Democratic Assembly candidates Ravi Bhalla and Katie Brennan call to end the special state exception for Tesla

Ten years ago, when electric cars were relatively rare and Elon Musk wasn’t making news for salutes, New Jersey Democrats were enthusiastic about allowing Tesla to unilaterally sell its cars in their state.

Not anymore.

In 2014, the Motor Vehicle Commission under Gov. Chris Christie adopted a rule that interpreted state law to require all carmakers to sell through licensed dealers, rather than Tesla’s business model of selling them directly to consumers. Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald pledged to “work with my colleagues in the Legislature to clean up the governor’s mess.” They did, and in 2015 Christie signed a Democratic-sponsored bill to allow electric car companies to have at least four locations.

Now electric cars, including Teslas, are all over the roads. Elon Musk has gone hard right and has taken a symbolic chainsaw to the federal government. And Democrats are responding to Musk’s infamous salute with their own — by flipping him the state bird.

Democratic Assembly candidates Ravi Bhalla and Katie Brennan on Wednesday called for New Jersey to end the special state exception for Tesla. “It’s absurd that New Jersey is giving Tesla special treatment, both from a policy perspective and given everything Elon Musk is doing to harm our state,” Brennan said in a statement.

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