DiMaio, DePhillips call for answers from Gov. Sherrill on Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell investigation
NEW JERSEY — Assembly Republican Leader John DiMaio and Assemblyman Christopher DePhillips are calling on Gov. Mikie Sherrill to provide more information about the investigation into Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell.
DiMaio said Sherrill’s statement Tuesday on the investigation did not answer questions that have arisen since the story broke.
“We have been here before,” DiMaio (R-Warren) said. “A senior official under investigation for alleged misconduct with women. An administration that says nothing publicly. New Jerseyans lived through the Al Alvarez scandal under Governor Murphy, and officials who claimed ignorance were later shown to have known more than they let on. Governor Sherrill promised something different. Right now she isn’t delivering it.”
DePhillips said the Alvarez scandal was not only defined by the original misconduct, but also by what followed, including shifting timelines and officials who said they did not know things that records later showed they did.
“She doesn’t get to hide behind ‘we don’t comment on personnel matters’ when the man under investigation holds two constitutional offices, Lt. Governor and Secretary of State, and still has the full powers of the governor’s office whenever she leaves the state,” said DePhillips (R-Bergen).
DiMaio said the allegations are not known and called on Sherrill to answer questions about the investigation.
“We don’t know what the allegations are, and I’m not going to pretend we do,” DiMaio said. “But not knowing is exactly why the governor needs to answer basic questions, instead of letting her spokesman say ‘no comment’ while she skips town and leaves him in charge.”
DiMaio and DePhillips are calling on Sherrill to explain why Caldwell has not been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation; disclose when the investigation began, who authorized it and when it will be completed; publicly commit to releasing the findings when the investigation concludes; and directly inform legislative leadership of the investigation’s status and scope.
“Those aren’t partisan questions,” DePhillips said. “They’re the basic questions any lawmaker, Republican or Democrat, should be demanding answers to. And the governor should be the one answering them, in public, not her communications shop.”
