Is Phil Murphy going to stick around? It sounds like he may be headed to Iowa | Stile

Gov. Phil Murphy's second inaugural speech Tuesday represented a turning point in the history of New Jersey governors.

It is now clear that governors of storied New Jersey tradition, who wanted to stay on the farm and devote their full energies and concentration to their second terms, are figures of bygone eras.

The last two-term governors, Christine Todd Whitman and Chris Christie, couldn't resist the siren song of the national stage.

Whitman left to lead the Environmental Protection Agency in the administration of former President George W. Bush, and Christie was largely an absentee governor while he sought the presidency and, later, as a campaign surrogate for Donald Trump.

Now we have Murphy, a Democrat, auditioning for the 2024 presidential contest.

"If you want to understand what America can be, come to New Jersey,'' Murphy told the pandemic-reduced crowd at the War Memorial in Trenton. "If you want to see what is right with America, look to New Jersey."

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An Iowa stump speech?

It sounded like the start of a pitch Murphy could make at one of those cattle-call events in Iowa where hopefuls pander to party activists and donors.

Those events also give would-be candidates a chance to hone some of their talking points, like the predictable "I am the refreshing alternative to Washington gridlock" trope.

"Where some in Washington brag, literally, about holding back progress, we put our heads down and are doing the hard work," Murphy said. "Where some in Washington are clinging to the Big Lie, we believe in a bigger truth and we reach for big dreams."

In his undeclared ambition for the big stage, Murphy borrowed heavily from the playbook of his often-bitter foil and predecessor, Christie. In his second inaugural, Christie also offered up his first term as a laboratory of success for the nation to replicate.

"Each one of these challenges has been met by a new, unified force in public life — a New Jersey setting the tone for an entire nation,'' Christie said in January 2014, shortly after the first Bridgegate revelations rained on his long-prepared parade.

Of course, one could also argue that Murphy was trying to tamp down speculation by quoting Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic Party presidential nominee who was twice defeated by Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s. Citing a largely forgotten, two-time loser — whom "Jeopardy!" contestants failed to identify in a recent show — is hardly a way to offer yourself as a future Oval Office winner.

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Right and wrong

It's not the first time that Murphy has sought to contrast Jersey with Washington. He took a similar approach in his first inaugural by taking aim at Donald Trump's administration.

"This is not as much a battle between Democrats and Republicans, but a battle between right and wrong — between standing up for the people of New Jersey or standing for failed Washington politics,'' Murphy said in 2018.

And he began his New Jersey-as-laboratory-for-the-nation riff in his victory speech in November. But Tuesday, he expanded on the theme. He was far more emphatic.

It's worth noting that the governor did tout some broad-themed, second-term ambitions on Tuesday. He shared his aspiration to actually lower property taxes — what governor hasn't?

"I want to get us to a place where we can begin to see them go down," he said. "So, this year. Enough already."

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He vowed to continue his push to broaden prekindergarten education; boost the innovation economy, clean energy initiatives and "cutting-edge technologies"; and assist the state's fledgling cannabis and sports betting industries.

On the face of it, that certainly sounds like a governor planning to stick around and plow the back-40 acres of his second-term agenda.

But he also sounded very much like a candidate trying to position himself in the sweet spot of a fractious national Democratic Party, somewhere between the progressives pushing for equity and the moderates seeking affordability (a word he used several times Tuesday). He was branding himself as a consensus candidate for 2024.

Murphy was putting the national political class on notice that he should be given a serious look, especially if President Joe Biden continues his current nosedive, Vice President Kamala Harris can't make the case as the viable replacement, and others, like Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, dwell in single-digit polling.

It also served as a reminder that the days of a second-term New Jersey governor, undistracted by national ambitions, who truly mean it when they say that being governor is the greatest honor and ambition of their career, are over. And that would be a shame.

Although it's true that second terms can quickly turn into lame-duck dead ends, fully engaged, stay-in-Trenton second-termers are capable of lasting, consequential work. Democrat Richard J. Hughes enacted the sales tax, New Jersey's first statewide levy, and modernized and expanded state government.

Brendan T. Byrne, the last Democrat to win a second term, imposed the building moratorium on the Pinelands, created NJ Transit and launched the development of Liberty State Park. His successor, Republican Thomas H. Kean, won national acclaim for his welfare reform efforts.

Even Christie revamped the bail system in New Jersey while a candidate, although most of the public resented that his energies were channeled toward his national ambitions. They felt he checked out.

Will Murphy check out? He insisted Tuesday that his plan is to make sure that the "American dream — with Jersey flavor and with Jersey attitude — is alive and well."

The question we all will have to live with is this: Will he try to live out his dream here — or on a campaign stage somewhere in Iowa?

Charlie Stile is a veteran political columnist. For unlimited access to his unique insights into New Jersey’s political power structure and his powerful watchdog work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: stile@northjersey.com

Twitter: @politicalstile

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Phil Murphy: NJ governor running for president in 2024?