New Jersey News

**Brigid Bergen** (0:10)
It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergen, sitting in for Brian today. We've got two big stories out of New Jersey this week. First, Republican Congress member Tom Kane Jr. returned to Congress on Tuesday after a previously unexplained 116 day absence, during which he missed more than 100 votes. In a five minute speech to a nearly empty House chamber, he announced that he'd been hospitalized several months earlier after being diagnosed with depression in the early spring. He said he didn't disclose the illness right away because he expected to return to office in a matter of weeks.
Meanwhile, New Jersey Governor Mikey Sherrill passed her first state budget. She was able to deliver on many of her central campaign promises, but was stymied on some of the policy reforms she'd hoped to make. The nearly $61 billion budget, the largest in the state's history, was finalized at the buzzer with Governor Sherrill signing the bill Tuesday evening, hours before the deadline, to avoid a government shutdown.
Lawmakers had introduced the bill just two days earlier, racing to push it through the state assembly and Senate by Monday. They finished voting only after holding late night, closed door negotiations, unable to uphold Sherrill's pledge to make the budget process transparent and orderly. With me now to discuss these stories from the Garden State is my colleague Michael Sol Warren, New Jersey reporter for WNYC and Gothamist. Hey, Michael.

**Michael Sol Warren** (1:41)
Hey, Bridget, how you doing?

**Brigid Bergen** (1:42)
I'm well. And I want to start with a clip of Congressman Kean's floor speech, announcing his return and the reason for his absence.

**Tom Kean Jr.** (1:50)
But I believe that I owe an explanation to the people of New Jersey's Seventh District, to my colleagues in this chamber, and to the American people for my absence.
Several months ago, due to health concerns, I entered the hospital for some testing. I did not believe that this would result in a long-term stay. I was given the diagnosis of depression.

**Brigid Bergen** (2:13)
Michael, Representative Kean was gone for nearly four months, and the uncertainty and speculation caused by his prolonged, unexplained absence seemed to increase every day he was away. So tell me about the general attitude in New Jersey toward President Donald Trump's campaign during that long stretch of absence.

**Michael Sol Warren** (2:34)
Well, Bridget, it was certainly a point of conversation across the state. I mean, it was a big mystery, right? Where has the congressman gone?
And the timing of it in the lead up to the primaries as a competitive race on the Democratic side to see who his opponent this fall will be was unfolding. There was just a lot of attention on the district, and it was a pretty inopportune time for him to go missing.

**Brigid Bergen** (3:08)
My next question to you, Michael, was, given how early it is, how are Jerseyans reacting? But before I had even asked people to call in, have called in to tell us how they feel about Kean's absence. So I'm going to jump straight to Wendy in Springfield. Wendy, you're on WNYC.

**Wendy** (3:27)
Yes, I'm a constituent of District 7 I'm sorry that Congressperson Kean was depressed and sorry for his family, but he needed to tell us what was going on. When Federman was treated for depression, he told people, you don't do this.
We are the people who voted him in. And the other point, the last point I want to make is that even before this illness, we have not had a live town hall with him and we have been asking and asking and asking. No, I have never seen him, never seen him. And we have been asking and asking and asking. No live town hall. So that's how I feel about it.

**Brigid Bergen** (4:03)
Wendy, thank you so much for your call. Michael, are you hearing much of that or are you hearing some different reactions from constituents?

**Michael Sol Warren** (4:12)
No, I think Wendy sent them. It's pretty much sum up the gist of what I hear from folks when I talk to people in the district. I mean, the people who are politically active in the district, I should say, I've definitely been out and about in some Union County parks trying to talk to people who are enjoying their days, who may be less tuned in and didn't have much to say. But when you get to people who are paying attention to what's been going on and where the congressman is and is not, the call is pretty much summed up how most people feel.

**Brigid Bergen** (4:51)
Listeners, particularly those of you from New Jersey, we want to hear your thoughts and questions about Congress Member Kean's absence, his return, the way it was handled. In a few minutes, we'll be talking about New Jersey's new budget, the biggest in the state's history. We want to know your feelings about which parts of the bill passed and which weren't and how you feel about the overall budget. You can call or text us at 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. We're putting a special call up, particularly for listeners from New Jersey on our two big Jersey stories. One of the things that I think I saw a lot of reaction to through social media, at least, Michael, as Congress Member Kean returned to the floor was this sense that there are a lot of people who work in jobs where an absence of that prolonged length wouldn't be tolerated. They wouldn't have access to that amount of leave time. They wouldn't have access to that kind of treatment and care that hopefully the Congress Member received, and that these aren't necessarily policies that his party, the Republican Party, has been particularly supportive of in legislatures.