The chairman of the New Jersey Republican Party, Doug Steinhardt, visited Lakewood on Wednesday, where he met with local business owners, the Special Children’s Center, and delivered donated PPE to the Fountainview Care Center.

Sitting alongside Senator Bob Singer, Chairman Steinhardt expressed concern for small businesses who are being inhibited by Governor Murphy’s lockdown orders which continue to smother their operations. Steinhardt slammed Governor Murphy who “sails around in his yacht with his less-than-1 percenters… while the 99% rest of New Jersey has to figure out how to make a living to feed their family.”

Steinhardt said that the lawsuit filed by the GOP against Governor Murphy’s orders is rooted in the constitutional overreach of Murphy’s administration by picking and choosing which businesses are essential and creating different classes of businesses, depriving many businesses of equal protection under the law. Chairman Steinhardt stressed the ludicrousness of being unable to buy a towel at a local mom-and-pop store, but you can buy the same towel at Rite-Aid, and how the governor appears to believe that you can’t catch Covid-19 while standing in line at Walmart, but you can catch it by going to a house of worship.

Senator Singer added that allowing people to go back to work isn’t enough, stressing that daycare centers and camps must be allowed to operate as well so that parents don’t have to stay home to watch their children.

Chairman Steinhardt also addressed Governor Murphy’s plan to borrow vast amounts of money to cover the state’s budget shortfalls, which Steinhardt said places our children’s financial futures in peril. Steinhardt said that New Jersey’s financial problems didn’t start with Covid-19, and that borrowing against our children’s future, as opposed to making necessary reforms, is the wrong way to go.

[TLS-15/TLS-CCP]