Untangling the Appearance of a Sweeney-Coughlin Rift
When Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex) unveiled his proposal to reform the public school teachers’ health benefits package and substantially reduce employee contributions, the media and the Trenton in-crowd quickly pounced, characterizing it as evidence of a significant break with Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester), over a policy issue that has dominated and bedeviled legislatures and administrations.
Like most knee-jerk reactions, it is accurate only in a narrow sense but overlooks the larger forces at play. Certainly, Coughlin’s legislation — a long sought goal of the New Jersey Education Association — is markedly different and falls considerably short of the comprehensive overhaul of the public pension system championed by Sweeney.
It does not, though, rise to the level of a philosophical rift between the two leaders nor does it by any means represent a fissure in what has been a united front which has served both men well in re-asserting legislative dominance and placing it on an equal footing with the executive branch in determining public policy.
Rather, the Speaker’s idea reflects the most fundamental rule of political life — in an election year, provide the greatest degree of protection possible to your colleagues and head off or mitigate opposition from outside sources, particularly those with financial and organizational clout.
Read more: https://www.insidernj.com/untangling-appearance-sweeney-coughlin-rift/