Just over a month before New Jersey elects a new governor and less than a week after the first televised debate between the candidates, signs are growing stronger that the momentum is with Republican Jack Ciattarelli over long-presumed front-runner Democrat Rep. Mikie Sherrill.
A just-completed Emerson College poll showed Ciattarelli and Sherrill in a dead heat with 43% of the vote each. A week before, a National Research poll conducted for the Ciattarelli campaign showed the former state legislator and narrowly unsuccessful 2021 gubernatorial nominee leading Sherrill by 46% to 45%.
The Emerson poll came days after the candidates met in their first televised debate, and by most accounts, Ciattarelli emerged on top. The GOP nominee focused his message on state issues. When challenged by Sherrill on whether he stood with President Donald Trump, Ciattarelli calmly said he supported the president on opposing wind farms off the Jersey Shore and on increasing the deduction cap for state and local taxes (SALT).
Since the debate, both Ciattarelli and the Republican Governors Association have run a barrage of TV spots slamming Sherrill for what they say is "tripling" her net worth through stock trades since she has been in Congress. Asked by radio talk show host Charlamagne tha God if she made $7 million in the stock market since becoming a member of Congress, Sherrill hesitantly replied: "I... I haven't, I don't believe I did, but I'd have to go see what that was alluding to."
In one of two off-year races for governor in the first year of a Republican presidency, Democrats more often than not win in New Jersey. But it is obvious that the politics of the Garden State are changing. Along with Ciattarelli's near-win of the Statehouse in 2021 over Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy, Trump performed better than expected against former Vice President Kamala Harris, winning 46% of the vote in New Jersey last year.
The safest bet one can make about the governorship contest is that it will likely be very close.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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