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Reporting to executive and legislature leaders and all counties of the garden state.

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♪ >> We don't need a party line.

It is "Reporters Roundtable."

Our end of the season panel includes a senior reporter, a politics reporter, and a columnist.

We will hear from them in just a bit.

But let's begin with an assessment of what just happened.

With our guest who spends his time assessing these kind of things.

He joins us now.

Good to see you again.

>> Thank you for having me.

>> I have interviewed you during actual class time in the past.

How often does what you do with us and others in that being a part of your classroom teaching?

>> The signature class I teach is New Jersey government and politics.

Basically the best advice I can give them is to follow your channel.

We do in-depth discussing the news I discuss every day.

Whatever they have read that they have questions about.

David: Interesting.

Our panelists are eager to engage with you and get some of questions.

Do you have one?

>> We just saw the governor signed a controversial open public record bill into law.

How much do you think it will affect his legacy?

Some progressives are saying, you are dead to us.

>> I think he deserves all of that.

He has taken our records, public records, they belong to the public.

We pay to generate them.

He has put them further out of reach.

I think it is a dirty deal.

I think it was pushed by mayors to do not want scrutiny or accountability.

I think he absolutely made the wrong call.

I think it will affect him.

As someone who was in the governor's office when this original law was signed, it was one of the proudest moments I had in office.

I think the opposite will be true.

He will look back on this and regretted.

He will see this was a mistake.

I speak to historians and genealogists who use this on an daily basis and they will not know until they go to make the next request that they cannot get metadata.

They can be accused of harassment.

All of this stuff was not a hassle before and now it will be a hassle.

David: Do you want to jump in?

On what everyone.

>> Now that the county parties are able to flex and reassert their power without the party line, how much do you think this will undercut any pushed to reform the system within the legislature?

We heard the leadership of both parties bowing to do that.

>> I don't think it will dissuade them at all.

I think they will try to come up with whatever they do.

They are going to try to make it happen.

Whether they can get the stamp of approval from a judge is another question.

Another thing I will be curious to look at is without the line, how much do people look at slogans?

I think voters are used to that.

I don't expect the legislature to be dissuaded.

But I don't know if the judge will get them what -- let them get away with this.

>> I am curious to see what you make of this race in Hudson County.

The son of Bob Menendez, who is currently on trial.

We were thinking that he would face some real challenges in the primary against the mayor of Hoboken and he did not.

What do you think happened?

>> He ended up winning by a very comfortable margin.

I think what happened is he had the political scare of his life but into him.

He took nothing for granted.

He ran a smart campaign.

He did a lot of Hispanic voter outreach.

If there was any group of voters who stayed with his father, it was those he was looking to turn out on a which he did.

He also got the machine involved.

They did what they had to do.

He had a lot of arrows being thrown at him in his own hometown.

Beyond that, he could not make inroads in the rest of the district where those organization types were racking up the numbers for Menendez.

David: You saw him in those shots we were showing a moment ago.

I guess the big take away is with or without the line, the organizations are still key.

>> Do not count them out.

We were ready to write their obituaries.

They could figure out how to get back up and dust themselves off.

They figured out what they had to do.

What I think this boils down to is if you are going to mount a credible challenge against the machine, you will need to be better known and better finance.

You will lead to put together a rival to the machine itself.

No one has been able to do that.

He had the support of three county organizations.

They were not able to do that.

Even though he was really well-known and really well-financed, he was not able to do that.

You have to have all of those elements.

So for the challenges have not done that.

David: That last race was for County Sheriff in Passaic County.

The race at the top of the ticket, aside from the president, which is already known, was Andy Kim.

He was obviously the favorite.

No surprise that he won.

What should we make from a first-time candidate who hung in there and got over 100,000 votes statewide.

More than 20% in six counties.

That was not a protest vote, was it?

>> Let's give her do.

I spoke with Democrats who were impressed.

When she went out and made her pitch.

That clearly resonated.

People remembered it.

I think it is possible that there were some Tammy Murphy supporters.

I think she was that alternative.

David: There is that enduring photo.

She is standing there in front of those people.

That one I will remember for a while.

Not your runner -- run-of-the-mill candidate.

I think he is the right guy to get outside of the Republican box.

He is describing himself as pro-choice.

That is different.

We will push them on that a little bit.

He very passionately spoke against book bands.

He wants to get beyond those typical labels.

That is what you have to do.

David: Good to see you.

Thank you for taking some time with us.

Good to see you.

>> I think we really summed it up nicely.

No one doubted that ability to adapt to the situation.

They still had tremendous resources and advantages.

Including name recognition.

They had the slogan.

Andy Kim touched on this.

He said this is the start of a long-term movement.

We did not break through and save the day.

This is the start of a movement.

Not the end.

David: We saw a senator rallying the troops this week.

The governor came down.

>> That could have been predicted to be one of the hardest races.

I think what we will see is much stronger, better position candidates who will be willing to take a chance.

Because there is that extra help.

>> This will be interesting to watch.

The governor's race is shaping up to be something we have not seen in a long time.

That is really the race to watch.

David: This President Trump obsessed Republicans have one of a gate, or choice, so so on trial South Jersey hotel developer.

Is this the new GOP?

>> I think he has a lot better of a chance at coming at Andy Kim.

He can now make the pivot to the general election.

And stop talking about endorsing Trump.

And start talking about the thing Independence care about.

And might vote for him for.

If you were up against any other number of candidates I would say we will have an actual race for the Senate in New Jersey.

Andy Kim, you cannot underestimate that man.

He did not just when the primary and now he is well-positioned to run for Senate.

He took down the Democratic Party establishment.

I saw so many times during the campaign he had a credible political instincts time and time again.

I think that is what we will see.

He will make it very difficult for a candidate who endorsed a convicted felon.

That is what he will say.

These will say it over and over and over again.

This is a man who endorsed Donald Trump after he had been convicted on 34 felony counts.

Is he the type of Republican that a New Jersey unaffiliated voter can love?

>> I think he is a back to the future Republican.

He is from the center.

He is openly gay.

Which is a new thing for the Republican Party.

I don't think it will matter that much at all in the general election.

I think you are right.

I saw Andy Kim come out with this aspiration.

He took off the gloves on election night.

And he said basically, you are on the side of a convicted felon.

That is what he is going to stand for.

He also said that is what defines him in his short career in politics.

And he wants to keep it short.

I think you are 100% right.

He is a crafty political fighter.

Not one to be underestimated.

All you have to do is ask Chris Russell.

He will tell you the same thing.

David: Senator Menendez, you mentioned, he is running as an independent.

What could go wrong for Democrats in the fall with that?

>> Were still really not sure how this will shake out.

If he is convicted, if you will stay in the race.

A lot of things can happen.

His name could still be on the ballot.

It is not a great thing for Democrats.

His name will be on there and I'm sure there is a small pocket of support that is still supporting him.

The question will be is it enough to sway the race and give a better chance for a Republican to win.

It is certainly an interesting development.

David: The other news this week not directly political related, congestion pricing, the New York governor killed it this week.

What was that about?

Politics or economics?

>> Politics.

100%.

I don't think it is so much the politics of being concerned.

I think she was listening to Democrats in her state who were saying, do not do this thing before the November election.

Are you crazy?

I thought this was political.

And it definitely means November.

David: Interesting.

The home stretch on the state budget.

Shutdown or no shutdown?

>> I doubt there will be a shutdown.

I don't know this but it seems like the governors signing that bill signaled that a lot of ducks are already in a row.

With any kind of deals with the legislature.

If there were things that were unresolved, he would have used that bill.

Because he had some time on his hands.

I don't expect a big budget drama.

David: The fix was in early.

>> I heard this bill was signed in a deal that happened a long time ago.

But I have heard whispers about taxes.

We even heard it in budget hearings.

Maybe let's raise the sales tax if we have a budget crunch.

I don't see a shutdown and a presidential election year.

David: Maybe some drama still.

I thought we would look at the most New Jersey thing that you covered this season.

Let's start with you.

>> I will have to go with the Bob Menendez case.

It has so many features that are so New Jersey.

I wrote a piece back in the fall about it.

I think really, the stacks of cash in his jacket with his name embroidered on it, the gold bars, which is kind of like New Jersey politics it's the reality show.

The state dinner with Egyptian intelligence officials.

It is not a New Jersey diner but there are so many great, expensive steak dinners, backroom deals that we have had over the years.

And then throwing his wife under the bus.

I could not love this story more.

[LAUGHTER] It is unbelievable.

The gift that keeps on giving with this one.

David: What else can the love of my life do for you?

What do you have?

>> I want to go back to what we would talk about earlier.

The crazy fight between Tammy Murphy and Andy Kim in this primary.

We were going to conventions we had never gone to before because the governor's wife and the first lady was running for a nomination against insurgent congressmen.

She ended up dropping out right before this masses decision that changed the face of New Jersey politics.

I don't know if anybody in Iowa or Arkansas can understand how machine politics dominated the story and our lives for weeks.

David:David: It was insane.

I have never covered so many county conventions.

What do you have?

>> I want to say, just to add onto that, county conventions, I have covered that before in such detail and such drama.

I cover the Iowa caucuses and Chris Christie was running for president.

That was quaint.

This was real.

It also have this throwback deal.

Like this was the 1930's again.

There was something really old-school about it.

I think the signature moment was in Monmouth County when results came in.

They looked like they had just seen a nightmare on M Street.

20 seconds later the results came in and his candidate lost by a big margin.

It was seeing it in real time which was really dramatic and colorful and we will probably not see that for a long time.

David: All of those are definitely very New Jersey.

I would have picked any of those.

Mine was from Hudson County where I covered meetings on redevelopment.

It is so New Jersey that an out-of-town billionaire golf course owner would put down millions of dollars to buy off elected officials in an effort to convince local residents that they have a plan to laud the park and the surrounding community.

Lying is one thing.

That is not the plan at all.

But those elected officials who perpetuate the lie deserve a Bronx cheer are more appropriately the New Jersey state heard.

That will do it for us this season.

It has been a pleasure to work with you all season long.

Thank you so much for joining us.

And thanks to all of you for all of your support this season.

We really appreciate it.

Follow us all summer long.

For all of the crew here, thank you for watching.

Have a great summer.

>> Major funding is provided by RWJBarnabas health, let's be healthy together.

promotional support provided by New Jersey business magazine.

The Magazine of the New Jersey business and industry Association.

Since 1954.

And by New Jersey playbook, a topical newsletter on ardent state politics.

♪