What to Know
- In the closing hours of New Jersey’s campaign for governor, Democratic incumbent Phil Murphy is travelling the state touting the progressive accomplishments during his first term.
- Republican Jack Ciattarelli is also on tour railing against high property taxes and mask mandates in schools.
- Murphy will be the first Democrat reelected in 44 years if he wins on Tuesday and the first person from the same party of the president to win in the off-off-year election in more than three decades. Ciattarelli, a former Assemblymember and small businessman, is trying to salvage the GOP’s slumping performance in elections.
In the closing hours of New Jersey’s campaign for governor, Democratic incumbent Phil Murphy is travelling the state touting the progressive accomplishments during his first term and Republican Jack Ciattarelli is also on tour railing against high property taxes and mask mandates in schools.
Murphy will be the first Democrat reelected in 44 years if he wins on Tuesday and the first person from the same party of the president to win in the off-off-year election in more than three decades. He’s staked his chances on a substantial list of progressive laws he’s signed: paid sick leave, a phased-in $15 minimum wage, higher taxes on the wealthy, taxpayer-financed community college and pre-kindergarten, and more.
Democrats have strong advantages in New Jersey, where they have 1 million more registered voters than Republicans. Murphy has also led in public polls throughout the campaign, but both candidates are running as if the race is neck-and-neck.
"Our team shows up, we win. Our team doesn't show up, and it's a coin toss. We cannot afford a coin toss," Murphy told supporters at a Monday night rally in South Orange.
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Ciattarelli, a former Assemblymember and small businessman, is trying to salvage the GOP’s slumping performance in elections.
The party has historically had success in statewide contests for governor, but nearly got shut out in U.S. House races during then-President Donald Trump’s midterm elections. The party also has a base that’s strongly with the former president and a bench of elected officials who are known to be moderates. It’s a mismatch that’s led Ciattarelli to embrace both the base as well as some moderate stances.
For instance, he’s called for preserving abortion rights and allowing immigrants without legal status to get drivers licenses, while he’s also implicitly criticized critical race theory in schools, saying that “we are not going to teach our children to feel guilty.” He has also fired back against Murphy's claims that he is a far-right Republican.
"That's coming from the most extreme governor we've ever had, to the left of Jim Florio, Jim McGreevey and Jon Corzine combined — and there were all one-termers," Ciattarelli said, noting that former President Donald Trump endorsed Virginia's Republican candidate for governor, but made no mention of the New Jersey race.
"I know people like to compare the ideology of Republicans throughout the country. I'm only worried about one thing right now: Fixing New Jersey and what the Republican brand in New Jersey stands for," Ciattarelli said. "In another 36 hours, I got a name (Murphy) can call me: governor-elect."
Murphy has called out his GOP opponent for supporting ideas and measures promoted by more conservative members of the party.
"His stop the steal rally speech, loosening gun laws, not defending funding for women's health, to pick three," Murphy told NBC New York on Sunday.
Murphy spent the weekend in traditional Democratic strongholds: Atlantic City, Camden, Elizabeth and Willingboro, among others. He held another rally in Union City Monday evening, before heading to South Orange.
"People are all-in on climate resiliency, on expanding pre-k, expanding childcare to cover for our moms, especially our single moms," the governor said.
Ciattarelli spent part of Saturday in the heart of New Jersey’s GOP country: Ocean County. He had eight stops across the state on Monday, including with a crowd that gathered at a Middlesex County pizzeria in Old Bridge. A more modest group joined him two hours later in Carteret, which is more of a Democratic town. He held a large and rowdy rally in Somerset later in the evening.
Murphy led by nine points in recent gubernatorial polls, leading Ciattarelli 53-44 in a Fairleigh Dickinson University Poll released Friday and 50-41 in a Stockton University poll released Thursday. While both were beyond the margin of error, they were still a slight decline from a previous Monmouth University poll, which showed the governor with an 11-point lead.
Also on the ballot are all 120 seats in the Legislature. Most expect it will remain under Democratic control in the next session.
If he wins, Murphy has promise to sign a Reproductive Freedom Act enshrining abortion rights into state law, a response to Democratic concerns that Roe v. Wade could be undone by the U.S. Supreme Court. He’s also promised more gun control legislation and to expand taxpayer-financed pre-kindergarten to more schools, eventually making it universal for all 3-year-olds.
Ciattarelli has promised to reduce property taxes, which average about $9,100 and are among the highest in the country, by overhauling the state’s school funding formula. Details about how it would work, however, are murky. He’s also said there will be no COVID-19 mandates under his administration. Murphy, by contrast, currently has ordered masks in schools.
He’s also relentlessly attacked Murphy over saying that “if taxes are your issue, we’re probably not your state,” slamming the governor for seeming to be out of touch with an issue voters say matters to them.
Early in-person voting ended Sunday. Polls open Tuesday at 6 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Mail-in ballots can be returned through 8 p.m. Tuesday as well.
