PolitickerNJ.com

TRENTON – Superior Court judge nominee Joe Oxley slid through Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing largely unscathed.

Oxley was expected to be grilled by Democratic lawmakers over his connections with federal informant Solomon Dwek. Instead, Democratic lawmakers surprised onlookers by not asking the former Monmouth County Sheriff and chairman of the Monmouth County GOP a single question about his connection to Dwek.

Democratic Sens. Ray Lesniak and Paul Sarlo told Oxley they planned to present Oxley intense questions or even oppose his nomination if not for all of the phone calls they received from people who spoke positively of Oxley.

“Quite frankly, you have a great resume,” said Sarlo, adding he planned to vote against Oxley being appointed to the Superior Court.

“[Your colleagues] called me right up to this morning on behalf of you,” he said.

Following the hearing, Lesniak told reporters it’s not the Senate Judiciary Committee’s responsibility to police matters that should have been properly investigated at the time by the U.S. Attorney General’s Office.