Governor-elect Phil Murphy announced that Assemblywoman Marlene Caride (D-36), elected to her fourth term in the Assembly last month, will head the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance (DOBI). Assemblywoman Caride, who was on the Governor-elect’s short list for Lieutenant Governor, served as a member of the joint legislative committee investigating Bridge-Gate, as well as chairwoman of the Education Committee. She also serves as vice chair of the Assembly’s Commerce and Economic Development Committee and serves on the Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee, Appropriations Committee, and Intergovernmental Relations Commission.A partner at the law firm of Gonzalez & Caride, Assemblywoman Caride has been the municipal prosecutor for Ridgefield since 2011. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Fairleigh Dickenson University, and her law degree from the California Western School of Law.
Governor-elect Murphy also recently announced his nomination of Catherine McCabe as Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).
Ms. McCabe joined the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2005, after spending 22 years at the Department of Justice (DOJ), where she focused on environmental issues as a trial attorney, serving as deputy chief of the Environmental Enforcement Section, assistant chief in the Natural Resources Section and senior counsel in the Policy, Legislation and Special Litigation Section.
During her tenure at the EPA, Ms. McCabe worked as deputy regional administrator in Region 2, which includes New Jersey, and then served as the acting Region 2 regional administrator. She also previously served as one of three judges on the EPA Court of Appeals. Ms. McCabe was selected by the outgoing Obama Administration to serve as Acting EPA Administrator starting on January 20, 2017, until President Trump’s EPA nominee, Scott Pruitt, was confirmed.
Ms. McCabe earned her Bachelor’s degree in environmental science from Barnard College and her law degree from Columbia Law School. She also studied environmental science at the graduate level at the Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Governor-Elect Murphy has also spoken out strongly against what he views as “the destruction that is coming at us from Washington.” He has voiced strong opposition to the Trump Administration’s efforts to defang the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and weaken the Affordable Care Act, as well as other policy proposals.
At a recent press conference, Governor-Elect Murphy said, “As Washington moves away from protecting consumers, it will fall to states to pick up what they have dropped.” It remains to be seen how aggressive the Murphy Administration’s efforts will be to counteract changes being made at the federal level.