It’s rare for testimony in a New Jersey State Senate hearing to make national news, but State Sen. Jim Beach (D-Oaklyn) found a way.
In a Monday committee hearing on a controversial bill that would hobble the state comptroller’s office and fold many of its functions into the State Commission of Investigation, Beach, the committee chair, refused to allow U.S. Senator Andy Kim to testify until the very end of the hourslong hearing, forcing Kim to miss Senate votes in Washington.
And after Kim, who was there with Attorney General Matt Platkin and acting Comptroller Kevin Walsh, had spoken for three minutes, Beach harshly cut him off: “Why do you think you’re special? You’re not.” (When asked by the press why he had been so curt with Kim despite allowing supporters of the bill to discuss their arguments at length, Beach simply said “I’m hungry” and refused to talk.)
The striking display earned headlines in the New Jersey media that afternoon, and since then, national news outlets have begun to take notice, too. Kim was interviewed by CNN’s Jake Tapper about the incident yesterday, and the American Prospect, the National Review, and Mother Jones have all taken an interest as well – attention reminiscent of Kim’s 2024 Senate campaign, when his fight against the county line educated the country about New Jersey’s unusual (and now-defunct) ballot design practices.
Speaking to the New Jersey Globe yesterday, Kim said that his focus remains on killing the bill itself, and he believed that the attention that has come thanks to Monday’s committee meltdown will only make it harder for the bill to pass.
“A lot of legislators either took my calls or have reached out to me since the hearing,” Kim said. “All of them expressed utter anger at how the hearing was conducted, and all of them have told me that they oppose the bill as well. They think that the poor conduct at the hearing is going to make it even harder for people to get to a yes on it.”
“I don’t know where things stand, I’ve seen a lot of terrible bills get passed through the legislature before, so I’m not going to take anything for granted,” he continued. “But I do think that there’s a lot of eyes opened now after that hearing.”
Kim said that so far his conversations have been entirely with Democratic legislators, but he’s also trying to get in contact with some Republicans about his concerns as well; the bill passed out of committee with unanimous support from three Democrats and two Republicans. (Asked whether he thinks there should be political consequences for the bill’s supporters, Kim demurred.)
In fact, one of the Democrats who voted for the bill in committee, State Sen. John McKeon (D-West Orange), later said in a statement that he would oppose the bill on the Senate floor unless significant changes are made, and obliquely blamed Beach for Kim’s treatment at the hearing: “To be abundantly clear, the speaking order of testifiers is solely determined by the chairman of the committee,” McKeon said.
Kim also said that he has not spoken with Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill since the hearing, but she has expressed some concerns about the bill in the past. In a November 26 statement, Sherrill said she was “opposed to efforts that weaken essential accountability and oversight, including with our watchdog agencies that root out government corruption, waste, and abuse,” but added that she would not comment on specific pending legislation.
When Kim ran for Senate in 2024, he did so against the wishes of nearly every Democratic party leader in New Jersey, and his campaign struck at the heart of the state’s political system when it successfully sued to strike down the county line. After he won, however, Kim had a choice: fold himself into the party establishment that had spurned him, or continue to fight against it where he saw fit.
So far, he seems to have chosen the latter path. He’s made some endorsements this year, of Jersey City Mayor-elect James Solomon and of former Rep. Tom Malinowski in the 11th district special election, that go against local party leaders’ wishes, and he’s remained much more involved in state politics and policymaking than, say, his Senate colleague, Cory Booker. (Kim’s close involvement in state affairs is reminiscent in many ways of his disgraced predecessor, Bob Menendez, though Menendez did so on the side of the party machine rather than against it.)
Kim characterized the clash with Beach, the chairman of the Camden County Democratic organization and a member of the storied South Jersey political machine, as a continuation of the longer-term fight between the political establishment and a “new kind of politics that is sick and tired of machine, transactional politics.” Beach could control what happened in Committee Room 6 on Monday, but Kim said he can’t control what happens next in New Jersey politics.
“I was trying to think through, why is the chairman so angry? Why is he being so antagonistic? There’s a version of this where they just let me testify early, let me say my piece, and move on. But the chairman couldn’t help himself,” Kim said. “And it’s because there’s so much anger, but also, frankly, fear on their side that the politics that they have done their whole lives is going away.”
“He wanted to try to use that as a means to show that he controls politics,” Kim continued. “Whether it’s about the speaking order or how many minutes you speak for, that’s all he’s got. Everything else, he’s losing. He cannot control that room, he cannot control the politics, but he’s going to latch onto what he can control. I just found that to be sad.”
