Van Drew Shakes Dem Gov. Murphy Earthquake Absence

(Mel Evans/AP)

New Jersey Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy is facing criticism for not returning to his state after Friday’s earthquake and aftershock.

Murphy was as at a Democrat governors convention during the earthquake and its aftermath Friday, giving only remote interviews and statements, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., said Saturday in a televised interview.

“He wasn’t at a world summit for world peace — I mean he was at a Democratic convention, basically an association of Democratic governors who were probably working on ways to make more Democratic governors,” Drew said.

“So I think he could have taken maybe even 12 hours out to come back to New Jersey. Our folks in New Jersey really had to look to New York — to New York officials — and what they were saying even though the actual earthquake was centered in Lebanon, New Jersey, in the northwestern part of the state.”

When emergencies happen, the Democrat governor should have dropped his political event for his constituency, Drew added.

“It would have been a nice symbol if he came back and said, You know what? Everything’s going to be OK. I want to personally review the infrastructure myself, see what the team has done,” Van Drew said. “And then he could have gotten back to the convention, the association that he was at.

“So I personally was a little disappointed that he didn’t make it. It’s just good for people to know that their leaders are there during times of problems.”

The 4.8-magnitude earthquake was not a crisis, but perhaps shows where Murphy’s priorities lie as a leader, according to Van Drew, who left the Democratic Party to become a Republican after being initially voted into Congress.

“And even though, in, you know, the world scheme of earthquakes — with what California sees or some other states — this was not huge, it was the biggest earthquake the state of New Jersey has had almost in a century and a half,” Van Drew concluded. “I wish he had been there.”