Rep. Nellie Pou once opposed legislation to create an internet sex offender registry and repeatedly stymied a New Jersey state effort to slap tougher penalties on predators.
During her time in the state General Assembly, Pou (D-NJ) voted against a bill in 2001 that would’ve required law enforcement to make the sex offender list available online. She was one of just five to vote against it.
Prior to that, in 2000, she abstained from legislation that required the state Attorney General to “establish and maintain a New Jersey Sex Offender Information Registry.”
That measure passed overwhelmingly, 55–0, but 17 other state lawmakers abstained from voting as well.
The Post reached out to Pou’s campaign for a rationale for her votes on those bills that came up in the New Jersey General Assembly in the early 2000s, but didn’t receive one.
“As a mother, Congresswoman Pou takes ensuring the safety of women and children personally,” her campaign manager told The Post in response. “Nellie has spent nearly 30 years protecting New Jersey’s kids, from the Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect to toughening human-trafficking penalties.”
“Cherry-picking a single vote from the early 2000s distorts reality. In the state legislature, Congresswoman Pou championed reforms that added new protections for victims of sexual assault and created a registry of protective orders accessible to police and child-protection officers.”
The first-term congresswoman has a history of pursuing tighter criminal penalties in some areas of the law, such as anti-human trafficking measures. Last year, she also pushed for a gun tracing bill.
But she has been softer on other areas such as immigration. In 2021, she pushed for legislation to bar state and local law enforcement from entering agreements with the feds on detaining immigration.
A year later, she co-sponsored legislation restricting voluntary cop collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In 2007, she was the sole vote on the state Assembly Judiciary Committee to oppose the Jessica Lunsford Act, which slapped a mandatory sentence of 27 years for individuals who commit aggravated sexual assault on a minor.
That bill was named after a young girl from Florida who was brutally raped in 2005 and killed by a convicted sex offender.
The bill had first been introduced in 2005, and Lunsford’s lobbied state lawmakers for its passage, but it took years to cross the finish line. In 2011, the Star-Ledger reported that the bill was unable to clear the state Assembly Appropriations Committee while she was serving as its chair.
Ultimately, Pou did vote for another version of that bill in the 2014-2015 legislative session, by which time she was serving in the state Senate.
It is unclear why Pou initially opposed letting that bill clear committee, but eventually backed it.
Pou is facing a competitive reelection battle against Republican challenger Rosie Pino in New Jersey’s 9th Congressional District.
