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Newsweek
2 days ago
- Politics
- Newsweek
Mikie Sherrill's Chances of Beating Jack Ciattarelli in New Jersey: Polls
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Democratic New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill is set to beat her Republican rival Jack Ciattarelli in the upcoming election for governor, according to a poll. According to a SurveyUSA poll, released the day after Ciattarelli and Sherrill secured their respective nominations on Wednesday, the Democrat led his GOP rival by 13 percentage points. The Context Along with Virginia, New Jersey is one of the two states holding gubernatorial elections this year to replace New Jersey's incumbent Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, who has a term-limit. The Republicans have not won a gubernatorial election in New Jersey since 2013 and has voted for a Democrat in every presidential election since 1988. But the GOP has seen increasing success in the state in recent years, with Trump increasing his vote share by 10 points in 2024. This was the best showing by a GOP presidential nominee in two decades. Split image of Democratic Representative Mikie Sherrill, left, and former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, right, who will face Sherrill in New Jersey's gubernatorial contest. Split image of Democratic Representative Mikie Sherrill, left, and former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, right, who will face Sherrill in New Jersey's gubernatorial contest. AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, Mike Catalini, file What To Know Ciattarelli is a former New Jersey state representative who has said he would end any sanctuary policies protecting immigrants without permanent legal status. Sherrill is a United States representative who worked in the navy and as a federal prosecutor. According to the SurveyUSA poll of 785 adults, 51 percent of likely voters said they'd support Sherrill in the November general election, compared to 38 percent who said they'd back Ciattarelli. The poll was conducted between May 28 and May 30. However, a previous survey by the same pollster found that 40 percent of Garden State voters have a favorable view of Ciattarelli, while 41 percent had the same view of Sherrill. There was a larger gap between the two candidates when it comes to their negative ratings, with 29 percent of voters having an unfavorable view of Sherrill, compared to 36 percent who have an unfavorable opinion of the Republican. What People Are Saying Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, previously told Newsweek that while Democrats are the majority party in the state. "It is certainly possible that New Jersey could elect a Republican governor in November. [Incumbent] Governor [Phil] Murphy was the first Democrat to be reelected in more than 40 years, and in that same span, three Republican governors were elected and reelected. President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social: "The Great State of New Jersey has a very important Primary coming up on Tuesday. Get Out and Vote for Jack Ciattarelli, who has my Complete and Total Endorsement! His Opponents are going around saying they have my Endorsement, which is not true, I don't even know who they are! We can't play games when it comes to Elections, and New Jersey is a very important State that we must WIN. The whole World is watching. Vote for Jack Ciattarelli to, MAKE NEW JERSEY GREAT AGAIN!" What Happens Next The election takes place on November 4. Five third-party or independent candidates are also running for the seat.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Eleven candidates lined up to seek Dem, GOP nods for governor
Six Democrats and five Republicans who want to be New Jersey's next governor filed petitions Monday to secure spots on the ballot in the June primaries. (Illustration by Alex Cochran for New Jersey Monitor) Six Democrats and five Republicans who want to become New Jersey's next governor officially have met signature requirements to ensure their place on June's primary ballots, although two surprises Monday shook up the Republican race. Former Sen. Ed Durr dropped out, citing fundraising challenges, while Justin Barbera, a Burlington County contractor who made an unsuccessful bid for a House seat last year, filed enough signatures to join the race, according to nominating petitions that were due Monday. Barring any petition problems, Barbera will appear on the Republican primary ballot with state Sen. Jon Bramnick, former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac, and former radio show host Bill Spadea. Ciattarelli came close to beating Gov. Phil Murphy in his 2021 reelection bid. There were no surprises on the Democratic side, where six candidates who have long been on the campaign trail comfortably met signature requirements: Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill, teachers union president Sean Spiller, and former state Sen. Steve Sweeney. Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, noted that this will be the state's first governor's race without the county line, a controversial ballot design that a judge deemed likely unconstitutional last year. Rasmussen said the loss of the county line is good for voters. 'This is the biggest field of top candidates we have seen, I would say, in 45 years,' Rasmussen said. 'You will not often get the mayor of the two largest cities, two of the members of the congressional delegation, a nominee from the last time, and a radio talk show host all running in the same race. So voters get these really interesting choices.' That has the potential to pump up voter turnout, he added. 'These are really interesting candidates with really interesting agendas and backgrounds, and I hope it does draw more voters in,' he said. Murphy, a term-limited Democrat, signed a law last month hiking how many signatures candidates need to make the ballot. Most of the 11 gubernatorial candidates far surpassed the new 2,500-signature threshold, which is more than twice the 1,000 signatures major-party candidates needed before the new law. Baraka logged the most among the Democratic candidates, with 10,806 signatures, while Ciattarelli led the GOP candidates, with 5,543 signatures. Kranjac just squeaked by, with 2,535 signatures, filings show. He actually submitted 3,021 signatures by Monday's deadline, but 486 were rejected as defective, said Michael D. Byrne, his campaign manager. But Byrne told the New Jersey Monitor Tuesday that he expects most or all of those 486 rejected signatures will ultimately be counted because they had curable defects, such as missing notarizations and petition circulators who were unaffiliated voters. Petition circulators must be affiliated with the same party named in the petition. Campaign volunteers now are working to collect needed notarizations and register the unaffiliated circulators as Republican by Thursday's deadline to amend defective petitions, Byrne said. Rasmussen predicted that one of Kranjac's primary opponents would challenge his nominating petitions in an attempt to knock him off the ballot and narrow the competition. Friday afternoon is the deadline to file objections to nominating petitions. 'On the Democratic side, those six candidates viewed (collecting signatures) as an opportunity to organize and get out there and rally support,' Rasmussen said. 'It was a different story on the Republican side — it's a smaller party, a smaller number of voters, and those candidates were much closer to the 2,500 requirement.' Rasmussen said President Donald Trump promises to motivate voters this year, especially among Republicans. 'For rank-and-file Republican voters, Trump has been extremely energizing,' he said. 'We're all sort of holding our breath and seeing whether or not the actions that he's taking to drown the federal government in the bathtub, which Republicans have talked about for many, many years, has made them more enthusiastic and draws them out more.' Whether Trump will drive Democratic voters to the polls remains a toss-up, he added. 'Where a candidate has not had a coherent, convincing answer on how to oppose these federal policies that Democratic voters do not agree with, I think it could dampen enthusiasm,' he said. 'Where a candidate is offering a roadmap and a clear idea and a clear agenda and a clear sense of this is how we do this, I think voters will respond to it.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Two former governors resigned in scandal. Now they want to be mayors.
There's never been a better time to be a disgraced politician seeking a second chance. A pair of former governors who resigned in scandal are vying to lead major cities on both sides of the Hudson River — attempted comebacks that wager voters fed up with existing options will value their executive experience more than their political flaws. Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who stepped down in 2021 following sexual harassment allegations, just launched his campaign for mayor of New York City. Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, who exited office in 2004 after admitting to an extramarital affair with a man who he hired, is campaigning to lead New Jersey's second largest city, Jersey City. While both are Democrats, they are likely to benefit from the Donald Trump effect, where expectations around character have been obliterated. For their part, neither campaign is eager to acknowledge the other, but both former governors say they are selling executive experience. McGreevey and Cuomo are both talking about bread-and-butter issues: public safety, clean streets, affordable housing and the menace of e-bikes. "I think folks want a record of getting something done and working hard," McGreevey said in an interview. Cuomo is sounding a similar note about experience as a chief executive. 'I don't think there's been a governor in modern political history that has accomplished more things than I have accomplished,' Cuomo said during an interview with Stephen A. Smith. Cuomo also explicitly attacked others who 'never ran anything before.' McGreevey has said governors and mayors share 'the need to get something done, to bring measurable change.' It's hard not to see these as digs at recent big city Democratic mayors who have fumbled their way into infamy with one thing in common: they were legislators, not executives, before becoming mayor. That list includes New York Mayor Eric Adams, his predecessor Bill de Blasio, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and defeated San Francisco Mayor London Breed. It goes without saying, none of McGreevey or Cuomo's opponents has the same kind of executive experience they have, even if it didn't end well. 'Their reputation certainly precedes them, right?' said Micah Rasmussen, a former McGreevey aide who is now the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University. It is unusual for governors to be forced out of office. Of the few thousand people who have served as an American governor, Cuomo was only the 56th to resign or be removed, according to the Pew Research Center. Some in that club have tried to reboot their political careers, to mixed success. Others — Rod Blagojevich of Illinois and Robert Bentley of Alabama — were legally barred from running for elected office. While McGreevey resigned with a speech remembered for the line 'I am a gay American,' and his fall is often tied solely to his sexual orientation in an era before more widespread acceptance, he was involved in a mix of scandals at the time, most notably putting his lover on the state payroll as a homeland security adviser in the months after 9/11 without proper credentials. After he stepped down, McGreevey went on a spiritual journey and spent more than a decade helping prisoners reenter society. His campaign launch video in 2023, titled 'Second Chances,' opened with a scene of his resignation speech and a contrite McGreevey of today saying he'd learned his lessons. Cuomo, by contrast, spent the past few years fighting in court to clear his name and launched his campaign with a 17-minute video that only briefly alluded to the scandal that prompted him to step down — a report released by Attorney General Letitia James found he sexually harassed 11 women. His leadership during Covid-19 also came under a cloud. Cuomo has denied any wrongdoing on both counts and argued the scandals were induced by his many political enemies in New York and Washington. District attorneys subsequently did not bring criminal charges. Basil Smikle Jr., a former head of the New York Democratic Party under Cuomo, said former politicians who leave office under a cloud make another go at it by waiting for the right time and doing a mea culpa tour to test the waters. Plus, Trump — who was impeached twice, found liable for sexual abuse and is a convicted felon — has shown certain behavior is more palatable to voters. McGreevey is running for an open seat in a nonpartisan general election this fall with backing of a major North Jersey power broker. Cuomo is running in a crowded primary field against Adams, who is under indictment, surrounded by scandal and with polling that shows most voters want Adams to resign. Another opponent, Scott Stringer, was a front-runner in the crowded 2021 Democratic primary before his campaign was derailed by accusations that he sexually harassed a campaign volunteer 20 years earlier. Stringer denied wrongdoing and is suing the woman who accused him for defamation. Smikle said Cuomo may also be counting on some of the same Black and Hispanic Democrats who moved toward Trump last fall. "I think the Trump voter and the potential Cuomo voter want the same thing — there is an interest in political disruption, they are OK with overlooking the past if they can get the disruption that helps them today," he said. The governor-to-mayor pipeline is not unprecedented for those who didn't leave in scandal: Term-limited Delaware Gov. John Carney is now mayor of Wilmington. If, as former New York Gov. David Paterson has said, Cuomo would rather be governor again, there is some precedent in former California Gov. Jerry Brown, who like Cuomo was a governor's son. After Brown led his state for eight years as a young man, his political future looked bleak following a trio of failed presidential bids. But then Brown ran for mayor of Oakland, won, and climbed back up the ladder to end his career as governor again. When Cuomo and McGreevey reemerged, both Democrats had major establishment allies. The city's carpenter's union and Rep. Ritchie Torres, a high-profile Democrat, are in Cuomo's corner. Torres has said the city needs a 'Mr. Tough Guy.' McGreevey was encouraged to run by Hudson County power broker Brian Stack, who is also a state senator and mayor of neighboring Union City. While both McGreevey and Cuomo have roots in the cities they are running to lead, both men spent years elsewhere, and both have been criticized for carpetbagging and me-centric campaigns. When McGreevey launched his campaign in 2023, campaign rival Bill O'Dea said his campaign would be 'about the people,' not 'anything related to my own ego,' a jab at McGreevey. Stringer, a former city comptroller and mayoral candidate, compared Cuomo to disgraced former state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who tried to resurrect his career with a run for city comptroller but lost to Stringer. Rasmussen, who was McGreevey's spokesperson through the resignation, wonders if the collapse of local media has something to do with governors playing in local races because it's 'harder and harder for candidates to break through' and governors already come with name recognition — even if the names are a double-edged sword.
Politico
15-03-2025
- Politics
- Politico
Two former governors resigned in scandal. Now they want to be mayors.
There's never been a better time to be a disgraced politician seeking a second chance. A pair of former governors who resigned in scandal are vying to lead major cities on both sides of the Hudson River — attempted comebacks that wager voters fed up with existing options will value their executive experience more than their political flaws. Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who stepped down in 2021 following sexual harassment allegations, just launched his campaign for mayor of New York City. Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, who exited office in 2004 after admitting to an extramarital affair with a man who he hired, is campaigning to lead New Jersey's second largest city, Jersey City. While both are Democrats, they are likely to benefit from the Donald Trump effect, where expectations around character have been obliterated. For their part, neither campaign is eager to acknowledge the other, but both former governors say they are selling executive experience. McGreevey and Cuomo are both talking about bread-and-butter issues: public safety, clean streets, affordable housing and the menace of e-bikes. 'I think folks want a record of getting something done and working hard,' McGreevey said in an interview. Cuomo is sounding a similar note about experience as a chief executive. 'I don't think there's been a governor in modern political history that has accomplished more things than I have accomplished,' Cuomo said during an interview with Stephen A. Smith. Cuomo also explicitly attacked others who 'never ran anything before.' McGreevey has said governors and mayors share 'the need to get something done, to bring measurable change.' It's hard not to see these as digs at recent big city Democratic mayors who have fumbled their way into infamy with one thing in common: they were legislators, not executives, before becoming mayor. That list includes New York Mayor Eric Adams, his predecessor Bill de Blasio, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and defeated San Francisco Mayor London Breed. It goes without saying, none of McGreevey or Cuomo's opponents has the same kind of executive experience they have, even if it didn't end well. 'Their reputation certainly precedes them, right?' said Micah Rasmussen, a former McGreevey aide who is now the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University. It is unusual for governors to be forced out of office. Of the few thousand people who have served as an American governor, Cuomo was only the 56th to resign or be removed, according to the Pew Research Center. Some in that club have tried to reboot their political careers, to mixed success. Others — Rod Blagojevich of Illinois and Robert Bentley of Alabama — were legally barred from running for elected office. While McGreevey resigned with a speech remembered for the line 'I am a gay American,' and his fall is often tied solely to his sexual orientation in an era before more widespread acceptance, he was involved in a mix of scandals at the time, most notably putting his lover on the state payroll as a homeland security adviser in the months after 9/11 without proper credentials. After he stepped down, McGreevey went on a spiritual journey and spent more than a decade helping prisoners reenter society. His campaign launch video in 2023, titled 'Second Chances,' opened with a scene of his resignation speech and a contrite McGreevey of today saying he'd learned his lessons. Cuomo, by contrast, spent the past few years fighting in court to clear his name and launched his campaign with a 17-minute video that only briefly alluded to the scandal that prompted him to step down — a report released by Attorney General Letitia James found he sexually harassed 11 women. His leadership during Covid-19 also came under a cloud. Cuomo has denied any wrongdoing on both counts and argued the scandals were induced by his many political enemies in New York and Washington. District attorneys subsequently did not bring criminal charges. Basil Smikle Jr., a former head of the New York Democratic Party under Cuomo, said former politicians who leave office under a cloud make another go at it by waiting for the right time and doing a mea culpa tour to test the waters. Plus, Trump — who was impeached twice, found liable for sexual abuse and is a convicted felon — has shown certain behavior is more palatable to voters. McGreevey is running for an open seat in a nonpartisan general election this fall with backing of a major North Jersey power broker. Cuomo is running in a crowded primary field against Adams, who is under indictment, surrounded by scandal and with polling that shows most voters want Adams to resign. Another opponent, Scott Stringer, was a front-runner in the crowded 2021 Democratic primary before his campaign was derailed by accusations that he sexually harassed a campaign volunteer 20 years earlier. Stringer denied wrongdoing and is suing the woman who accused him for defamation. Smikle said Cuomo may also be counting on some of the same Black and Hispanic Democrats who moved toward Trump last fall. 'I think the Trump voter and the potential Cuomo voter want the same thing — there is an interest in political disruption, they are OK with overlooking the past if they can get the disruption that helps them today,' he said. The governor-to-mayor pipeline is not unprecedented for those who didn't leave in scandal: Term-limited Delaware Gov. John Carney is now mayor of Wilmington. If, as former New York Gov. David Paterson has said, Cuomo would rather be governor again, there is some precedent in former California Gov. Jerry Brown, who like Cuomo was a governor's son. After Brown led his state for eight years as a young man, his political future looked bleak following a trio of failed presidential bids. But then Brown ran for mayor of Oakland, won, and climbed back up the ladder to end his career as governor again. When Cuomo and McGreevey reemerged, both Democrats had major establishment allies. The city's carpenter's union and Rep. Ritchie Torres, a high-profile Democrat, are in Cuomo's corner. Torres has said the city needs a 'Mr. Tough Guy.' McGreevey was encouraged to run by Hudson County power broker Brian Stack, who is also a state senator and mayor of neighboring Union City. While both McGreevey and Cuomo have roots in the cities they are running to lead, both men spent years elsewhere, and both have been criticized for carpetbagging and me-centric campaigns. When McGreevey launched his campaign in 2023, campaign rival Bill O'Dea said his campaign would be 'about the people,' not 'anything related to my own ego,' a jab at McGreevey. Stringer, a former city comptroller and mayoral candidate, compared Cuomo to disgraced former state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who tried to resurrect his career with a run for city comptroller but lost to Stringer. Rasmussen, who was McGreevey's spokesperson through the resignation, wonders if the collapse of local media has something to do with governors playing in local races because it's 'harder and harder for candidates to break through' and governors already come with name recognition — even if the names are a double-edged sword.
New York Times
09-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Casts a Long Shadow Over a Governor's Race
There are plenty of thorny policy issues facing the next governor of New Jersey. Housing and health care costs are high. Mass transit is on the ropes. Schools are among the most segregated in the country, and sea levels along the state's 130-mile coastline are rising. But on the campaign trail, nearly all the candidates in both parties have been forced to focus heavily on another topic altogether: President Trump. He has dominated the rhetoric at Republican and Democratic debates. His photograph has been featured prominently in ads for candidates competing for their party's nomination in June. At forums that draw each side's most energized base of supporters, he is either the standard-bearer or the bête noir. Some candidates have even laced their comments with curse words in an apparent effort to emulate Mr. Trump's blunt speaking style. 'You're going to hear a couple of guys argue about who's more Trump-like,' Edward Durr Jr., a Republican candidate, said at the start of one debate. It was the inverse of a warning made days earlier by Ras J. Baraka, the mayor of Newark who is running for the Democratic nomination: 'We're moving too far to the right. We're scared to be Democrats.' New Jersey and Virginia are the only states that hold governor's races the year after a presidential election. And every four years the results are scrutinized for clues about voter sentiment ahead of midterm contests that can determine party control of Congress. Because of a change in ballot design that has led to a seismic shift in the way campaigns are run in New Jersey, this year's primaries are particularly volatile. No longer do candidates endorsed by local party leaders get a preferential spot on the ballot — a change that has given their rivals better odds of success. As a result, neither party has coalesced around a dominant front-runner, and the primaries' unusually competitive nature is likely to offer early insights about messaging, voter enthusiasm and attitudes toward Mr. Trump's second presidency. 'Either it's going to be the first sign that Trump is in trouble and that voters are ready to rebalance, to recalibrate,' said Micah Rasmussen, director of Rider University's Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics. 'Or it's going to be a sign that Democrats are still on their heels, that Trump still has the Democrats on the run.' Gov. Philip D. Murphy is barred by term limits from running for re-election. And the race to replace him has drawn an enormous field of candidates, including two sitting members of Congress, two big-city mayors and a Republican who nearly beat Mr. Murphy three years ago. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 830,000 voters statewide. But independent voters make up the second largest voting bloc and carry enough clout to swing elections in New Jersey, a largely suburban, well-educated and affluent state. In the governor's race, clear lanes have emerged on the left and on the right on a range of divisive issues stoked by Mr. Trump, including abortion access, transgender rights and the president's pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters. But on no issue does Mr. Trump's influence on the race appear more clear-cut than on immigration, even in a state where roughly one in four residents was born outside the United States. After a campaign focused heavily on border security, Mr. Trump notched a far stronger showing in November than he did in 2020, losing New Jersey by just six points, down from 16 points four years ago. In more than half of the state's counties, he won — including in Passaic County, a heavily urban region of northern New Jersey filled with vibrant immigrant communities and a large population of Palestinians, many of whom were dissatisfied by Democrats' political response to Israel's bombing of Gaza after the Oct. 7 attack by the terrorist group Hamas. Representative Jeff Van Drew, a former Democrat from South Jersey who joined the Republican Party four years ago and has become an ally of Mr. Trump, said the president's victory in November presented an opportunity to continue to expand the party's base in New Jersey. Recent polls have shown that immigration remains a dominant concern among New Jersey voters. And Democrats have approached the topic far more warily than Mr. Murphy did eight years ago when he was first running for office. Jersey City's mayor, Steve Fulop, and Sean Spiller, the president of the state's largest teachers' union, have said that they would strengthen New Jersey's ability to defend immigrants if elected governor. But only one of the Democratic candidates for governor, Mr. Baraka, loudly criticized the Trump administration after it moved recently to reopen an immigrant detention center in Newark, a step likely to put the state at the epicenter of the president's effort to enact mass deportations. Other Democratic candidates for governor have staked out positions that speak to voters' unease about unchecked immigration and crime. In January, Representative Josh Gottheimer set himself apart as the only Democrat in New Jersey's congressional delegation to support the Laken Riley Act, which directs the authorities to detain and deport undocumented immigrants who are accused — but not convicted — of certain crimes. And Stephen M. Sweeney, a former State Senate president, has said he would roll back a rule limiting the voluntary assistance that the authorities may provide federal agents, which has been a cornerstone of New Jersey's immigration policy for six years. Representative Mikie Sherrill, a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, addressed immigration policy only generally during a recent candidate forum at Rutgers University. But she grew emotional as she spoke about what she sees as the overarching threat New Jersey faces from the Trump administration. 'Every dream I had for my children and my grandchildren, everything I believe about this country, is under attack right now from Donald Trump,' she said. 'And I cannot imagine how I would work with him when he is working to destroy everything that I love.' The audience erupted in applause as Ms. Sherrill appeared to wipe away a tear. John L. Campbell, a former sociology professor at Dartmouth College whose research has focused on Mr. Trump's norm-shredding first term, said Democrats across the country are struggling to find a resonant message, particularly on issues like immigration. 'I just don't think they've figured it out yet,' he said. 'They need to figure out a way to at least genuflect a little bit to some of the issues that have been successful for 'Team Trump,'' he said. Among Republican candidates for governor, the campaign has been a race to embrace the president and his agenda. Jack Ciattarelli, who fell three points short of beating Mr. Murphy in 2021, set up a website challenging an opponent's fealty to Mr. Trump. In turn, that opponent, Bill Spadea, a far-right radio host on leave from his job, released an ad that featured a snippet from an interview in which Mr. Trump groused about Mr. Ciattarelli, suggesting that if he had asked for Mr. Trump's endorsement, he might have won his race in 2021. 'This guy never came to ask for my support,' Mr. Trump said in May. 'When MAGA sees that, they don't like it.' Even Senator Jon Bramnick, a moderate Republican candidate who has been an outspoken Trump critic, has said that he would accept the president's support, even as he noted that it was unlikely to be offered. The primary races are unfolding against a backdrop of dizzying change in Washington, making political strategy especially challenging. 'It's almost 100 years from now until the general election in November,' said State Senator Holly Schepisi, a Republican. 'Popularity today doesn't necessarily translate to popularity a few months from now.' In New Jersey, one of the most palpable signs of the shifting sands in Washington has been an uptick in the tempo of deportation actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who have shown a new willingness to enter workplaces to make arrests. Nedia Morsy, director of Make the Road New Jersey, an organizing group focused on immigrant rights, sees the actions by ICE as an opportunity for left-leaning candidates to begin to define an alternative narrative, particularly in a race that will be watched nationwide. 'Folks should rethink their strategy if their intention is to shy away from immigration,' Ms. Morsy said, 'because it is important to every single community in New Jersey.' 'New Jersey,' she added, 'can serve as a referendum across the country.'
