Certainly you would agree, with your experience, that staff (along with the people they serve) can be very good at 'playing dumb' when they don't want to engage.
maybe for the general public this is true, however I've been involved at many levels in NJ politics for decades and the staffer I spoke with is a personal friend, so in this case your analysis is off base.
They know perfectly well what the issues on the table are. Laying this on Tesla is a bit naive after the discussions and work that has gone in.
you are giving the legislators and their staffs way too much credit, they only know what they are told, and right now the dealer association has their ears and their ears are full their side of the story.
I am not naive about how things work in government and fully understand the importance of keeping on the good side. I am also well aware that a time comes when it is time to push back. It appear that time is now. When the people you are working with decide it is more important to serve another master, then it is time to peel back the curtain and make it clear to everyone exactly what is going on.
this has little to do with being on anyone's "good side" it has to do with engaging the people in power, something that appears that tesla has missed the boat on.
I don't know how long you've operated in trenton but having little to no presence there is a bad place to come from behind when the SHTF like it is now for tesla.
there is nothing going on here that is not business as usual, the NJ dealers have done their homework and tesla hasn't.