Mayor Randy Brown hasn’t officially announced he’s running for the Republican nomination in New Jersey’s next gubernatorial election in 2017, but on June 1, he took a step often viewed as a precursor to such a run with the announcement of his new statewide political action committee “One Team, One Vision, One Jersey.”
Brown said the PAC’s mission is to look for solutions to ease the burden of small businesses operating in the state and to attract more business to New Jersey over the long term.
To drive his point home, Brown announced the PAC at the offices of Evesham Mortgage, owned by his brother Rick, where Brown cited the difficulties small businesses have in getting permits from the state to expand or even just continue their operations.
“Small businesses are the backbone of New Jersey and have been the backbone of New Jersey, but unfortunately being a small business means taking a while to get things done sometimes,” Brown said “The permit process takes a long time, and there’s things that need to happen.”
Groups and organizations often form PACs as vehicles to raise money to support or oppose political causes or candidates.
It was in April when Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who is also viewed as another contender for the Republican nomination for New Jersey’s next governor, also announced a PAC with the goal of finding solutions to “the challenges still facing New Jersey.”
Regarding any possible gubernatorial aspirations of his own, Brown said it was “premature” to comment. However, as the honorary chairman of the One Team, One Vision, One Jersey PAC, Brown can raise money for the PAC’s goal of helping New Jersey’s small businesses while also traveling throughout the state in coming months to speak and meet with business owners and elected officials.
“We need to find a way to shorten permit process times. We need to find a way to make it more exciting and more profitable to be in New Jersey,” Brown said.
To that point, Brown relayed an anecdote from his work as an assistant NFL coach for the Baltimore Ravens when he and his family were in Hawaii for the NFL Pro Bowl earlier this year.
Brown said they were able drive on scenic roads only several feet away from the Pacific Ocean without easement barriers or guardrails, which he unfavorably compared to how New Jersey officials might handle a similar situation.
“If one of the (New Jersey) Department of Transportation engineers stepped foot in Hawaii, their heads would explode … at times, we have found a way in New Jersey to complicate that process,” Brown said.
Brown, who serves on the executive board of the New Jersey League of Municipalities and has served on the executive board of the New Jersey Conference of Mayors, predicted success for the PAC because of the contacts he and its members have with many of the state’s mayors and other municipal officials.
“Usually, people are afraid to take a chance and take a challenge. We’ve shown here (in Evesham) that you can do that,” Brown said. “Other mayors and other council people, they want to get re-elected, too.”
Brown did say regardless of who the next governor is, the health of small business in the state has to be addressed to prevent declining ratables that would continue to have a domino effect in lowering the state’s overall profitability.
