The political climate in New Jersey has been contentious with Democrats and Republicans butting heads on various issues. Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick sat down with NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider to discuss politics in the state. He touched on the presidential primary, budget hearings and the recent rejection of Supreme Court nominee Phillip Kwon.

Bramnick said he was happy Rick Santorum suspended his campaign because he supported Mitt Romney early in the race, as did Gov. Chris Christie and most of the legislature in New Jersey. Bramnick said the length of the Republican primary and what some have characterized as a nasty race won’t hurt Romney.

“At the end of the day people will either vote for Mitt Romney or Barack Obama. What happened two or three months ago, that’s history in politics in America,” Bramnick said. “It’s really going to be who do you want to lead the country?”

Bramnick said it will be difficult for Romney to get the majority of the votes in the Garden State. “It’s still a Democratic state so it’s a difficult, difficult state,” he said. “Governor Christie was able to do it. Whether Mitt Romney can do it, I’m not sure.”

Bramnick touched on a recent article that reported a federal study determined that Christie was incorrect in his estimates of the cost of the ARC tunnel when he killed the project. Bramnick said that the study didn’t cite the fact that New Jersey was carrying the cost burden of the tunnel.

Bramnick said the ongoing budget hearings have been civil and are moving forward. “At the end of the day … we’ll get a budget,” he said. “It will be a bipartisan budget, I’m convinced.”

He said as long as taxes are cut, he’s willing to compromise with Democrats. “There’s no doubt that the message we have to send is we are competitive with contiguous states and we’re competitive as far as attracting business,” he said. “And that’s why it’s so important to cut the taxes.”

Bramnick called the rejection of Supreme Court nominee Phillip Kwon a “political maneuver” that the people will recognize.

“I think part of that Democratic attack on Kwon was an attack on the governor,” he said. “The governor’s incredibly popular. His numbers are off the charts compared to other Democratic governors so this was, I think, an attempt to stop the governor, let him have a loss in the loss column.”

While Bramnick said legislators will be able to put the Kwon rejection behind them, but residents may have a more difficult time.

“In politics, a day or a week’s a long period of time so we’ll get over that fight but i don’t think the public’s going to get over the fact that we’ve lost an incredibly talented young man as a Supreme Court justice,” he said.

WATCH VIDEO: