Murray Wood: Who's hot and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look at the week's news and decides who's hot and who's not. This week's list includes...
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Republican Jack Ciattarelli, who had President Donald Trump’s endorsement, and Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill won their primary elections in New Jersey’s race for governor, setting the stage for a November election, poised to be fought in part over affordability and the president’s policies.
Sherrill emerged from a crowded field of five experienced rivals on the strength of her biography as a Navy pilot and former prosecutor who has been a vocal critic of Trump.
In a victory speech, she criticized Ciattarelli as a “lackey” of the president’s, invoked New Jersey’s role in the American Revolution and hinted at the state’s role as one of just two holding a race for governor a year after the presidential election.
“New Jersey once again stands at the front lines,” she said. “We are in an American crisis, but not in a war for independence but a fight for our future.”
Ciattarelli, a former state lawmaker and small businessman, defeated four rivals. He now heads into the general election seeking to win back the governorship for Republicans after two straight Democratic victories and hoping to build on his 2021 performance when he came within a few percentage points of defeating the current governor, Democrat Phil Murphy,
Speaking to supporters after his victory Tuesday night, he thanked Trump for endorsing him, telling the crowd “we won because we were positive, we had the issues that matter.”
The crowd loudly booed when he mentioned Murphy and Sherrill, calling her “Phil Murphy 2.0.”
Sherrill defeated a fellow House member, the mayors of the state’s two biggest cities, a former top state legislator and the head of the influential teacher’s union.
The general election will undoubtedly cover New Jersey issues, like the high cost of living and sky high property taxes. But it also sets up a clear test for the president, a part-time resident with a long history in New Jersey, who waded into the contest on Ciattarelli’s side and was assailed by Sherrill throughout the primary campaign.
Sherrill’s success
She becomes the Democrats’ standard-bearer at a time when the state party is looking to win the governorship for a third straight term and the national party is looking for leadership and a message that resonates with voters.
Sherrill built her campaign around her personal story: a Naval Academy graduate who flew choppers for the Navy, she went on to work as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey. She first ran for office in 2018, during the midterm election in Trump’s first term, winning in a district that the GOP had controlled for years.
Her primary campaign, like those of her rivals, focused on finding ways to make the state more affordable, though she shied away during the primary campaign from offering a broad-based plan. She focused instead on more narrow steps such as lowering housing costs by boosting the number of development tax credits so more housing could be built.
Fred Martucci, 75, is a retired glazier who voted early in person recently in Trenton. He said he supported Sherrill after seeing her speak at a forum recently where she was confronted with tough questions.
“She was on her feet. She answered every one of them. She’s terrific,” he said.
Sherrill overcame fellow Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer, Mayors Ras Baraka of Newark and Steven Fulop of Jersey City, former state Senate President Steve Sweeney and New Jersey Education Association head Sean Spiller.
A win in November would give New Jersey its second female governor after Christine Todd Whitman held the office for two terms as a Republican. Murphy is prohibited from seeking a third consecutive term because of term limits. He didn’t endorse a successor in the primary.
Ciattarelli’s challenge
Ciattarelli defeated former talk radio host Bill Spadea, state Sen. Jon Bramnick, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac and contractor Justin Barbera to win the GOP primary.
As Ciattarelli turns his attention to the general election, he confronts a balancing act in a state that leans toward Democrats but has shown a willingness to elect Republicans as governor.
On one hand, he and the president have embraced one another, and Ciattarelli remains popular with the GOP base, which has largely unified after eight years of Democratic control of state government. But to win in November, Ciattarelli will have to appeal to New Jersey’s wider electorate, which has never supported Trump in his three presidential campaigns despite the president’s strong ties to New Jersey, where he has owned casinos and other high-profile properties.
Ciattarelli’s campaign touts the president’s 2024 performance in the state, where he lost by 6 percentage points compared to a 16-point defeat in 2020, as a sign that the GOP is poised for a comeback. It also notes a decline for Democrats in registration as an indicator that voters are disillusioned with the party that has long prevailed in most statewide elections, though they occasionally have tapped Republicans as governor.
A state Assembly member until 2018 when he stepped down to run for governor, Ciattarelli founded medical publishing company Galen Publishing and held local and county positions in Somerset.
The influence of Trump
Trump’s endorsement of Ciattarelli in the final month of the primary came after the candidate got to know and understand the “Make America Great Again” movement, the president said in a social media post.
Trump wasn’t a factor for Thomas Walton, 45, who supported Ciattarelli because he said he thinks he’s best suited to handle the state’s financial matters.
“We’ve had the nation’s highest property taxes for years, and no one ever does anything about them, especially the Democrats. He deserves the chance to change the way Trenton works,” Walton said.
The two open races for governor this year — the other is in Virginia — could offer signals about how the public is responding to Trump’s agenda and whether Democrats have succeeded in their efforts to rebuild after defeat in 2024.
New Jersey has been reliably Democratic in Senate and presidential contests for decades. But the odd-year races for governor have tended to swing back and forth, and each of the last three GOP governors has won a second term.
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Associated Press reporter Bruce Shipkowski in Holmdel, New Jersey, contributed.
Mike Catalini, The Associated Press
