![]() Instead, he focused on hitting Murphy on New Jersey’s consistently highest-in-the-nation property taxes, a spike in gun violence and a high death toll in nursing homes early in the pandemic. ![]() ![]() Bernie Sanders.Ĭiattarelli largely eschewed campaigning with his party’s national notables. ambassador to Germany - brought national figures to New Jersey to campaign with him, including former President Barack Obama, first lady Jill Biden and Vermont Sen. Murphy - a former Goldman Sachs executive and U.S. “Nor was there, I think, the perception that the race was going to be this close.” “Based on the public polling and what was largely being talked about, I don’t think there was anyone in the state who, as we headed into Tuesday, thought there was potential for substantial losses in the Legislature,” Gill said in an interview. Even longtime Democratic state Senate President Steve Sweeney, New Jersey’s top state lawmaker, was on the verge of losing his seat to a virtually unknown and unfunded challenger.īrendan Gill, who managed Murphy’s 2017 campaign and worked for pro-Murphy independent expenditure groups this election cycle, acknowledged his party didn’t see this kind of election coming. On top of Ciattarelli’s surprise performance stateside, Republicans performed better than expected in a number of key legislative races - cutting into the Democratic majorities in both houses of the state Legislature. The hangover effect from both former executives seems to be fading. Chris Christie and Trump to turn once-solid GOP suburbs blue, saw their voter registration advantage over Republicans soar and grew their state legislative majorities. In New Jersey, Democrats had benefited from the unpopularity of former Republican Gov. Democrats appear poised to lose control of the Virginia House, as well. Murphy saw his popularity skyrocket during the early days of the pandemic but retreat as Covid-19 faded from voters’ minds and traditional concerns like taxes, education and the economy once again took precedence.ĭespite Murphy’s victory, the close outcome offers a reality check for New Jersey Democrats - and further deepens the damage done to the party nationally on Tuesday, when Republican Glenn Youngkin beat Democrat Terry McAuliffe to flip Virginia red. Much of Murphy’s campaign focused on tying Ciattarelli, the 59-year-old founder of a medical publishing company, to former President Donald Trump. Murphy, 64, a progressive who ran on his record of handling the pandemic, gradually raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour and increasing taxes on millionaires, defeated a former three-term member of the state Legislature. But Murphy’s small margin ultimately points to the same challenging political environment for Democrats, a year after winning the presidential election - and with midterms looming. The contest eluded national coverage for most of the year, as both parties focused intensely on the close race for governor in Virginia. Let’s see what the result is at the end of the day and then make that assessment if a recount is necessary.” The New Jersey GOP also put out a statement saying “we will fight for every single legal vote.”Īsked whether he would seek a recount, Eric Arpert, Ciattarelli‘s campaign manager, told NJ PBS: “We don’t know how many votes are outstanding. “With the candidates separated by a fraction of a percent out of 2.4 million ballots cast, it’s irresponsible of the media to make this call when the New Jersey Secretary of State doesn’t even know how many ballots are left to be counted,” Stami Williams, a spokesperson for the Ciattarelli campaign, said in a statement. “And New Jersey, I hear you.”Ĭiattarelli, however, isn’t ready to concede. “If you want to be governor for all of New Jersey, you must listen to all of New Jersey,” he said during his brief speech. Murphy also acknowledged how close he’d come to joining Jon Corzine and James Florio as single-term Democratic governors.
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