By The Auditor/The Star-Ledger
Maybe they should visit the emergency room. After all, Republican lawmakers have been oddly tongue-tied on the divisive issue of reshuffling some of the state’s medical schools and universities.
When Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) came up with an alternative to Gov. Chris Christie’s vision of the future — giving Rutgers University two medical schools, but stripping it of control over its Camden campus — Democrats, former governors and even a trade union tripped over each other to issue statements praising the apparently solomonic solution.
Others, like state Sen. Ron Rice (D-Essex), were less enthusiastic. Rice called the plan the first salvo in a “civil war” between North Jersey lawmakers and their colleagues in the South, led by the powerful George Norcross, who, as the saying goes, has a dog in the fight.
Yet even though reporters’ mailboxes were overflowing with statements ranging from flowery to purple, not one Republican lawmaker, and only one past one, Donald DiFrancesco, a former senator and acting governor, issued a statement about one of the biggest shows in Trenton.
When The Auditor asked Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick (R-Union) why colleagues had gone mute on such a controversial issue, he seemed unfazed.
“I don’t think there’s been a lot of controversy here,” Bramnick insisted. “We have a governor that is a strong leader and there is a bipartisan support, so I don’t see a lot of problems here.”
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