Noticias

An internal poll for Republican Jack Ciattarelli shows him leading Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) by 1 percentage point in the race for governor.

The poll found Ciattarelli leading 46%-45% in a two-way race, including a 21-point lead among voters not registered with either party. The poll is the first publicly released poll to show Ciattarelli leading — Sherrill had led all polls in the primary and general elections.

National Research, a New Jersey-based firm founded by Adam Geller, conducted the poll. The firm surveyed 600 likely voters from Sept. 16-18. The New Jersey Globe has reviewed the entire questionnaire.

The poll found term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy’s approval rating underwater, at 35% approve and 53% disapprove. Public polls have largely shown Murphy to have even or slightly positive approval ratings.

The internal poll comes with the typical caveats — campaigns tend to release the polls and memos that benefit them strategically. National Research is an established pollster among Republicans — the firm polled on behalf of President Trump’s campaign or Trump-backing super PACs for each of the last three presidential elections.

The polling memo states the firm conducted a similar survey that concluded Sept. 10 — that poll found Sherrill leading by 2 points, 47%-45%. A poll from National Research in June showed Ciattarelli within the margin of error.

Public polls have mostly shown Sherrill with an 8- or 9-point lead. A Quinnipiac University Poll from last week found Sherrill leading 49% to 41%.

Mail-in ballots were mailed Saturday, meaning voting effectively starts Monday for many. The first gubernatorial debate of the year, sponsored by the New Jersey Globe, On New Jersey, and Rider University, is Sunday at 7 p.m.

The National Research poll was conducted Sept. 16-18 with a sample of 600 likely voters and a margin of error of +/- 4%.

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Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli will face off in the first general election debate of the race for Governor of New Jersey on tonight at 7:00 PM, sponsored by the New Jersey Globe, On New Jersey, and Rider University.

The Sherrill vs. Ciattarelli debate is presented by O’Toole Scrivo, LLC.

The ninety-minute debate will feature a town hall-style format with questions from students, faculty, parents, alums, employees, and community members from Rider.  The debate will be led by New Jersey Globe Editor David Wildstein, along with Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University Director Micah Rasmussen, New Jersey Monitor Reporter Sophie Nieto-Muñoz, and  Laura Jones of On New Jersey.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey is a debate sponsor.  Additional debate sponsors include RWJ Barnabas Health and Prudential Financial.

Debate coverage will begin at 5 PM, brought to you by AARP of New Jersey, and will be led by New Jersey Globe reporter Joey Fox and Brian Thompson, the legendary former New Jersey news reporter for NBC 4.   Thompson and Fox will resume debate coverage at 8:30, including post-debate press gaggles, interviews with Stomping Grounds analysts Alex Wilkes and Dan Bryan, and panel discussions.

PSEG will sponsor the livestream.

The debate will be aired on the New Jersey Globe and On New Jersey websites, along with social media sites: Facebook, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter).   C-SPAN will also air the debate, along with Local Now and News On.

The debate between Sherrill and Ciattarelli will also be available across multiple OTT Platforms: Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, Samsung TV, YouTube TV, Amazon App Store, Twitch, Vizio, Fubo, Sling, Fios, Altice, Dish, IOS, Vimeo, Hisense, Xumo, Frndly, Google Android, Reflector, and Joox.

The debate’s audio is sponsor is Audible, the gubernatorial debate will also be available on major podcast platforms: Spotify, Apple iTunes, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and YouTube.

To ensure inclusivity, the debate will be closed captioned in the following languages: Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, English, Spanish, European Portuguese, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Korean, Punjabi, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Urdu.

Johnson and Johnson will host a pre-debate reception. Additional sponsors include the New Jersey Business and Industry Association and McCarter & English.  Social media services will be provided by Mercury.

The debate is one of two authorized by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.  Under state law, gubernatorial candidates are required to participate in the two official ELEC debates as part of their acceptance of public funds under the New Jersey Gubernatorial Public Financing Program.

The Lieutenant Governor Debate is scheduled for Tuesday, September 30, at 7:00 PM at Kean University, sponsored by PIX11/WPIX-TV, PHL17/WPHL-TV, Kean University, and New Jersey 101.5.  It will feature Republican James Gannon and Democrat Dale Caldwell. The debate will also be live-streamed on PIX11.com, PHL17.com, NJ101.5.com, and the station’s streaming app, PIX 11+.  Candidates for lieutenant governor are also required to debate once as part of ELEC’s public financing.

The second Sherrill vs. Ciattarelli debate will be held on Wednesday, October 8, at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center at 7 PM.  Moderated by Tamala Edwards and Bill Ritter, WABC and WPVI will broadcast the debate live, along with simultaneous streaming on all digital platforms, including websites (abc7ny.com and 6abc.com respectively), mobile apps, and streaming channels, for both stations as well as ABC News LIVE. WXTV Univision 41 New York will livestream the debate with Spanish Captioning.

The New Jersey Globe, On New Jersey and Rider University produced four gubernatorial debates during the primary election, and the first 2024 U.S. Senate debate between Democrat Andy Kim and Republican Curtis Bashaw.  The New Jersey Globe and Rider University have produced over 30 debates since 2020.

The post Sherrill, Ciattarelli meet for their first debate at 7 PM. Pre-show starts at 5 appeared first on New Jersey Globe.

Republican nominee for governor Jack Ciattarelli released his tax returns Friday morning, days before the first debate of the general election cycle. 

The businessman and former assemblyman has paid nearly $4 million in federal income tax, state income tax, and local property tax since 2012, according to his campaign. He’s made almost $14.9 million in income in that span, according to the New Jersey Monitor.

“I worked hard to build two businesses and succeed as an entrepreneur – achieving the American Dream for me and my family,” Ciattarelli said in a press release. “Today, I released a full 13 years of tax returns — both from the height of my business career through my retirement years — an unprecedented level of transparency for any gubernatorial candidate ever.”

The campaign gave reporters two hours to pore over the assemblyman’s returns in an office in Clinton on Friday morning. The returns were filed with his ex-wife, Melinda; they separated in 2023 and divorced this year. The overwhelming majority of the couple’s income came from Jack Ciattarelli.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair), the Democratic nominee for governor, had increased calls for Ciattarelli to release his tax returns in recent weeks. 

Sherrill released her net worth and holdings to the New Jersey Globe in August. Sherrill and her husband, Jason Hedberg, who runs equity derivative sales at a New York investment bank, have an estimated net worth of roughly $9.4 million.

The Ciattarelli campaign urged Sherrill to release tax returns going back to 2018, when she first ran for Congress.

The post Ciattarelli releases tax returns appeared first on New Jersey Globe.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill and former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli will meet in the first debate of the general election on Sunday, and the game plans have already been drawn.

Experts and strategists said they expect a clash between two key themes: Sherrill’s handling of state-level issues and Ciattarelli’s ties with President Donald Trump. Ciattarelli has served in local, county, and state government, while Sherrill’s elected work has come wholly in Congress. His campaign has worked to paint Sherrill as unprepared for state leadership, including with ads that show her struggling to name a policy she’d like to enact as governor.

“The onus at this point is kind of on Mikie Sherrill to show a command of the issues and to overcome some of the hesitancy that the Ciattarelli campaign has been trying to portray her with in the ads,” said Dan Cassino, the executive director of the Fairleigh Dickinson University Poll.

Cassino said the strategy is grounded in data. An FDU poll found Ciattarelli makes slim gains with independent voters when they are prompted on local issues, but drops slightly when national issues are mentioned.

“If she has a strong performance, it shuts down a lot of those doubts that the [Ciattarelli] campaign is trying to put out,” Cassino said.

Kate Gibbs, the executive director of the Republican State Committee, said Sherrill struggles to differentiate her policies from those of Gov. Phil Murphy and legislative Democrats, who have controlled the state government for nearly the last eight years.

“What I expect to see is Jack having a complete mastery of all of the different issues that are facing New Jerseyans, from the affordability crisis to surging electricity bills to public safety to education to quality of life,” Gibbs said. “And we’ll see that Mikie Sherrill doesn’t want to talk about state and local issues, because she cannot separate herself from any of the policy failures that the Trenton Democrats have put in place.”

Dan Bryan, a former senior adviser to Gov. Phil Murphy and co-author of the New Jersey Globe’s Stomping Grounds column, said Sherrill’s motivating message will be affordability in the state.

“I think Mikie is going to be looking to show the audience and the state that she’s the candidate that’s going to drive down costs,” Bryan said. “She’s been laser-focused on affordability in this cycle, and when she’s talking about her proactive agenda, it’s affordability, affordability, affordability.”

While Ciattarelli is expected to steer the debate toward the state issues he’s most familiar with, President Donald Trump will surely come up. The Sherrill campaign has sought to highlight Ciattarelli’s recent embrace of Trump, with national Democrats blasting ads that declare the Republican nominee “100% MAGA.”

He has a balancing act to strike: Ciattarelli must keep Trump fans in the Republican base motivated, while also shedding off concerns that he would be a New Jersey version of Trump for moderates who might not approve of the president.

“He doesn’t want to criticize Donald Trump for fear of depressing support among MAGA and conservative voters, but he also cannot be seen to be embracing him, because Donald Trump is not popular in New Jersey,” Cassino said. “So he’s got to thread that needle.”

Gibbs said Trump has little effect on the issues that matter to those watching, like increasing property taxes and needed school reform. She said that even if Sherrill brings up the president, New Jerseyans will stay focused on state issues.

“She can bring [Trump] up, but I think she’s doing it to distract from the fact that she doesn’t really know much about state and local issues,” Gibbs said.

Bryan said Sherrill’s critiques of the ties between Trump and Ciattarelli can’t be swept aside so easily.

“[Ciattarelli] talks a lot about, ‘Oh, Mikie only talks about Trump.’ Well, it’s not true. What Mikie says is actually a value statement on Jack. Jack has a blind allegiance to Trump,” Bryan said.

Cassino said most people who tune in will be politically invested people who have already made up their minds — that could be even more true on Sunday night, when the Giants play the Chiefs in primetime football. He said the biggest effect the debate will have on the race will come from media coverage and clips on social media — the “zippy” moments.

“That’s always what matters,” he said. “So both sides are strongly incentivized to try and create viral moments.”

Sunday’s 90-minute debate, sponsored by the New Jersey Globe, On New Jersey, and Rider University, begins at 7 p.m. The debate is one of two authorized by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.

Note: Editor David Wildstein, a moderator on Sunday’s debate, was not involved in the production of this article. The New Jersey Globe’s reporters are not involved in the creation of debate questions.

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