Former New Jersey Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell says he quit to spare Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s team, not over a report finding sexual harassment and ethics breaches.
Dale Caldwell spoke outside his home Friday and rejected the state’s investigative findings even as he left office one day after Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill publicly demanded he go.
Fox News reported that the former lieutenant governor and secretary of state cast his exit as a choice to protect the new administration, not a concession to the 61-page ethics report that substantiated sexual harassment and other violations.
“I’m not resigning because of that ridiculous report,” Caldwell said. “I’m resigning because I don’t want to be a distraction to the Mikie Sherrill administration.”
He added that if he were going to impede anyone else’s ability to succeed, he could move on. The departure lands weeks before the midterms and forces Sherrill to fill a vacancy under the state constitution while defending how her office handled the probe.
Sherrill called for Caldwell’s resignation after an independent law firm hired by the state finished a months-long ethics investigation. Breitbart reported she gave him until Friday to step down and said the probe found repeated violations of state policy and a failure to uphold the duties of his office.
She described the investigation as “very thorough” and said it mapped who investigators contacted and “lays out a pattern and practice of long-term concerning behavior.” Sherrill also called the sexual harassment claims substantiated and said Caldwell kept violating standards despite multiple violations and ethics trainings.
AP News reported that a governor cannot simply fire New Jersey’s lieutenant governor. The options are to sideline the officeholder or leave removal to the Legislature through impeachment. Sherrill chose public pressure instead, and Caldwell was out within a day.
Caldwell said he exchanged text messages with Sherrill on Friday and still called her “a wonderful person” who “really means well.” He framed the episode as one of those things that happens and said he would keep working as a private citizen and supporting the administration from outside government.
The redacted 61-page report, posted on the governor’s website, found repeated ethics violations. Investigators substantiated sexual harassment and improper efforts to secure a state job promotion for a woman with whom Caldwell was romantically involved.
One finding centered on a remark to a female staffer. After she told him her younger friend was not interested in a romantic relationship with him, the report said Caldwell replied, “you young women are looking for young sperm.” Investigators concluded the comment was sexual harassment and found his denial that he made it was not credible.
Other findings covered code-of-conduct breaches. Those included bringing guests to ticketed events without reimbursement and pressing for a promotion for the state employee he was dating. The New York Post reported the unpaid guest tickets involved seven events between February and May, with prices ranging from $65 to $300, and that the probe was led by former Attorney General Christopher Porrino. That account also said staff were tasked at one point with helping find him a “first lady.”
Sherrill said she holds everyone in her administration to the highest ethical standard and that anyone who violates those rules will be held accountable. The report’s picture of long-running workplace and ethics problems left little room for a quiet internal fix.
Caldwell urged people to read the report themselves and said he was disappointed in the legal work behind it. “I just think it was poorly done. It was poorly done,” he said. “I mean, I just think that there are ways that they could have done better.”
His lawyer, Thomas Calcagni, and the rest of the legal team strongly disputed the three findings, arguing the conclusions go further than the evidence supports. Calcagni said the lieutenant governor did not get a meaningful chance to answer each anonymous allegation and argued the inquiry mischaracterized benign phrases and leaned too heavily on an anonymous complainant’s account.
Caldwell said he would leave further specifics to his attorney for now. He also pointed to past work as a university president and at Deloitte and said he is “freed up to do a lot more things” as a private citizen while still backing the administration.
The Washington Examiner noted the resignation closed out the ethics investigation chapter for the state’s No. 2 office even as Caldwell kept disputing the underlying case.
With Caldwell gone, Sherrill said acting Comptroller Shirley Emehelu would become acting secretary of state. The lieutenant governor’s office is a separate problem. Under the New Jersey Constitution, the governor must permanently fill a lieutenant governor vacancy within 45 days.
Sherrill confirmed she will name a permanent successor inside that window. She does not plan to appoint an acting lieutenant governor in the meantime. That means Senate President Nicholas Scutari stands next in the line of succession if an emergency hits or if Sherrill leaves the state before the permanent pick is locked in.
Caldwell had also been serving as secretary of state, so the dual exit strips the administration of both roles at once and puts the constitutional deadline on the calendar in plain view.
Democratic leaders spent years selling workplace standards and accountability messaging. The same standards produced a substantiated harassment finding, a promotion push for a romantic partner, unpaid event guests, and a forced resignation the officeholder still insists was only about optics.
New Jersey voters can read the report, hear the denial, and decide which story holds up, the one in the 61 pages, or the one delivered on camera after the governor forced the issue.
