She has a track record of shaking things up, and now, the newly sworn-in Assemblywoman Katie Brennan (D-32nd) says she’s clear on what she hopes to accomplish in her first term.
Brennan is among the highest profile of the new Assembly class, after she rocked state politics almost a decade ago with allegations of sexual abuse inside the first Phil Murphy gubernatorial campaign.
In an interview with NJ Spotlight News, Brennan laid out several priorities she would pursue. She said a key priority is addressing housing affordability. Before her election, she served as chief of staff of the state’s Housing and Mortgage and Finance Agency.
“My whole professional career has been in housing, and it’s renters, it’s homeowners, it’s building new housing, it’s making housing affordable,” she said. “I think that I have hopefully the right combination of wonky insight on sometimes things that aren’t super flashy, but they’re really effective.”
Earlier this week, Brennan was assigned to serve on the Assembly’s housing, community affairs and education committees.
“The school funding formula is really complicated,” she said. “And it impacts Jersey City and it impacts more rural areas in New Jersey. But that actually gives me hope because it means when there’s such a broad swath of people it’s not working for, then we can find a common effort in changing it.”
And as she moves forward in her new position, Brennan said transparency is her guidepost.
“We have to be really deliberate on what we spend our money on, and then we have to be able to communicate that to people,” she said. “And look, like I told people every day, I hope that you and thousands of your neighbors hire me for this job, and then I work for you, nobody else. I am beholden to only the voter, and if I don’t do a good job, then you can vote me out in two years.”
This story is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
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