Many New Jersey residents were upset when the gas tax was raised 23 cents a gallon last year to replenish the Transportation Trust Fund, but they didn’t take it out on lawmakers in the primary election.
Monmouth University political analyst Patrick Murray says all the state legislators who voted for the tax increase won.
“On the Republican side which is where there was some concern that it could hurt some incumbents there who has supported it, the turnout was so low that there just wasn’t much enthusiasm about voting about anything.”
Montclair State political science professor Brigid Harrison says some challengers focused on the gas tax hike, but that didn’t resonate with voters.
“What we see is that party lines matter and so all of the individuals who voted for the gas tax received the party endorsement in the various districts and that was the determining factor in the election.”
If gas prices were higher, Fairleigh Dickinson political science professor Peter Woolley says the tax hike might have been a more potent issue.
“The price of gas is not particularly high now. People don’t go the pump and curse the way they did a few years ago. So really the gas tax has not had the same kind of impact it might have if prices were high.”