N.J. Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill announces transition team, lists utility costs, homebuyers credit, kids’ safety as top priorities

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Just hours after she defeated Republican Jack Ciattarelli in the most expensive election in state history, New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill held her first news conference Wednesday afternoon.

Sherrill, who will be sworn into office next January, will become the second woman to occupy the governor’s office in the Garden State. Christine Todd Whitman, who served as governor from 1994 to 2001, was the first.

The transition team

Sherrill announced that Lt. Gov.-elect Dale Caldwell will serve as the head of her transition team, and Kellie Doucette, who worked on Sherrill’s congressional campaign and later served as her district director in Congress, will work as executive director.

Sherrill said she met with outgoing Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday morning to discuss transition plans.

“It’s just so important as we look to the future, to fight hard for the prosperity of the 9 million citizens here in New Jersey, make sure we protect liberty as we see the continued attacks on rights and freedoms,” she said.

Top priorities as governor

The governor-elect said as soon as she is sworn into office, she will freeze utility costs, but she did not offer any specifics.

“We’ve already had some conversations, I’ve already even during the campaign had some conversations with some of our utility companies, as well as working with some policy experts on exactly what money is coming in through the [Board of Public Utilities], and how it might be used to do that,” she said.

Sherrill said she will also work on a kids online safety agenda, join the lawsuit to push back on tariffs enacted by the Trump administration and begin work on the next state budget.

There are other front-burner issues she said she is planning to pursue.

“Expanding the first time home-buyers credits, so people can get their food in the door, taking on landlords who are colluding to drive up rental prices,” she said.  “Taking on [pharmacy benefit managers], those are the middlemen in drug pricing to drive down drug costs.”

She said she will work to fix the state health benefits plan, improve third-grade reading scores across New Jersey’s schools and lower bloated school administration costs.

Working with Trump

Sherrill, who attacked President Donald Trump’s policies during the campaign, suggested she will put her differences aside and work with him to serve her constituents.

“We haven’t spoken yet, but certainly I’m going to be working very hard to get resources, federal resources back into New Jersey, to discuss and take on the Gateway Tunnel right away because that’s such a key issue and such an economic driver here,” Sherrill said.

On Oct. 16, Trump announced he canceled plans to build a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River, but U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the project is still under review.

Protecting immigrants

Sherrill didn’t outline her specific plans on what she would do to protect immigrants with no criminal records who are detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

“I’m committed to making sure people here feel safe, and that is what I’m going to do as governor,” she said.

She said she would “take on” those who are not following the law and the Constitution, but did not explain what that meant. She said she supports aspects of the Immigrant Trust Directive, a policy that limits state and local law enforcement’s involvement in federal immigration enforcement activity, but did not offer her stance on the Immigrant Trust Act, which is awaiting a vote in the legislature.