are at the state level from what the people want.

And when you saw a room filled with passionate New Jerseyans from all over the state saying that we want more tools of accountability and transparency, and you just see the level of disrespect coming from a number of the political leaders, it was just very jarring to me and to many others there in the room.

Yeah, I mean Senator Beach really got into it with you attacking your voting record, voting to approve some of the cabinet members in the Trump administration.

How did you interpret that?

Well, look, you know, it was very clear that they had already made up their mind in terms of how they wanted to proceed.

And I think that's a big part of the process.

I think that's a big part of the process.

I think that's a big part of the process.

I think that's a big part of the process.

I think that's a big part of the process.

We have to be very careful about the kind of politics that we hold.

And again, this is the kind of broken politics that people in New Jersey just can't stand.

I've had so many people reach out to me over the last day and just tell me how disgusted they were with how things unfolded when we were just trying to have an open debate about a piece of very important legislation.

And I want to keep it on that, which is just that this piece of legislation that passed through that committee, 5-0, is dangerous.

It's the wrong move for us.

And I think that's why we're here.

And I think we need to be more careful about that.

>> I'm going to go back to the question of the people in New Jersey.

I think that's a big issue that we need to move forward.

And it's something that is going to weaken our efforts to fight corruption at a time when people across New Jersey are begging and demanding more accountability against the corruption that we see so rampant.

Yeah, I mean, obviously it concerns you enough to wait five hours to testify, to miss your train back to Washington.

By our accounts, a sitting U.S.

senator hasn't testified before a state legislative committee.

Just how concerned are you about what may happen to transparency and accountability in our state government?

Well, look, this is not in a vacuum.

You know, this is on top of what we've seen in terms of of efforts that have reduced transparency, you know, and whether it's the OPRA legislation that we saw before or others.

So, you know, this is something that I see as an ongoing effort.

And it feels very clearly done in a way that's trying to settle political scores, trying to send messages to those that are seeking to uncover corruption in our state and try to push them off.

So I felt that this was an important time to make a stand.

We have a new governor coming in in a month.

Why is this being pushed now?

We should have an open and real dialogue and debate about this.

It just is mind boggling to me that bills that are about transparency or the lack thereof are being pushed through with so little transparency and accountability.

And again, you know, there was one comment I heard when I was testifying.

Someone in the crowd said something and the chair just looked back at that person and just said, "I don't care about you."

I mean, it was just like, who talks to people that way?

These are constituents of ours.

You know, who talks to them in that kind of vein?

And I just thought that it was just very disgraceful.

Yeah, I believe that was to a member who had yielded their time to give you more when he said, you know, I don't I don't care about you.

But the comptroller's office, as it was noted yesterday, has investigated really powerful political players in New Jersey.

Do you believe this bill is in retaliation for that?

Well, I have no doubt that that is part of it.

And I think that that's something that we need to be clear about, is that, again, this is something that's about pushing efforts to settle those scores, but also to consolidate power.

And look, when it comes to the SCI component of this bill, I'm OK with -- and I said this -- I'm OK with increasing support and resources to the State Committee on Investigations, but that should not come at the expense of the comptroller position, which is clearly what the target of this was, was to gut the comptroller position and to reduce its ability to be able to do the types of reporting that they've done.

And this is -- this bill puts greater control into the hands of just a few people who can personally appoint commissioners as well as others and hold these employees at will.

I mean, I just find it to be absurd.

And it's not the kind of independence that we need when it comes to anti-corruption.

LISA DESJARDINS: I want to switch gears just quickly.

Yesterday, the Third Circuit gave a pretty powerful ruling that Alina Haba, the acting U.S.

attorney in New Jersey, is disqualified, is serving unlawfully.

You and your counterpart, Senator Booker, put out a statement about this, that it vindicated the concerns you had about the way in which she was put into this role.

What's your reaction to that ruling?

Well, I'm grateful that we have the ruling.

I hope we can move forward as a state and actually have a U.S.

attorney that is going to be focused on the people, not focused on just political attacks and partisanship.

And that's what we deserve.

There are real concerns that we have out there, and they have been held up because of this mess that we have had of a president trying to put into place their own personal attorney to be able to just run amok in our state.

And again, the fact that this happened on the same day that I was in that hearing, I mean, you just see left and right, whether it's in Trenton or in the Trump administration, you know, the problems that we face of elected leaders, of political leaders that don't feel that they are accountable to the people and have to follow the rules or just try to bend the rules to their desire.

We need to stand up against that no matter where it is and regardless of which party conducts the problems.

And that's what I'll do.

I'll stand up against corruption.

I'll stand up against this lawlessness everywhere.

From where you sit and from what you're hearing, Senator, how likely is it for this case with HABA to go before the Supreme Court?

I'm not sure yet.

Again, HABA is a personal attorney and friend, clearly, and a loyalist to this president.

So I don't know how far they're going to try to push it.

But I hope it doesn't, because, again, the people of New Jersey, the people across this country deserve clarity when it comes to their leadership, and we deserve a U.S.

attorney that is actually going to be -- have the confidence of the people and the process by which they get into that office.

And so that's what I'm hoping for, because it's an incredibly important position, and one that we deserve to have someone who is competent, someone who is credible, and someone who will do it right.

Who then, if you're willing to share, Senator, would be qualified to fill that role?

You and Senator Booker have invited the administration to work with you both on vetting a qualified candidate.

What might that look like or who might that look like?

SEN.

RONNIE YOONS: Well, look, I'm not going to go into names here, but what we had initially talked to the White House about was a process in which we could be able to provide suggestions and recommendations to be able to talk this through.

And that was all just thrown out the window the moment that they told us that the decision has already been made.

And again, that just goes against the traditions in terms of how this has worked in the past.

So what I would just say is, Senator Booker and I were prepared to have those conversations with the White House as we were months ago.

And that is what we should be doing.

That's what the people deserve is a thorough process that is focused on someone who is qualified and capable and somebody who is going to be a true public servant to New Jersey and this country.

All right.

U.S.

Senator Andy Kim with us tonight.

Senator, thanks so much.

Thanks for having me.

It's decision day in Hudson County where voters will cast their ballots in two high stakes mayoral races.

Runoff elections are being held in Jersey City and Hoboken after the November general election ended with multiple candidates failing to reach the 50% threshold needed to win the race.

Senior correspondent Joanna Gagas has the latest on the ground game in both cities where candidates have clashed on just about everything.

Out with the old in with the new.

That could be the slogan of both candidates vying to take control of the state's second largest city Councilman James Solomon and former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevy both accusing the other of being quote more of the same at a time when they say changes needed for Jersey City.

outgoing mayor Steve Full Solomon and McGreevy were the two top vote getters in November's general election.

Solomon with 29% of the vote McGreevy with 25% neither reached the 50% needed to win.

So voters headed back to the polls today to choose between the two Solomon who's running to make the city more affordable create more affordable housing and champion progressive policies released a poll a few weeks ago that had him with a nearly 30% lead in the runoff over McGreevey who's running to restructure government spending and close the $150 million budget hole currently facing the city.

Meanwhile, Jersey City's neighbor to the north, the one square mile city of Hoboken is also holding an election today in a very similar mayoral runoff.

The top two contenders, Councilwoman Emily Jabbour, who earned about 27% of the vote in November, and Michael Russo with 24% are facing off in what's become a contentious race to replace outgoing Mayor Ravi Bala, who won a seat in the state assembly.

It's a nice pivot there, Councilwoman, but the reality is we need to stop borrowing money when we do not have a plan to offset that bonding with a revenue stream.

Facts.

You have voted to support over 80% of the bonds that have passed in my eight-year tenure on the council.

I think we really held him to task when it comes to talking out of both sides of his mouth and got to the meat of some of the really key policies that people want to hear about.

Jabbour reflecting on last week's debate between the two, one of the top issues, housing affordability, not just for low-income residents but also middle-income.

They both outlined a plan to build more housing above an existing parking garage, but Jabbour takes issue with Russo's campaign donations.

"The level of contributions that my opponent has received from one developer in particular who has very strong interests in affordable housing in the city, those are concerning to me."

"If you look at the elect reports, the same developers who have given to me have given to my opponent.

Now, I don't care where she got her money.

That's not the issue that people are concerned about.

They're concerned about how their lives are being affected day to day.

I'm trying to unite this city, she's trying to divide this city.

I will continue to do my job and unite this city and make sure that people understand that change is coming."

"There are people who care where the funds come from because they want to know that the person who they're electing is going to represent them