MORRIS COUNTY — Keeping with the nation’s oldest rivalry, Assemblyman Ryan Peters, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate shaved the head of Assemblyman Brian Bergen, a West Point graduate, at his legislative district office in Lumberton.
Chalk one up for Midshipmen after Bergen lost an early summer bet. The Morris County lawmaker bet that a bill he introduced (A4147) to limit Governor Phil Murphy’s executive order authority would pass the state legislature before September 1, but it did not.
The measure would have required the full state legislature to vote on any of the governor’s executive orders within two weeks or else the order would expire.
“In theory, this should’ve been a bipartisan bill that puts the power back in the hands of the people and the legislators they voted for to represent them. All this would have done is bring back the system of checks and balances our founding fathers created,” Peters (R-Burlington) said.
“But the Democrat legislators are obviously intent on sitting back and letting the governor make every decision for them and everyone else in the state for six months and counting. I was fairly certain that would be the case,” he continued.
“I made a bet expecting good policy that enforces checks-and-balances would triumph over politics,” said Bergen (R-Morris). “Unfortunately, that isn’t the case in New Jersey where Democrats view checks-and-balances as obstruction of power instead of a fundamental American principle. Next time I will take a safer bet, like who will win the Army versus Navy football game this year!”
Bergen stopped by Peters’ office on 668 Main Street in Lumberton at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, September 4. Peters shaved his head with a straight razor and shaving cream.
“The Democrat legislators in this state had a chance to join Republicans and choose democracy over a monarchy, and they went with the latter,” Peters said. “Now we’re going to go through with our bet to highlight how absurd this New Jersey monarchy has become.”
