Voters gathered at a Hackensack church to see one of Christie's possible replacements after the 2017 election.
HACKENSACK -- The town hall meeting made a return to New Jersey politics Tuesday night -- but not with Gov. Chris Christie.
A hundred or so voters gathered at a church in Hackensack to hear from one of Christie's possible replacements: Phil Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive and former U.S. ambassador to Germany who is expected to be a top Democratic candidate for governor next year.
The setting was a page out of Christie's playbook. The Republican governor has hosted more than 100 town halls in his six years in office, speaking to voters directly in gymnasiums and VFW halls across the Garden State.
But the message Tuesday was the opposite of what you'd hear at a Christie event. Murphy laid out progressive proposals that could be the tenants of his 2017 campaign: the need to raise the minimum wage, improve gun control laws, hike the state gasoline tax to pay for transportation projects, set up a college tuition forgiveness program, and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit.
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His focus, he told the crowd at the Logan Family Life Center, is on helping New Jersey's middle class.
"New Jersey is the middle class. The middle class is New Jersey," said Murphy, a 58-year-old Middletown resident. "Period. Full stop."
Murphy, a long-time deep-pocketed Democratic donor, hasn't declared his candidacy yet. He is one of at least five people expected to seek the Democratic nomination to replace Christie, whose second and final term is up in January 2018.
Other likely candidates include Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), and state Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex).
Technically, Murphy held the town hall on behalf of New Way New Jersey, the organization he launched last year to champion the middle class. The group has run ads on television and online pushing its cause -- and criticizing Christie.
But the evening felt like a campaign kickoff, or at least a trial run of interacting with voters. That may be crucial for Murphy, who served as President Obama's German ambassador from 2009 to 2013 and is the only potential candidate who isn't an elected official.
"It's very important people know who he is," said Assemblyman Tim Eustace (D-Bergen), one of a few state legislators in the audience.
Assemblyman Gordon Johnson (D-Bergen), also in the crowd, called Murphy a "fresh voice" with a background in business and international diplomacy.
"That can be an asset to the Democratic party," Johnson said.
Tuesday's town hall was the first of four Murphy will hold in coming weeks. The next three will be in Irvington, South Orange, and Woodcliff Lake.
Murphy opened the event by discussing the terrorist attacks on Brussels earlier in the day. He said he understands the fear but hopes the event "doesn't get politicized like the gun debates have gotten politicized."
"Let's hope cooler heads can prevail," Murphy said. "This is the ultimate time for adult leadership."
Soon, he railed against the Republican-favored theory of trickle-down economics and said he believes a strong society and economy are built form "the middle out."
And on the left side of the room was a poster with a picture of the governor. "Christie Do your job or quit," it read.
Murphy's organization recently launched a website and advertisement calling for Christie to step down if he continues to hit the road to campaign for Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.
When Murphy opened the floor to questions, he was asked about teachers -- a topic that often draws rancor from Christie at the governor's town halls. Christie has long said teachers unions are greedily draining money from the state.
"My main concern," the man from the crowd said, "is what is your platform concerning the teachers in New Jersey?"
Murphy noted that his sister is a retired teacher from his native Boston, and when she visited New Jersey, she was "appalled by the tone of the discussion" about teachers.
"We ought to be putting teachers up on a pedestal," Murphy said. "What is the name-calling getting us?"
"We've got to get that back into a better place," he added. "I think that's a question of leadership."
Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.