New Jersey Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver passed away on Tuesday after being hospitalized for undisclosed medical complications earlier in the week.
For now, Senate President Nick Scutari is Acting Governor as Phil Murphy is vacationing in Italy, but Murphy will have to soon make a decision over who should succeed the late Sheila Oliver.
The Lt. Governor position hasn’t been around for long. New Jersey voters approved creating the position in 2006, and Kim Guadagno was the first to serve in the position under Gov. Chris Christie beginning in 2010. She served for two terms, until Gov. Murphy was elected in 2018, making Sheila Oliver the second Lt. Gov. of the state.
Here’s how it’ll play out:
Under the New Jersey Constitution, Gov. Murphy has 45 days to appoint a new Lieutenant Governor. In this case, that deadline is September 14th.
Murphy has to follow certain rules in appointing a new Lt. Governor: the individual must be at least 30 years old, a U.S. citizen for at least 20 years, and a New Jersey resident for at least 7 years.
Whoever Murphy chooses to be his successor will not need confirmation from the New Jersey Senate, and will serve until the end of Murphy’s governorship in 2025.
According to people Lakewood Alerts spoke with, Murphy is planning to appoint a woman who is either Black or Hispanic to the position.
These are the people on Gov. Murphy’s shortlist to replace Oliver with, according to the New Jersey Globe:
- Secretary of State Tahesha Way
- Assemblywomen Shavonda Sumter (D-Paterson)
- Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-Trenton),
- Britnee Timberlake (D-East Orange)
- Eliana Pintor-Marin (D-Newark).
Here we go again. Let’s appoint the most qualified person in the State to this important position, unless that person is a male or a Caucasian. If the most qualified person is a male or a Caucasian, then we will appoint the second most qualified person, unless that person is a male or a Caucasian as well.
And we will continue weeding out the most qualified persons if they are either male or Caucasian, until we find the most qualified female African- or Hispanic-American.
What’s wrong with that?