Pennsylvania Republicans have worked for decades to restrict abortion access, but Democrats say the majority party is closer than ever to making it happen.
The two parties have long debated the ideological issue, but this time Republicans are willing to sidestep the executive branch and use the constitutional amendment process to pass their agenda.
“I’m very much concerned,” said Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Allegheny. “The chances of this happening are very real, better than 50/50.”
His concern stems from Republicans moving forward with a plan this week to eliminate Gov. Tom Wolf’s veto power and put their anti-abortion proposal on the ballot.
If the GOP passes its plan in the General Assembly before November and again in January, the abortion issue could land on voters’ ballots in the 2023 primary, an off-year election with a turnout that typically favors Republicans.
Democrats in the statehouse have had a solid line of defense in Wolf, a York County Democrat and pro-choice stalwart who has vetoed every piece of anti-abortion legislation that has come to his desk.
But his second term is about to expire and the 2022 race for governor is wide open.
More than a dozen Republican candidates are running for governor, and many have already identified as pro-life.
State Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the only Democrat in the race, has repeatedly vowed to protect a woman’s right to choose.
But the Republican-controlled Legislature won’t need a governor’s support or be deterred by a potential veto if their plan passes.
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In a lawsuit filed Thursday morning, former Senate President Steve Sweeney is asking a judge to return him to New Jersey’s legislative redistricting panel., saying that Democratic State Chairman LeRoy Jones, Jr. didn’t have the authority to remove him.
Attorney William Tambussi, says that Jones violated the State Constitution by ejecting Sweeney and that acting Secretary of State Tahesha Way unlawfully certified the appointment of a new member, Laura Matos.
Court papers also say that the replacement of Sweeney didn’t consider South Jersey representation on the panel and that the legal deadline to appoint members has passed.
This sets up a court fight between two top-flight election law attorneys: Tambussi, who knows New Jersey as well as anyone, and Marc Elias and Jonathan Berkon, nationally-renowned election lawyers who have been retained by Jones.
Sweeney also alleges that a party loyalty agreement he and other commissioners signed prior to their appointment “constitutes a binding and enforceable contract between Sweeney and Jones.”
In his filing, Tambussi said that Sweeney “has complied with the terms of the Agreement at all applicable times.”
“Sweeney fulfilled all duties and obligations as a member of the Commission from the time of his appointment to the Commission until his removal without cause or authority by Jones,” Tambussi said in his petition to the court.
President Joe Biden has appointed Bob Andrzejczak (D-Middle), a former Democratic state senator who said during his 2019 campaign that he had not ruled out supporting Donald Trump’s re-election, as the state director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency.
A one-time ally of Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), the right-of-center Andrzejczak told the New Jersey Globe in October 2019 that he might vote for Trump the following year. That was two months before Van Drew switched parties.
“Look, I vote for the best person regardless of party,” Andrzejczak said at the time. “Our nation was founded on Democracy and it’s about who has the best ideas, who’s willing to work with one another, who’s willing to serve and represent all the people, not just one side or another.”
One week before Election Day, Andrzejczak also refused to say if he would if he would support Biden or New Jersey U.S. Senator Cory Booker if either won the Democratic presidential nomination.
“There’s a lot that has to be hashed out. I’m not throwing my support one nominee, at this point, over another,” Andrzejczak said about Biden. “There’s a lot more debates we have to go through. There’s still a long process before we get to that point.”
The new Biden appointee did rule out supporting two Democrats who were seeking the presidency at the time: Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
“Oh god no,” said Andrzejczak. “No, I would not vote for them.”
Andrzejczak was a decorated U.S. Army veteran who lost his left leg in Iraq when Van Drew then a Democratic state senator, recruited him to run for the New Jersey State Assembly in 2013.
After Van Drew took his seat in Congress in January 2019, Andrzejczak won a special election to replace him in the State Senate. He lost a special election that November to Republican Michael Testa, Jr. (R-Vineland) by a 53%-36% margin.
The former Democratic senator, who ran three times as a member of “The Van Drew Team,” had distanced himself from the state’s Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, prior to his 2019 campaign.
A one-time ally of Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), the right-of-center Andrzejczak told the New Jersey Globe in October 2019 that he might vote for Trump the following year. That was two months before Van Drew switched parties.
“Look, I vote for the best person regardless of party,” Andrzejczak said at the time. “Our nation was founded on Democracy and it’s about who has the best ideas, who’s willing to work with one another, who’s willing to serve and represent all the people, not just one side or another.”
One week before Election Day, Andrzejczak also refused to say ifhe would if he would support Biden or New Jersey U.S. Senator Cory Booker if either won the Democratic presidential nomination.
“There’s a lot that has to be hashed out. I’m not throwing my support one nominee, at this point, over another,” Andrzejczak said about Biden. “There’s a lot more debates we have to go through. There’s still a long process before we get to that point.”
The new Biden appointee did rule out supporting two Democrats who were seeking the presidency at the time: Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
“Oh god no,” said Andrzejczak. “No, I would not vote for them.”
Andrzejczak was a decorated U.S. Army veteran who lost his left leg in Iraq when Van Drew, then a Democratic state senator, recruited him to run for the New Jersey State Assembly in 2013.
After Van Drew took his seat in Congress in January 2019, Andrzejczak won a special election to replace him in the State Senate. He lost a special election that November to Republican Michael Testa, Jr. (R-Vineland) by a 53%-36% margin.
The former Democratic senator, who ran three times as a member of “The Van Drew Team,” had distanced himself from the state’s Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, prior to his 2019 campaign.
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The Lehigh County Authority suspended a permit last year allowing a New Jersey plastics manufacturer to dispose of industrial waste in one of its treatment plants after a two-state investigation identified the plant as the source of a likely cancer-causing chemical that turned up in New Jersey drinking water.
New Jersey American Water Co. detected an industrial solvent called 1,4-Dioxane in samples of Delaware River water near its plant that produces water for four South Jersey counties in February 2020. Working with the New Jersey and Pennsylvania departments of environmental protection and the Delaware River Basin Commission, it determined the chemical was entering the Delaware River from the Lehigh River, a company official said.
Testing of waste being hauled to LCA’s industrial pretreatment works in Upper Macungie Township identified 1,4-Dioxane in a tanker load from West Deptford, New Jersey, plastics company Coim USA as a major contributor, according to a letter LCA sent to the company in June when it suspended the permit. Coim was required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to send waste containing 1,4-Dioxane to an incinerator in New York, according to Politico.com, which first reported on the hunt for the source of the chemical Sunday.
The Lehigh County Authority wastewater pretreatment facility is seen Monday in Upper Macungie Township. Industrial waste treated at the plant was discovered to be the source of a cancer-causing chemical found in drinking water taken from the Delaware River in New Jersey. LCA has since ended its contract with the New Jersey company where the industrial waste originated. (Rick Kintzel/Morning Call)
CEO Liesel Gross said although the permit suspension was temporary, LCA has no intention of reinstating the permit.
“Our understanding was that it was an isolated incident but I have no way of being able to verify that,” Gross said.
Coim USA’s president did not return a phone call Monday but told Politico that the shipment of waste containing 1,4-Dioxane was mistakenly sent to LCA as the result of a one-time error. Coim USA is the American subsidiary of an Italian plastics and polymer manufacturer and first received a permit to dispose of waste at the LCA plant in 2018, Gross said. Regulators have not taken formal action in response to the release.
