New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill has called on Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell to resign by Friday after an outside investigation substantiated one workplace-harassment violation and two state-ethics violations. Caldwell, an independently elected official who also serves as secretary of state, disputes the findings and has not indicated that he will step down.
Sherrill released the 61-page investigation report Thursday and said Caldwell’s conduct showed a pattern that did not meet her administration’s standards. Her statement gave him a Friday deadline to resign and described the substantiated sexual-harassment finding as especially troubling.
What the investigation found
The governor’s chief ethics officer retained Lowenstein Sandler after receiving an anonymous complaint in May. According to the report, investigators interviewed Caldwell and numerous witnesses, reviewed documents and assessed the allegations under New Jersey’s workplace policy, the governor’s code of conduct and the Uniform Ethics Code.
The report found credible evidence that Caldwell made a romantic advance toward a female staffer’s friend and later made a sexual remark to the staffer after the advance was rejected. Investigators concluded that the conduct constituted sexual harassment. Caldwell denied making the remark, and the report acknowledged that a state trooper driving the vehicle where it allegedly occurred did not hear the conversation.
Investigators also found that Caldwell brought personal guests to ticketed events without advance ethics clearance or payment, including after receiving guidance on the rules. A third finding said he advocated for a promotion for a state employee with whom he had a romantic relationship without disclosing that relationship, conduct the report said violated state ethics requirements.
Caldwell contests the process
Caldwell’s lawyer, Thomas Calcagni, called the inquiry one-sided and argued that the lieutenant governor was not given a meaningful opportunity to answer each anonymous allegation. In a detailed response, Calcagni said the investigation discounted witnesses favorable to Caldwell, challenged the credibility analysis behind the harassment finding and characterized the event-ticket issue as a good-faith compliance error. Caldwell reimbursed $175 for one guest after the investigation began.
The report says Caldwell was offered the chance to postpone his interview to retain counsel and declined. It also says investigators applied a preponderance-of-the-evidence standard and anonymized witnesses to protect privacy. Those details do not resolve Caldwell’s objections, but they define the procedures the investigators say they followed.
Removal would require the Legislature
Sherrill cannot fire Caldwell from the lieutenant governorship because voters elected them together. If he refuses to resign, removal would require impeachment by a majority of the General Assembly and conviction by a two-thirds vote of the state Senate, according to an Associated Press report.
The governor can remove Caldwell from assigned executive responsibilities, but he remains first in the line of succession while in office. That makes Friday’s deadline more than an internal personnel dispute: it could force New Jersey’s executive and legislative branches to confront how to handle substantiated misconduct findings against a separately elected lieutenant governor who rejects the investigation’s conclusions.
