Some of New Jersey’s most powerful Democratic leaders are lining up behind State Sen. Joseph Cryan for re-election in 2027, offering a full-throated endorsement that places political loyalty above his documented history of ethical failings, including greed, deception, and the manipulation of public resources for personal gain.
Senate President Nicholas Scutari, who leads the Union County Democratic Committee, and Elizabeth Mayor J. Christian Bollwage have announced their support for Cryan, signaling the party establishment’s intent to protect an incumbent despite a record that includes lying about a sexual affair that was central to a legal proceeding, leveraging his political office for a six-figure public salary, and casting a decisive vote to shut down half a dozen Planned Parenthood clinics.
The most severe allegations stem from a 2006 stalking case.
While a member of the General Assembly and an employee of the Union County Sheriff’s Office, Cryan pursued an explicit sexual relationship with lobbyist Karen Golding.
Cryan reacted violently after she terminated an unwanted pregnancy, and he arranged for Golding to be arrested for stalking.
Cryan and the prosecutor’s office denied the affair ever existed. A judge sealed hundreds of emails that proved the relationship, a suppression of truth that Golding fought for years to overturn.
Golding ultimately pleaded guilty, once it became clear that she could not get a fair trial.
The eventual leak of those correspondences exposed Cryan’s lies and revealed he used his government email account and public work hours to conduct the affair.
This ethical breach was compounded by apparent conflicts of interest. Golding’s court filings alleged that officials in the Union County Prosecutor’s Office, which handled her case, and Superior Court Judge Joseph Donohue, Cryan’s brother-in-law, accepted gifts from her employer.
Beyond his false statements in the courtroom, Cryan has built a career on leveraging public office for financial and political gain.
He collects a combined public salary exceeding $410,000, drawing $328,837 as the executive director of the Middlesex County Utilities Authority in addition to his $82,000 legislative stipend.
At one point, nine members of his extended family were on various public payrolls, a testament to his status as the king of nepotism.
His political maneuvering has had harmful consequences for New Jersey residents.
In 2010, with 41 votes needed in the Assembly to pass the state budget, then-Republican Gov. Chris Christie relied on Cryan’s decisive vote to approve draconian cuts that closed six Planned Parenthood women’s health clinics. Christie later boasted about defunding the organization, an achievement impossible without Cryan.
That vote cemented Cryan’s nickname, “Mr. 41,” and aligned with his long-stated personal opposition to abortion rights except in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother’s life.
Now, as the Democratic Party nationally rallies behind abortion access as a fundamental right—a position supported by 96% of Democrats in recent polling—its New Jersey leaders are championing a senator who provided the key vote to restrict it.
This contradiction underscores the strategy behind the endorsement: in the calculus of New Jersey machine politics, entrenched power and reliable votes outweigh personal integrity, public trust, and even core party principles.
The State Senator’s family history is marred by scandal. His father, John F. Cryan—an immigrant from County Roscommon, Ireland—served as a state legislator and Essex County Sheriff before facing federal racketeering charges, which were dismissed on a technicality.
The lawmaker’s son, also named John Cryan, was convicted for a brutal road rage attack, where he beat a motorist with a baseball bat as accomplices assaulted the victim. He initially was sentenced only to probation but was later jailed for violating its terms.
The message from Scutari and Bollwage is clear. The machinery demands loyalty, and in return, it offers protection—forgiveness for past deceptions, indifference to conflicts of interest, and a blind eye to the use of public office as a tool for private pursuit.
This incumbent protection plan has served to give New Jersey a cartoonishly corrupt political establishment that has exacted a high price but failed to harvest positive results.
The voters must decide if that crooked bargain is one they are willing to accept.
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