Senate President Stephen Sweeney's plan to wring savings out of government is also putting the squeeze on Gov. Phil Murphy.
Emboldened after out-dueling Murphy in last month's budget drama, the Gloucester County Democrat says he wants to enlist the governor as his "partner" in this smaller-, smarter-government enterprise. Murphy, the ex-diplomat, wants no part of it.
And that may be due to a simple reason: Sweeney's cost-cutting ax could fall hard on public employee unions, a die-hard Murphy constituency.
But the post-budget focus on cost cutting now poses a thornier, long-term dilemma for Murphy. Will he be able to effectively govern without inflicting pain on the very people who carried him to victory last November? And can he find a way to collaborate with Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, who loom as powerful counterweights and impediments to his agenda, or can he go it alone?