Why such a close election? In New Jersey, it’s always because of taxes. | Opinion

By John J. Farmer, Jr. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this year’s disruptive election is that so many are surprised by it. The apparent defeat of Senate President Sweeney and the apparent near-defeat of Gov. Phil Murphy may have been hard to forecast in the moment, but in the sweep of New Jersey political history, they are nothing new. Disruptive elections have occurred at least every other decade for the past 60 years, almost always as a consequence of the tension between the programs we the people support and the costs they — we — are unwilling to pay. In the 1960s, Gov. Richard J. Hu…

Read More