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NJ Dem House candidate Sue Altman flip-flops on police and public safety in resurfaced social media posts

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NJ Dem House candidate Sue Altman flip-flops on police and public safety in resurfaced social media posts


New Jersey House Democratic candidate Sue Altman has disavowed several anti-law enforcement policies — including the “Defund the Police” movement — that she backed in past social media posts.

The former boss of the Garden State’s progressive Working Families Party has modified her past stances, telling NJ Spotlight News in an interview last week that she is “not in favor of defund the police.”

“I think it was a really silly hashtag from the middle of the pandemic that caught fire online,” she said. “I believe in a comprehensive vision for public safety that includes all stakeholders.”

New Jersey House Democratic candidate Sue Altman has disavowed several anti-law enforcement policies — including the “Defund the Police” movement — that she backed in past social media posts. Sue Altman/Facebook

But as her campaign to unseat Republican Rep. Tom Kean in New Jersey’s 7th District was heating up last fall, a Democratic campaign operative tweeted out a screenshot showing she supported defunding the police — a post that has since been deleted.

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“NJ’s Sheriffs … are overwhelmingly white and male, snuggled in w[ith] our massive county government, and control HUGE budgets,” Altman posted on Twitter, now X.

“Those of us working on #DefundThePolice in Jersey might consider looking here,” she added.

“Those of us working on #DefundThePolice in Jersey might consider looking here,” she said in an apparent post that has since been deleted.

The screenshot did not include a date, but the profile image matches Altman’s Twitter profile photo between 2019 and 2021, according to archived posts from her account.

Another post from the operative, Checkmate Advisors President Steve Ayscue, called Altman out for celebrating the release from prison of a convicted cop killer.

In July 2020, she said it was “awesome” that the Working Families Party was pushing to “fight to shift resources from policing to real community investments instead.”

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In July 2020, she said it was “awesome” that the Working Families Party was pushing to “fight to shift resources from policing to real community investments instead.”

Other posts from the same period before Altman’s run for office criticized the alleged “extra perks” available to “white male dominated professions like cops [a]n[d] firefighters.”

She also encouraged others to attend a “police reform rally” in June 2021 organized by a left-wing activist who supports reparations payments for black Americans, a policy for which she has also stated her support.

Another pro-police defunding group, Reproductive Freedom for All, endorsed Altman’s 2024 run earlier this year, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

As her campaign to unseat Republican Rep. Tom Kean in New Jersey’s 7th District was heating up last fall, a Democratic campaign operative tweeted out a screenshot showing she supported defunding the police — a post that has since been deleted. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Kean had an eight-percentage-point lead on both Altman and Democratic primary candidate Jason Blazakis in January, according to an internal campaign poll commissioned by the Blazakis campaign, before the state’s primary elections in June.

He still maintains a fundraising advantage against Altman, with the former recording a more than $3 million campaign war chest as of the second quarter 2024 filings and the latter listing $2.2 million cash-on-hand.

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The 7th Congressional District is currently rated as a Republican toss-up by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, one of two dozen close races that will determine control of the House in November.

The Altman campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



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NJ’s new budget is coming. How will state finances affect your taxes?

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NJ’s new budget is coming. How will state finances affect your taxes?



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Gov. Mikie Sherrill is set to present her first state budget proposal in a Tuesday, March 10, address to the New Jersey Legislature. It’s clear the proposal will make some hard choices as state finances face major headwinds.

Late last month, Sherrill said her budget plan will include some “tough choices” because of the looming uncertainty of a structural deficit for state finances.

The governor explained that if projections stay on the current path, the state would have a structural deficit of about $3 billion by the end of June, when her proposed budget would be in the final stages of negotiations with the Legislature.

Uncertainty due to federal funding cuts, along with the end of pandemic relief funding, has already forced Sherrill to consider all of her options when crafting her plan for New Jersey’s fiscal year 2027.

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The governor wouldn’t give particulars about what to expect in her upcoming fiscal plan but instead said she is “setting the table so people can anticipate that this is going to be a tough budget season.”

What does a structural deficit mean for New Jersey taxpayers?

A structural deficit, simply put, means New Jersey spends more than it earns.

Among the costliest tax relief programs in the state’s history, Stay NJ was introduced legislatively in the run-up to the fiscal year 2024 budget and received funding for three years without paying anything out.

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The first Stay NJ checks are being sent out to qualifying New Jersey seniors, but the accumulated $1.2 billion covers only the first six months of the program for this year. Roughly $900 million will need to be added to the line item in Sherrill’s first fiscal plan to maintain the program.

The law that created Stay NJ requires full pension payments, full school funding payments and a surplus of at least 12% to be built into the budget as prerequisites for funding the program. The surplus was not 12% when the budget was signed during the last two years, but budget language allowed for a work-around.

Sherrill would not commit to requiring the prerequisites before she would be willing to sign a budget bill in late June.

Increasing costs for the State Health Benefits Program, which is already a contentious topic, could also be a concern for the new governor, as payments are about $2 billion annually and the 10% increase needed in this year’s budget added more than $180 million.

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How does New Jersey’s budget process work?

New Jersey’s $58.8 billion budget for fiscal year 2026 is the largest in history and is set to expire at the end of June.

The plan for fiscal year 2027 — which will run from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027 — is a major factor in how New Jersey state government will function by dictating which state departments and programs are funded.

After Sherrill’s address in March, her proposed spending and revenue plan will be analyzed and shaped in the Legislature through the spring. Negotiations will heat up as the current fiscal year winds to a close in June. If the budget cycle is normal, a final budget bill will land on Sherrill’s desk hours before the current fiscal year ends at 11:59 p.m. on June 30.

Though it would be unlikely — given Democratic control of both chambers of the Legislature and the governor’s office — in the event the budget bill does not get signed, state government shuts down. There have been two shutdowns in state history: for 10 days in 2006 and three days in 2017.

Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com

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Woman fatally struck by NJ Transit train in Ramsey

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Woman fatally struck by NJ Transit train in Ramsey


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A woman was fatally struck by a train in Ramsey on the morning of March 8.

The unidentified woman was hit by the train at 10:49 a.m., just west of the Main Street crossing near the main Ramsey station, said John Chartier, director of media relations for NJ Transit.

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Rail service was suspended in both directions between Allendale and Port Jervis but has since resumed, with delays of up to 30 minutes.

The train came from Port Jervis and was heading to Hoboken, and 150 people were on board at the time, Chartier said.

NJ Transit police are leading the investigation. No additional information about the circumstances of the death was available.



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Bratt | POST-RAW 3.7.26 | New Jersey Devils

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Bratt | POST-RAW 3.7.26 | New Jersey Devils


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