Words by Roman White
New Jersey Governor Elect, Phil Murphy, celebrated his pre-inauguration with a Busta Rhymes performance. The event took place at New Jersey’s Middlesex County Community College, where the New York City native performed his most popular songs to celebrate New Jersey’s new governor.
Busta Rhymes performing at Phil Murphy’s pre-inaugural concert: pic.twitter.com/QjfuNMR0Wu
— Sara Jerde (@SaraJerde) January 15, 2018
Phil Murphy beat Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno in the November election winning 49.5 percent of the vote to Guadagno’s 35 percent. On Sunday, President Donald Trump called Murphy to congratulate him on his gubernatorial victory as he did with Viriginia’s Governor-elect Ralph Northam who Trump did not support during his campaign and in fact endorsed his Republican opponent, Ed Gillespie.
Murphy will take over the office previously held by Republican Governor and President Trump Ally Chris Christie. Christie leaves the office with an historic low 15 percent approval rating. Aside from legislation, it is believed that the majority of the disapproval of Christie comes from his early backing of Donald Trump who remains very unpopular in the largely democratic state.
Christie also leaves office with the “bridgegate” controversy where he and other members of his cabinet allegedly colluded to create traffic jams across the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The plot was an alleged act of revenge against Democratic Mayor Mark Sokolich for not supporting Christie in his most recent campaign. Executive Director of Port Authority in New York and New Jersey, Bill Baroni, was sentenced to two years in prison according to a report by nj.com. Also, as a co-conspirator, Bridget Kelly is to serve 18 months in prison plus a year of probation.
Murphy’s agenda consists mostly of dealing with the property taxes in New Jersey which according to a study by ATTOM Data Solutions is more than $10,000 for almost a quarter of single family homes in the Garden State.
On a different note, Murphy has also said he would fight for New Jersey to be the next state to legalize recreational use of marijuana. Murphy’s inauguration is scheduled for Tuesday January 16.