New Jersey governor’s race: Sherrill, Ciattarelli face off in first debate (live transcript)

Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli are at Rider University tonight, September 21, for the first general election debate of New Jersey’s gubernatorial race.

The debate, sponsored by the New Jersey Globe, On New Jersey, and Rider University, is sanctioned by the state Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC), with fact-checking provided by PolitiFact.

Outside Rider’s Lawrenceville campus, a group lined the road to the parking lot to protest the genocide of Palestinians.

The debate began later than scheduled due to heavy traffic, which was backed up a few miles on Route 206. Security was tight in the current political climate. The university’s north entrance was blocked off, and state police maintained a strong presence at both entrances and at the student recreation center where the debate is being held.

The 90-minute town hall-style debate features questions from Rider students, faculty, journalists, and community members. Panelists include New Jersey Globe editor David Wildstein; Micah Rasmussen, director of Rider’s Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics; Sophie Nieto-Muñoz of the New Jersey Monitor, and moderator Laura Jones of On New Jersey.

The debate is one of two authorized by ELEC. Under state law, gubernatorial candidates must participate in two official debates as a condition of receiving public financing through New Jersey’s Gubernatorial Public Financing Program.

The lieutenant governor debate is scheduled for Tuesday, September 30, at 7 p.m. at Kean University. Republican James Gannon and Democrat Dale Caldwell are required to participate in one ELEC debate.

The second Sherrill–Ciattarelli debate will take place on Wednesday, October 8, at 7 p.m. at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. It will be moderated by Tamala Edwards and Bill Ritter.

Opening statements

Mikie Sherrill: My name is Mikie Sherrill, and I have a different kind of background, so I’m going to be a different kind of governor. I’m a former Navy helicopter pilot, federal prosecutor, and member of Congress, and Jason and I are raising our four great kids. So that’s why I am laser-focused on driving down costs for families like yours. I’m going to declare a state of emergency on day one, freezing your rate hikes. I’m going to demand transparency and accountability from our government to save you time and money. And for those of you who have been following Jack’s race, you’ve heard a lot of nonsense, and you’re going to hear a lot more tonight, but there’s a clear choice. In 1990, Jack took his first of many votes to raise your taxes. That was the same year I took my first of many oaths to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. He’ll support abortion bans. I’ll support your personal freedoms. He’ll do whatever Trump tells him to do, and I will fight anybody to work for you.

Jack Ciattarelli: We need change. We need a hands-on CEO governor who’s from New Jersey who knows exactly what needs to be done and is willing to do it. Overwhelmingly, New Jerseyans feel that we’re heading in the wrong direction. Here’s why. There’s an affordability crisis because of the taxes you pay, and now because of your electricity rates. There’s a public education crisis in this state. We’ve slipped from two to 12 in the national report card because we no longer focus on critical life skills and vocational training. There’s a public safety crisis in this state. Nonviolent crime is through the roof —break-ins, car thefts, flash mobs in our malls and the Jersey Shore. There’s an overdevelopment crisis in a state, and we’re taking the garden right out of the Garden State. With all the overdevelopment, we’re the worst place in the country in which to do business. These are the issues. My opponent will blame all these things on the president. Make no mistake, her party has controlled our legislature for 25 years. The party has controlled the executive branch for eight years, which is the reason we are today. I look forward to discussing my specific plans on how to fix New Jersey.

Our first question comes from David Wildstein, and it goes to Mikie Sherrill. One of the things I’ve heard New Jerseyans say is that your campaign has had plenty of broad talking points, but has been light on specific fixes to the state’s problems. So what do you say to people who question your mastery of state government issues and your desire to speak more about New Jersey and how you will deal with the White House and Congress than about local issues.

Mikie Sherrill: I’m the only one who has a plan to actually take on the tough problems of New Jersey. In fact, Jack’s been in office before, and a lot of the things he complains about, he was the architect of. But that’s why I’ve committed to declaring a state of emergency on energy costs on day one to drive down your costs, to freeze rate hikes. I’m going to have a dashboard so you can see where your permitting is. As we cut through red tape and regulatory issues, we can drive down costs. I’ll make sure that we have a report card online so you can see exactly where your money goes and hold me accountable when the state’s not performing well. So that’s the kind of transparency, accountability, and cost savings I’m going to bring to government. Jack doesn’t have a plan to do it, because all he does is say that Trump’s right. It’s okay to drive up your tariffs. It’s okay to have the one big, beautiful bill, which drives up your health care and utility costs. Not on my watch.

Jack Ciattarelli: You just cited a campaign that’s short on specifics, and what you just got is 60 seconds of generalities and platitudes. My plan is very specific on how to fix New Jersey when it comes to affordability. How about we make all retirement income tax-free? How about we freeze property taxes once you hit 70? How about we allow you to deduct 100% of your property taxes on your New Jersey tax returns? How about we make the first two years of income post-high school, post-college, tax-free, so young people can get a start? How about we stop with all the overdevelopment by revisiting our Mount Laurel housing doctrine? How about we take the handcuffs off our police? These are the specifics that we could talk about on how to fix New Jersey.

Our next question is from Micah Rasmussen, and it goes to Jack Ciattarelli. When you first ran for governor, you were often critical of President Trump. Today, he says you changed. What advice can you give sincere New Jerseyans who are closer to where you were in 2017 and say they can’t look beyond the nation’s border chief accepting a bribe, or the FCC silence and dissent when those January 6 pardons were attacking our police?

Jack Ciattarelli: Well, let’s talk about what the President has done for New Jersey since he took office. He’s put a temporary halt on wind farms off the Jersey Shore. I’ll make that permanent. He’s beating up on the New York Democrats over their congestion pricing plan, which I think is an egregious money grab. We shouldn’t be paying for their subway system. He’s also quadrupled the SALT deduction on our federal tax returns. The big, beautiful bill also doubled the child care tax credit for those with young children. It also doesn’t tax tips over time and Social Security. It provides a magnificent tax credit for those who send their kids to private school. I want you to think about those four things. They’re good for all New Jerseyans. She voted no — my opponent did on that bill. But make no mistake, my job is to represent and advocate for the 9.3 million citizens of this state, and I’ll always do right by the citizens of this state, no matter who occupies the White House.

Mikie Sherrill: I’m sure he would like you to focus on those four things, because he doesn’t want you to focus on this tariff plan, which is putting small businesses out of business and is freezing hiring from our large businesses. He doesn’t want you to focus on the employment numbers or the fact that the deficit has gone up by $70 billion in the year Trump has been in office. He doesn’t want you to focus on the one big, beautiful bill, which is going to raise families utility costs by hundreds of dollars, which is going to imperil the health care of one in three children. Already now they’re going after the Affordable Care Act, so they’re taking away health care from people who don’t have health care insurance, and then they’re trying to drive up costs for people who already have health care insurance. So in every single way, we’re seeing costs go up on New Jersey families, and Jack just says he has nothing he disagrees with Donald Trump on. That’s not leadership. This state needs real leadership, and that’s exactly what I’ll do as governor.

Question going to Mikie Sherrill, Congresswoman. In recent years and months, politics have grown more divisive, leading to a rise in politically motivated threats and violence. Would you support legislation to make political violence a hate crime, and as governor, what would you do to keep political tensions from escalating?

Mikie Sherrill: So this is something I think about all the time, and everyone in elected office now faces this threat to themselves, but worse, to their families. And so we’re all very concerned, which is why we advocated for the state to make sure not only myself, but Jack, had more money to support his personal security and my family’s security as well. It’s why we continue to work to fight against political hatred. And so we need to do more, because in this nation, we should be able to have free speech. I’ve vowed to defend and fight for free speech my entire life, but it should never devolve into political violence. That is something I’ve also stood against my whole life, and I worry very much, because now too many people are thinking to themselves, I’m not sure if I should go into political office. I’m not sure if I should run, because I don’t want to imperil my family. And that’s why I continue to fight hard to protect people running, to make sure we have free speech in this nation, and we always stand against political violence.

Jack Ciattarelli: I think it’s the responsibility of any public official and candidate for office to engage in rhetoric that doesn’t divide us. My campaign has been about uniting us, not dividing us. I do think we need to take down the temperature a whole lot. So I support it. The question was whether or not I support a bill that was recently introduced in the legislature by one of our Republican state senators, on whether or not to make political violence a hate crime. It put some real legal teeth behind it. I don’t think she answered the question. The answer to the question is yes. I believe that we should do that here in New Jersey. And again, I think we all have a responsibility to engage in rhetoric that doesn’t divide us and doesn’t promote hate. And this campaign, from the very beginning, has had a very positive energy about it. It’s a campaign that’s about uniting, not dividing. It’s a campaign that’s about bringing people together, not dividing us. It’s a campaign about people, not power or politics. And so my opponent, on Friday, went down to Washington, voted yes on a resolution to celebrate Charlie Kirk’s life, but then, within minutes, sent out a statement that basically condemned him.

Mikie Sherrill rebuttal: That’s a neat trick to say you don’t want to divide people, and then in your answer, bring up something that’s very divisive. Here’s the thing: I care deeply. I care deeply about this country. I stand against political violence. The videos that came out after Charlie Kirk’s shooting were horrific, and I feel horrible because my kids have seen him, and so I can’t even imagine how the Kirk family feels. And that should never happen to anyone because they speak out. And I also have stood up my entire life, and I’ve taken numerous oaths up to and including offering to die for this country for free speech. And so I think it’s fair to have free speech, but I think it should go to everyone, to Jimmy Kimmel and to myself as well.

Jack Ciattarelli rebuttal: She still hasn’t answered your question, and we see this time and time in the campaign — generalities, platitudes, and dodging the direct question by not giving a direct answer.

Mikie Sherrill: That’s just not true. My direct answer is, I voted to protect free speech. I voted to end political violence. I also think it’s fair, Jack, to speak up when you disagree with something, and so if you want to stand up and say that Martin Luther King was a bad guy, or that women should submit to their husbands, you, Jack, are welcome to do that, and I have the right to say that I disagree with it.

Our next question is from a student at Rider University from Brick, and that will go to Jack Ciattarelli: So, New Jersey has one of the highest property taxes and costs of living in the nation. What steps would you take to make the state all affordable to the public now?

Jack Ciattarelli: Thank you for that question, very much. So we know there’s an affordability crisis. We know that our state budget took 238 years to get to $36 billion, and in eight years, it’s gone from $36 to $59 billion. And yet none of that investment is made to make life more affordable. In fact, it’s only become more unaffordable here in the state of New Jersey. So there’s a number of very specific proposals in my platform. We talked about a few already. Making all retirement income tax-free for our seniors, because they worry about living out their lives in their home. Freezing property taxes once you hit age 70 for life, allowing seniors to deduct 100% of their property taxes on New Jersey tax returns, capping property taxes at 1% of the assessed value of the home if you’re a first-time home buyer, making the first two years out of high school and the first two years out of college tax free. So you help get started here. These are just some of the things that we can do to make Jersey more affordable for everybody, but what you’ll also see is somebody who’s going to be very responsible for the way we spend our money. I will be very responsible and surgically reduce the size and cost of our state government to afford a tax cut for individuals and businesses.

Mikie Sherrill: I’ve been laser-focused on driving down costs for New Jerseyans. Jack, on the other hand, has voted at every single level of government to raise your taxes. In fact, he’s voted against over a billion dollars in property tax relief, and he’s implemented over $30 billion against property tax relief, so in every way, he’s raised costs on New Jerseyans. That’s why I’m going to get into office and make sure I’m lowering them by sharing services and school administrative costs in municipal courts and continuing to hammer home the way in which we can support seniors with Anchor and Stay New Jersey so that they aren’t susceptible to the constant increases in property taxes. I’ll continue to lower your costs, and Jack’s gonna raise them at every level.

Jack Ciattarelli rebuttal: So, a couple of things about the Anchor and Stay New Jersey program. I don’t think somebody making $500,000 a year should get a property tax rebate in this state. Now that, to me, is not right. I think we should use the money to spread it out. But let me say something else. I think it’s insulting here in New Jersey when we take money out of your right-hand pocket, put some back in your left-hand pocket, and call it a fancy name. But one other thing about the affordability crisis, remember, one thing that she’ll never remind you of, the Democrats have controlled our state legislature for 25 years. The Democrats have controlled the executive branch and the governorship for eight years, and look where we are today. All right, we’re going to go back to the audience.

Our next question is coming from Frederick, a professor here at Rider University. He is from Hamilton. Frederick’s question is going to go to Mikie Sherrill: How would you reduce the New Jersey tax burden on senior citizens?

Mikie Sherrill: This is something that, as you just heard, Jack is against, but I am for. Reducing the property tax burden on our seniors because it’s too expensive to stay here and watch your grandchildren grow up on a fixed income when you constantly see your taxes going up. It’s why I’ve been supportive of the Stay and Anchor programs, to make sure that our seniors can afford to stay here in retirement and stay with their families, as opposed to moving out of our state.

Jack Ciattarelli: This is starting to sound like a number of her commercials on TV. They’re not completely truthful. So, a couple of things to be specific. Make all retirement income tax-free the way it is in Pennsylvania. Number one, freeze your property taxes for life once you hit age 70. Allow seniors to deduct 100% of their property taxes on their New Jersey tax returns. Those are just some of the things that we can do across the state, here in New Jersey. So you’re not hearing any specifics. And again, the Anchor program and Stay New Jersey. They’re part gimmick. Why do we take money out of your right-hand pocket, put some back in your left-hand pocket, and then give it a fancy name? That’s what the Democrats have been doing for years. I prefer not to take it out of your pocket to begin with. And let me go as far as I say. We need to simplify our income tax rates for everybody. Pennsylvania has a 3% flat tax; ours is 10.75%. I’m proposing three new tax brackets, 3% 4% and 5%. We need to be regionally competitive. We’re losing people to Florida. We’re losing people to Pennsylvania. We’ve got to stop it.

Mikie Sherrill rebuttal: So talk about vague programs and talk about misleading statements. Here’s Jack’s proposal to raise costs on everything, including food and clothing on the table. This is what he’s talking about that he won’t tell you. A10% increase on groceries in our state. This is exactly what he has continued to bring up since 2017, and then when he saw that, he says, Oh, I just said we should put it on the table. We know it’s on the table. Jack, we want it off the table.

Jack Ciattarelli rebuttal: So if any of you think I’m going to raise your sales tax to 10%, I’ve got a bridge I want to sell you for about 50 cents. She knows it’s a lie. They’re trying to exploit you. They’re trying to manipulate you. She knows she’s in trouble in this campaign. So this campaign is going to lie to you over and over again. Fasten your seat belts for the next 44 days, because that’s exactly what’s going to happen. So we’re going to lower the overall tax burden for all New Jerseyans. You’ve heard me give you specifics for every class. We can do this if we’re responsible with our spending. I was sizing up the cost of state government to afford a tax cut for everybody. Under Governor Ciattarelli, everybody’s tax burden will be lessened, not increased.

We’re going to Michael, an alum of Rider University and from Lawrenceville. Michael, your question is going to Jack Ciattarelli. The back and forth blame on electricity rates is a little tiresome, and frankly, I would like to hear a little more specifics, because we all know that there are many factors that contribute to our rate increases. So, without blaming each other, what specifically are you going to do to tackle things like the grid operator, state mandates, and other impacts that raise our costs?

Jack Ciattarelli: I don’t think it’s blame when you’re giving facts. And here are the facts. When Phil Murphy took office, we were an electricity exporter. We produced more electricity than we needed. He shut down six different electricity generation plants. He put an unofficial moratorium on natural gas. He didn’t expand our nuclear capabilities in South Jersey, nor did he achieve zero carbon emissions. He didn’t accelerate solar. I’ve talked to solar developers who want to use the rooftops of warehouses, which is prime real estate for solar arrays. He didn’t accelerate that. What he did do was he bet it all on wind. Now, anybody who’s from New Jersey would know that the Jersey Shore is sacrosanct here in the state. Nobody wants wind farms off our Jersey Shore — male, female, young and old, Republican, liberal, conservatives, for different reasons. What I’ve said all along is I’ll reopen and repurpose the plants. We’ll expand our nuclear footprint in South Jersey. We will accelerate solar on the rooftops of our warehouses, and we’re pulling out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. That carbon tax initiative has been a failure. Air is no cleaner, electricity is only more expensive, and we’re sending ratepayer dollars to other states. By pulling out of RGGI, we can save half a billion dollars a year for ratepayers.

Mikie Sherrill: You know, anybody from New Jersey should know that this has been a long time coming, and that too many people have added to the problem. So whether it’s PJM, the grid operator, or FERC or BPU, whether it’s President Trump rolling back some of the initiatives on solar or adding $250 per family to your energy bill, everybody at the table is at fault, and they keep dumping the costs onto the rate payer here in New Jersey, that is why I’m freezing rate hikes on the rate payer. Because let’s face it, some of our utility companies have made over a billion dollars in profits, and yet our rate payers are constantly suffering. So I’m going to freeze those rate hikes by declaring a state of emergency. I’m going to add massive amounts of power to the grid. Right now, we need to produce power here in our state, because the market has been screwed up by PJM, and because Virginia has a million data centers which are sucking all the power out of our market. So we need to produce here, lower cost here, and stop putting the cost on the ratepayers of New Jersey.

Our next question is from Martha. She is a Rider professor from Old Bridge. How do you plan to lower rents in New Jersey?

Mikie Sherrill: So this is the number one thing I hear from people across the state when we’re talking about affordability, people are saying that they’re having too much trouble paying their mortgages, too much trouble paying their rent prices. And we know there are people colluding now in this state to raise rental prices, and we know Jack’s not going to do anything about it, because one of his biggest donors is actually being taken to court and sued on this very issue. But as governor, I’m going to fight for you. I’m going to make sure we’re driving down rental prices, ending the collusion that goes on to drive them up, and continuing to bring more units to the market, so that people will have better rental prices here across the state.

Jack Ciattarelli: So you asked a very specific question. Let me give you a specific answer. The reason why rents are going up is because property taxes are going up. The reason why rents are going up is because insurance is going up across the board. The reason why rents are going up is because in many cases, if the tenant doesn’t pay electricity, the landlord does, and that’s going up. These are all the reasons. And I know oftentimes we talk about homeowners, but we forget that tenants feel pain too. Every time any one of those expenses goes up, it gets passed on to the tenant. I have a very specific plan on how to lower property taxes. We need a new school funding formula. A more equitable one will help lower the property tax. From an insurance standpoint, we’re such a bad state in which to do business. Businesses have left. We need more competition. We need more insurance companies to come back here. And under my plan, by pulling out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, we could save a half a billion dollars in electricity costs on day one, whether you pay that, or the landlord pays that. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative has been a failure. My opponent supports offshore wind. It’s never going to be able to meet our energy needs, and it’s very, very expensive.

Our next question is coming from Joseph, a student at Rider University from Long Valley, and this question is going to Jack Ciattarelli: Should people in my generation and younger have an expectation of privacy in their lives? I mean, we’re living in an age of social media and location tracking for who knows what. So, should we have the same expectation of privacy that you and your opponent did when you were growing up?

Jack Ciattarelli: Yes. We’re going to take that time and listen. I’m all ears. There’s a constitutional right to privacy, and so I hear you loud and clear. We live in an age between the internet and everything else, where people put all kinds of things on the internet that kind of invade our privacy. So whatever we can do to make sure people’s right to privacy is enhanced and protected, I’m all ears on how best to do that.

Mikie Sherrill: So Joseph, what year are you? If I can ask. Asenior, okay, so you went through COVID during school like my kids did, and that’s probably when you started to get online more and more, because your classes were online and so much of your life was online. And that’s when we sort of stopped really moving forward on how we protect kids online. For example, it’s why I am going to put forward the Kids Online Safety Act, which was killed by the majority in the House, but I am going to make sure we’re passing it here in the state, so that kids can have a better understanding of how to work online, and we can keep them safe. There’s a mental health crisis in our state. We need to address it. I’m going to have more mental health counselors so that we can all work together to ensure people have that expectation of privacy. Because we have never appropriately addressed something called Section 230, which holds providers liable, and we are now looking at AI down the road, and how that’s going to bring a whole extra set of issues. So starting with the Kids Online Safety Act, I am going to work to make sure kids like you do have an expectation of privacy.

Jack Ciattarelli rebuttal: Well, if we’re very, very concerned about the welfare of our children, I do not support policy 5756. I don’t think the school district should be keeping secrets from parents. Okay, that’s not protecting kids. And if we’re concerned about protecting kids, I don’t think that biological boys should be playing in girls’ sports. She opposes me on both of those issues.

Mikie Sherrill rebuttal: So I’m a mom of four kids, and as I mentioned to Joseph, our kids have gone through Covid. There are mental health issues related to that. We have learning loss because our kids are struggling, and that’s why, as parents, it’s our job to make sure we’re keeping our kids safe at every level. As a mom, I’m going to make sure we do that. Obviously, parents know their kids best, and they need to be able to determine whether they opt out of health class.

Our next question is coming from Nancy. I’ve been given permission to say that Nancy, you are 96 years old and are from Skillman: We all know that public education is such a vital part of what makes New Jersey strong, and so my question to both of you is, should school districts be combined to reduce property taxes? How about municipalities? If so, should mergers be compulsory or voluntary?

Mikie Sherrill: So this is something that I know we have to do here in New Jersey, because right now we have more municipalities than California, and we have more school districts than municipalities, and it’s raising costs on everybody, some school districts who have the whole administrative cost all of the buildings, and yet they’re not even running a K through 12 school system. So we do need to merge some of these school districts. We also need to make some county-based school systems. The ones that we have are some of the best performers in our state, and this is a way in which I think we can ensure we’re getting great education to people, while driving down property taxes, especially in those areas where we’re not running a full K through 12 system.

Jack Ciattarelli: 564 towns. We are a home rule state. I do not believe their state government should force consolidation. That’s up to the locals, but I tell you what, if you do consolidate or you do regionalize, Governor Ciattarelli will help incentivize that to make it easier. So if you all make that decision at the local level, work and provide incentives. When I was in the state Legislature, Princeton Borough and Princeton Township decided to become one. I worked with the administration at the time to provide 100% of the one-time, upfront costs to make that more feasible. To fix public education, what we have to do, I think, is get back to the basics. Let’s get a high-quality education system here in New Jersey. You’re never going to hear me say we have the best school system in the country, because we don’t. We’ve slipped from two to 12 on the national report card. We’ve got to get back to the basics of teaching critical life skills and providing vocational training opportunities for our students with a more rigorous academic curriculum for our students. We need to get back there.

Mikie Sherrill rebuttal (asked if she would force consolidation): So I’d start by offering the carrot to help the areas that want to consolidate. But when there are areas that are not putting enough money into students, into educators, into the buildings, and then they are taking a lot of money in property taxes and from the state level, then we’ll have to start to look at compulsory movements.

Jack Ciattarelli rebuttal: So, let me say something else. When a school system is failing, and there are some reasonable metrics that tell us whether or not a school system is failing, there’s got to be choice. That choice comes in the form of vouchers. That choice comes in the form of charter schools. My opponent opposes both. There’s got to be a choice when a school system is failing.

Mikie Sherrill rebuttal Final thought, that is some more misinformation from my opponent. I’ve actually worked hard on charter schools. In fact, my lieutenant governor, Dr. Dale Caldwell, has been involved with charter schools, some high-performing charters. I want to make sure that every child in the state has access to a fantastic education.

Jack Ciattarelli rebuttal: Here are the facts of the matter. Phil Murphy has been in office for eight years, and he’s only approved one charter school and it was two weeks before the election of 2020, for political reasons. The Democratic nominee is owned by the NJEA union leadership, and they hate charter schools and educational choice.

Our next question is coming from Olivia from Blackwood. And our question goes to Jack Ciattarelli: How will you address global warming’s disproportionate effects on New Jersey’s urban communities of color?

Jack Ciattarelli: I’ve admitted I do think Mother Earth has sent us some powerful signals. I think human activity has a lot to do with that, but we need a rational transition to the future with regard to our energy. And I think that natural gas is a rational transition to the future, as is nuclear energy down in South Jersey, as is solar. It’s not just in our urban areas where the climate is up to us. The flooding that you see taking place in our suburban communities has a lot to do with the changes in the climate, and it’s adversely affecting the quality of life in these suburban communities that have never experienced flooding before. But make no mistake, flooding has a lot to do not just with the type of rain we get today. It has to do with overdevelopment. This is a big difference between the two parties. My opponent believes that we should have high-density housing in all 564 towns. I don’t believe that we should only have affordable housing, high-density housing in a town that has infrastructure, mass transit and opportunities for jobs. If a town doesn’t have infrastructure, mass transit, or opportunity jobs, why are we putting more idling cars on the road?

Mikie Sherrill: So that is a great question. I sat in my first term in Congress on the science, space and technology committee, and I was the chairwoman of the environment subcommittee. and that, as you might remember, was the year we had the heat dome over Oregon, which put so many different people in danger as they weren’t ready to handle it. We’ve seen flash flooding here in New Jersey, killing 70 throughout the state. We’ve seen tornadoes and hurricanes like we’ve never seen before. Our climate is changing, and we need to act, because in too many of our urban areas, we’re seeing high incidences of asthma, for example. So we know that we need to act quickly to protect our environment, but to also ensure that we have better health outcomes in this state, and that’s why, as governor, I’m going to make sure that we drive down carbon emissions, drive in massive amounts of power to the grid so we can decrease costs and ensure people are paying lower costs.

Jack Ciattarelli rebuttal: Let me just say this, the way that the Democrats are doing high-density housing in this state flies in the face of sustainability. They like to portray themselves as the environmental party, but there’s nothing pro-environment about building high-density housing in every one of our 564 towns.

Mikie Sherrill rebuttal: So I’m really proud of my record here. I was actually a lead person passing the Great American Outdoors Act, which preserves open space across this country and right here in New Jersey. I also have worked on projects and gotten money for the Essex Hudson Greenway, ensuring that we’re preserving open spaces while at the same time delivering on housing for people and ensuring that we are lowering carbon emissions in neighborhoods in urban areas.

We have one more question from our studio audience before we go to a commercial break, and that question is coming from John. John is a high school student from Edison, New Jersey, and John’s question is going to be going to Mikie Sherrill, Congresswoman: As was said, I’m a high school student who commutes to New York City every single day for that high school to you is, what is your plan to fix New Jersey Transit, systemic issues of overcrowding, delays and outdated infrastructure?

Mikie Sherrill: This is something I hear about a lot from my husband, Jason, who’s in the audience tonight. He commutes to New York City all the time, and he’s quit coaching our kids’ soccer teams. He doesn’t make it home for dinner. He often gives me frantic calls about whether or not I can drive our kids that night because he’s not going to make it home in time. And so that’s why I’ve been laser-focused. In fact, in my first term as Trump held infrastructure week, and yet failed to fund the Gateway Tunnel project. I was called the tunnel-obsessed Congresswoman, and I’m proud to say we delivered on that, on the most expensive infrastructure project in the nation, which is key to commuters here. And then when we were seeing a summer of hell after summer of hell, because the catenary wires were in the way. I demanded Amtrak keep up its rail system better, because we utilize it for NJ Transit, and I got $300 million into the North. I’m on the Port Authority because they’re not handling the wires underneath the tunnel well, and we’re seeing fire after fire after fire. So I am going to continue to focus on our rail systems, on systems of transit across this state, and make sure that we see updates and see better movement across our state.

Jack Ciattarelli: When I’m successful in transforming New Jersey, the hope would be that no one has to go out of state to get anything other than to see a Broadway play. What I want to do here in New Jersey is something other states have done. We’ve got mass transit systems. It’s not just trains. Atlantic City Expressway is a mass transit system with tolls. The Parkway and Turnpike are mass transit systems with tolls. New Jersey Transit is a transit system with revenue through fares. Let’s put them all under a State Transportation Authority. Let’s get rid of all these different authorities with all these different management structures; let’s put them all under one roof. Better management, better accountability, one management structure, and we’ll give it a dedicated revenue stream in the Jersey state budget. Okay, that’s where we’ll provide the funding. I think that’ll be a much better job of managing our mass transit. But let me also say this with regard to mass transit, we need to reevaluate every single train line and every single bus line to make sure there’s adequate ridership to justify that route. So we had to dedicate all the resources we have to the most traveled routes.

Sophie, you have a question that goes to Jack Ciattarelli first. Since 2018, New Jersey has been embroiled in a lawsuit arguing that more needs to be done to improve the state’s segregated school districts, a problem rooted in long-standing housing discrimination and the number of small districts. Would you continue fighting this in court, and what do you think New Jersey can do to achieve less segregated schools?

Jack Ciattarelli: We do have the most segregated schools, but I wonder if we would be having this discussion if the performance of schools with predominantly black student populations were outperforming schools with predominantly white populations. We need to get back on day one to improving all of our schools, and I intend to do that with a high-impact curriculum. New Jersey recently slipped from two to 12 on the national report card. Most of that’s because we haven’t made up for all the learning lost when Phil Murphy and the Democrats shut down our schools for two years. We opened up our nursing homes, and we closed down our schools. Louisiana and Mississippi have moved significantly—Louisiana from 48 to 32 with a high-impact curriculum. What is that exactly? If your child is behind a grade level in any of the critical life skills, like reading, writing, or math, that child will spend the next marking period and the one thereafter doing nothing other than reading, writing, and math to get them on grade level. The data is clear. I’m a data-driven guy as an MBA and CPA. If the child is not on grade level for reading and writing by the end of eighth grade, more than likely, they will be underemployed their entire life. So while that lawsuit proceeds, let’s pick the schools on day one with a high-impact curriculum.

Mikie Sherrill: So I spoke before about county-based school systems, because that can help address the segregation that we have going on in the state. It’s also the way we have some of our best-performing high schools. But we need to do more. We need high-intensity tutoring because we know there’s learning loss, and that’s a special kind of tutoring that I’ve supported here in the state to make sure students get back on track. We also need to address third-grade reading and make sure we’re pushing on phonics-based reading. We know that’s the case, and we know third grade is that critical inflection point, because if you’re not reading at grade level by third grade, you’re not going to be able to move on very well to your math and social studies and history work if you can’t read your homework. So in these ways, we can really push in as a state to get better outcomes and address the segregation that we have going on here.

Could you clarify if you’re going to continue to pursue the lawsuit?

Jack Ciattarelli: I don’t think it’s the government is the entity that’s pursuing the lawsuit. I’m not going to get in the way. What I’m going to do on day one is fix our educational system. It’s not the executive branch that’s pursuing that lawsuit. They’re fighting the lawsuit. The state is fighting the lawsuit. Yeah, we’re not going to do that if they let the law, let the lawsuit proceed. But I’ll tell you what, I was in Newark this morning at a house of worship that has the largest black congregation in the state. And you know what they said to me, fix our school system. Fix our school system. So there’s a number of metrics that tell us if a school system is failing—attendance rates, graduation rates, performance on standardized tests, readiness for a career. If you’re not going to high school, going to college, if a school system is failing in two, three or four, out of four of those categories, that district, that community, needs choice. I’m going to give them choice. My opponent is not going to give them choice.

Mikie Sherrill: I think what you just heard is a very clear difference. I care deeply about our school system, and I’m going to make sure it performs better. I’m going to make sure that we’re educating children for the future, especially with AI coming. But I’m also going to attack the segregation that we have going on in the state. My opponent doesn’t care about that. He just wants to talk about the schools without any solution for the segregation. I care about both. That’s what I’m going to do as governor.

Jack Ciattarelli rebuttal: We could integrate the Newark school system tomorrow, and it’s not going to improve student performance. We need to change the curriculum.

Mikie Sherrill: I think you heard again, he has no intention of addressing the segregation in this state.

Micah Rasmussen: This question goes to Mikie Sherrill. A child died of measles in the United States last week, and we have counties in New Jersey, like Ocean, where the vaccination rates have now fallen below what’s required to maintain herd immunity. Should New Jersey parents be worried?

Mikie Sherrill: Yes, New Jersey parents should be very worried. We just headed back to school. So many of the parents know there’s a lot going around. Imagine if it was polio. Right now we have, I think, over 10 cases of measles so far this year in New Jersey. We are the most populated state and we are not going to ensure proper vaccinations for our kids, vaccines that have been going on over 50 years and have all but eradicated things like measles, mumps, rubella, and polio? Now we have babies dying of pertussis or whooping cough, because people aren’t getting their vaccines. These are eminently curable diseases, and we are allowing children to get sick and, yes, die because we are not appropriately following medical research vaccine protocol. And as governor of this state, I’m joining the Northeast Group of Governors that is going to ensure that we follow medical guidelines and keep our kids safe.

Jack Ciattarelli: The rise in things like measles, mumps, whooping cough, and the like are very, very concerning, and once we fall below the threshold for herd immunity, it’s a great concern in the community. And so I support the vaccine schedule with regard to measles, mumps, rubella, polio, on down the line. We’ve got to get above the threshold for herd immunity to keep our community safe. The obligation of any governor on day one after they take their oath of office is the public health and safety, and we’ll do that under Governor Ciattarelli. I just wish my opponent showed the same concern when it came to biological males participating in female sports.

Mikie Sherrill: You know, it’s really interesting what I’ve been hearing around the state. I’ve spoken to thousands and thousands and thousands of people. I’ve been to all 21 counties. I keep hearing around the state that Jack Ciattarelli will tell anybody whatever they want to hear. And I think we just saw that tonight, because he hasn’t actually stood up for vaccines. He hasn’t stood against RFK. He hasn’t mentioned anything about firing the head of the CDC. He doesn’t mention anything about how Trump’s appointee gets most of his medical information from TikTok and Reels. This is not somebody who’s going to keep our kids healthy.

Jack Ciattarelli: The Congresswoman is right about one thing. I do get up and down this state—564 towns, 21 counties, North, Central, South, and the Jersey Shore. I’m actually pleasantly surprised to see her tonight. I thought I might see a surrogate. So if you want to talk about getting up and down the state, if you want this job-interview for the job, get up and down the state.

Mikie Sherrill: As I mentioned, I’ve been all up and down the state speaking to thousands of people, and once again, what he doesn’t want to address is the fact that he will never stand up against Trump. He will let our costs continue to rise. He will let our kids get unsafe and unhealthy. He won’t stand up. He said he’s not taking this administration to court in any way, shape or form. Well, they are driving a $5 billion hole in the budget, and the way we claw that money back is by taking them to court.

Jack Ciattarelli rebuttal: Well, listen, no Republican in this state has had a more independent streak than I have. I’ve called on national, prominent Republicans to resign over their rhetoric. I called on Chris Christie to resign. I’ve always been independent. I’m going to stand up for the people of New Jersey every day of the week. Their party has been in control for 25 years, and they’ve had the executive branch for eight years. But you don’t hear her say that. You don’t hear my opponent criticizing the current administration or the 25-year reign of the Democrats.

David Wildstein: Both of you have at some point in discussing the state’s finances, said that all options are on the table. I want to ask you about an increase in the sales tax. Are you willing to commit to not raising the sales tax if you become governor? And obviously, I’m looking for a yes or no, but I know that sometimes I’m disappointed in getting just a one-word answer.

Jack Ciattarelli: We are not raising the sales tax here in New Jersey. What we need to do is lower the income tax and the property taxes here in New Jersey. Those are the most burdensome taxes we pay. Pennsylvania’s flat tax is 3% on personal income. Our highest bracket is 10.75%. Pennsylvania’s property taxes, on average, are $3,000 less per home than ours. What is it that Pennsylvania is doing that we’re not? They give Republicans control from time to time, I think that’s what they do in Pennsylvania. Listen, it took us 238 years to get to a $36 billion budget. In eight years, we went from 36 billion to 59 billion. Can anybody tell me their life is better off than it was eight years ago? Has anything gotten better? I’ve been here for 64 years. I never remember it being this bad—the affordability crisis. Look at your property tax bill. What’s your monthly electric bill? Public safety, public education, overdevelopment, and the worst place in the country to do business. That’s why we are where we are today.

Mikie Sherrill: 64 years, and for over half that time, he’s been raising taxes on all of us. You know, I can see why your career as a CPA was so short-lived, because your math just doesn’t add up, Jack. So that’s why, as we look at a $5 billion hole that we’re facing from the federal government—as we’re working hard to make sure that we’re paying into pensions, at least one of us, to make sure that people have the hard-earned dollars that they’ve earned over time, as we’re working to make sure that we have the best public school system in the nation. I’m not going to commit to anything right now, because I’m not just going to tell you what you want to hear. Now, Jack talks about raising the sales tax all the time, and yet tonight, he said this because, like we know, he’ll tell you whatever you want to hear. Well, I’m going to tell you the truth. I’m going to be fiscally responsible with your money. I’m going to drive down your costs at every level, and I’m going to make sure your kids have great opportunities here in the state of New Jersey.

Jack Ciattarelli: So in some of her ads, and again tonight, she’s implying that I’ve been a career politician. Here’s what she never tells you: I’ve term-limited myself every single time, and at the municipal and county level, I didn’t take the salary or benefits. She never tells you those things. I call for term limits in my platform, and everywhere I’ve been, I have fought to save people taxes in the state, and I’ll do it as your governor.

Mikie Sherrill: So I do like the revisionist history, because most people in New Jersey know that the reason Jack didn’t run for re-election is because he knew he was going to lose, but nevertheless, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter because I’m going to make sure that he doesn’t get to serve again when I win for governor in November of this year.

Jack Ciattarelli: There’s another big difference between her public service and my public service. It actually cost me money—the time I put in and took away from my company. In the seven years that she’s been in Congress, she’s tripled her net worth. There’s another big difference between the two of us. Okay, she broke the law. She had to pay fines for violating federal law on stock trades and stock reporting. And —

Mikie Sherrill: Jack knows, and all of you can confirm that I don’t trade individual stocks. He knows this because it’s all public. And in fact, there have been articles written about how transparent and ethical I’ve been, going above and beyond the requirements in Congress, and I continue to do that. In fact, I’ve run the most transparent governor’s race that we’ve seen in this state.

Our next question comes from Tom from Princeton. Combined pension and employee health care funding shortfalls exceed $100 billion, and the annual expense for these items consumes over 20% of New Jersey’s annual budget, yet the pension plans remain severely underfunded. How would you address these deficits? How would you improve pension security, and would you pursue any structural reforms?

Mikie Sherrill: So for decades, people have used fuzzy math. It’s been a bipartisan thing for governors to not fully fund the pension. So now we’re working to fully fund it, but we’re paying $7 billion to do so. New York, which runs a far bigger pension system because they’ve managed that well, is only paying about 1.5 billion. So if we don’t focus on funding this pension, we are mortgaging the future of our children. These are hard-earned benefits that people have paid into, but the state hasn’t funded it appropriately. So we’ve got to stop taking pension holidays. We have to make sure we’re working to drive down the cost there. We have to continue to ensure that we are driving up the state’s credit rating, as we’re doing, by making sure our pension is solvent. So in all of these ways, we can drive down costs for people while taking care of our teachers, our firefighters, cops, people in this state who serve us. We now need to make sure we’re taking them.

Jack Ciattarelli: Tom, the governor and the Democrats like to boast about the fact that they’ve made a full pension payment five years in a row, but while they were making a full pension payment, look what’s happened. It’s on the backs of the state, school districts, municipalities and counties that are in the state health plan. That includes teachers going home with less take-home pay despite getting a 2, 3, 4 percent increase. It’s all about priorities. We do not have a short-term liquidity problem when it comes to funding our post-retirement health care benefits or a pension. We’ve got a very long-term solvency problem. The priorities today are the ones that need our attention. And the priorities today, for me, are property taxes, income taxes, and making sure we get the state health care plan under control, because right now it’s crushing the middle class in that plan. We’ve got to fund the state health care plan.

Mikie Sherrill: What you didn’t hear was that he was going to fund your pensions.

Jack Ciattarelli: We are going to fund your pension. Anybody that’s earned a pension is going to get their pension. But right now, if you’re working, you don’t pay your grocery or your rent or your mortgage with your pension. You pay it with your net pay. And our public workers are going home with significantly less pay right now because the state health care plan is under siege. It’s about to collapse.

Our next question is from Lawrenceville, from a professor here at Rider University: Do you plan to add more AI guardrail laws? If yes, what would they be?

Jack Ciattarelli: Thank you for that question. So you know, we talk an awful lot about AI as an economic development opportunity, but what you never hear the governor talk about are the things that concern the public—social manipulation, job loss. These are two very important considerations that we need to talk about as well. Now, I’m not a computer science expert, I’m not an AI expert, but I tell you what I will do. We’re going to sit down with people in the arena, in that space, and talk about how we protect people from social manipulation. And I also want to talk about the job loss that comes with AI. These are the things that have people terribly insecure about this new technology. So I’m going to look to get our state government in the 21st century. We’ve got, in some departments, databases that are kept on Excel. And in Treasury, we have desktop systems that are on DOS-DOS! There’s a whole lot of college students here tonight that don’t know what the hell DOS is, but I get the sense that you do, okay. This is a dysfunctional state government in so many different ways. So we need to leverage new technologies by AI, but we also need to know the dangers of AI, and as governor, I will.

Mikie Sherrill: Yes, I’m going to put guardrails around AI. We have a change coming, and we are not st all prepared in the way we should be for it. It’s why I’m going to implement the Kids Online Safety Act to make sure that our kids are safe. It’s why I’m going to make sure that when we make some of these county-based schools, they’re schools like occupational schools and STEM schools. So we’re pushing into the jobs of the future, because we know AI is going to have huge reverberations through the job market. I’m going to make sure that we are changing and addressing our technology here in this state as we move into some of the AI fixes, but also the protections we need for privacy and for people’s data. We’ve already had problems. I have had a family come to me with a deep fake where their daughter’s head was put on some pornography in her high school. Imagine that as a teenager. So we need to do more to put guardrails around AI to protect our kids, to ensure we’re growing into the jobs of the future, and to ensure that we do better by the state.

Our next question is coming from Mitchell. He is a student here at Rider University:
As someone who is a student teacher currently at Fischer Middle School in Ewing, I’m curious as to what you will do as governor to continue to invest in education in New Jersey, given the dismantling of the Federal Department of Education.

Mikie Sherrill: That’s a great question. And first of all, thank you. I have a middle schooler, so you’re doing the Lord’s work, I have to tell you, and they don’t always shower as much as they should. So thank you. Thank you very much. Yes, the dismantling of the Department of Ed is a huge issue. This is one of the ways in which we’re seeing a huge hit come into our state budget. It’s why I fought so hard tto say that we’re going to claw back that money. My attorney general is going to sue to claw back as much money from the federal government as we can. We pay seven times more into the federal government than we get back as a state. So if they’re not going to run their programs, they just need to send that money back so we can run them. And this is a real difference between myself and my opponent, who says he doesn’t disagree with anything Trump’s doing, and that he’s never going to sue him.

Jack Ciattarelli: So what matters most in a child’s education is that teacher, that family, who I hope is supporting the teacher and making sure the students do everything when they get home. You know how difficult it is to teach if parents aren’t fulfilling their responsibility. And of course, that student. The point I’m trying to make is, the farther away you get from the classroom, the less impact I think any governmental institution has on what’s taking place in the classroom and student learning. So I don’t necessarily have a problem with the President and the administration downsizing the Department of Education. Just because they got rid of the department doesn’t mean they got rid of federal funding. The funding is still coming. And I’ll fulfill my obligation as governor to make sure that our schools are fully funded. But we need a new public school curriculum to get our kids back on track, and we need more vocational training opportunities. That’s what matters most in the academic development of our students.

Mikie Sherrill: I just want to make sure I correct some misunderstandings up here. Yeah, they did get rid of a lot of federal funding. They got rid of it at every level of education. They got rid of it for funding for our colleges and universities, with Pell grants and with research and development funds. They got rid of it when they limited the amount of money you can take on as a student loan to such a small amount that many people now can’t go to medical school. Who thought they were going to medical school? They’ve limited funding for our Title One schools. At almost every level, the federal government right now has limited the money that they’re sending back to New Jersey for education. And as a state that sends so much money to the federal government, that’s offensive.

Jack Ciattarelli: Two things: My Attorney General will not be wasting your tax dollars suing the White House every other day. It’s a waste of taxpayer dollars. Number two, if we want to get more money out of the federal government, the way to do that is by the governor calling to task our 14 members of our Congressional delegation—two U.S. Senators and 12 House members—meeting every single month to make sure that the 15 of us are working on behalf of New Jersey. That doesn’t happen right now. We’ve got the governor and a 14-member congressional delegation all running in different directions. They should be together to advocate for New Jersey.

Our next question is from Charles: To make housing more affordable, we have to increase its supply. That said, we know that when housing expands, schools face overcrowding. Would you support a state bond referendum to give the Schools Development Authority the funding to build new schools throughout the state?

Jack Ciattarelli: No, what I will support is to make sure that government is working in partnership with the private sector to make sure that there’s more affordable housing. And by the way, we need to stop right now—affordable housing is all rental. We need more lease-to-purchase opportunities. The next generation is doing nothing but renting, because that’s all we’re forcing down their throats. And the reason I say that, Charles, is because I want to stop with us developing high-density housing in every one of our 564 towns. I want to use the shortage of affordable housing to get people living in our urban centers again. I live in downtown Somerville. This town has gone through a magnificent transformation because we’ve gone up with low, moderate, and market-rate units, and it’s vibrant. What we’re doing in Somerville is what we need to do on a much larger scale in Newark, in Trenton, and in Atlantic City. God, we ought to stop the exacerbation of sprawl. Anybody that’s concerned about the environment should not be doing this. And by the way, you want the poster child? Why are we condemning a 175-year-old farm in Cranbury? Why are we condemning open space to build more high-density housing? I don’t think so.

Mikie Sherrill: So that’s a great question. I think what we all see here is too much of the money we spend on our education system is not going to the things we want it to go to. So for example, number one, students, educators, buildings. And we know how necessary it is because I’ll tell you, in Montclair we had the stairway fall in at a high school. People couldn’t go to school for several months. In Paterson, we’ve had the ceiling fall in at an elementary school. So we have some of the oldest school inventory. We have to address it, but unfortunately, so much of the money is going to administration right now. We need to move that money into the places that we want to address. But you’ve also raised something about our state that I think is important, and what we really need to do is have a statewide plan to protect our open spaces, because many of us know how deeply we really enjoyed them during Covid and how necessary it is for health and mental wellness. That’s why I’ve been a person at the Great Swamp Gala, as I’ve spoken there about how important open spaces are. So we need to do both—develop and have our open spaces preserved.

Jack Ciattarelli rebuttal: I think what she might be saying is, we’re not going to develop high-density housing in every one of the 564 towns. The only thing is, she didn’t answer your question. The answer is no. If we did that, it’s only going to exacerbate sprawl. She didn’t answer your question.

Mikie Sherrill: Again, that’s not true. I was very clear on how I think we should spend.

Our next question is from Michelle. She is a parent of a Rider University student: With Medicaid cuts looming, how will you protect services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities?

Jack Ciattarelli: So I said before, the first job responsibility of any governor is to provide for public health and safety, and that certainly applies most of all to our most vulnerable population, our most vulnerable citizens, who under Governor Ciattarelli will never be underserved. We’re going to take care of our citizens, particularly those most in need, and that includes our developmentally disabled. Let’s talk about the Medicaid reforms, because this is another one of those things that’s being lied about in the community. The two big changes in the Medicaid system are these. The reforms are these: you have to verify your eligibility twice a year now, not once a year—twice a year. Interestingly enough, it was President Barack Obama that put that in. President Trump kept it in his first term. Joe Biden put it to once a year. The other thing you have to do with the Medicaid reform is if you’re able-bodied and your children are 15 years of age or older, you have to provide us with 20 hours a week in order to continue with Medicaid—20 hours of what? Volunteerism, education, or work. I think that’s reasonable. My opponent doesn’t seem to have any issue with people who are scamming the system. If you want the system to endure, we need to save dollars by stopping people from scamming it. I think those two reforms, if you meet those two criteria, which I think are reasonable, guess what, Medicaid doesn’t get cut. You continue to have your Medicaid. But as governor, I’ll take care of our most vulnerable citizens, and that includes the developmentally disabled. You have my word.

Mikie Sherrill: Thanks, Michelle. I love that Jack thinks he’s going to run the federal delegation when he doesn’t understand federal legislation, but we’ll save that for another day. This is a question I get from so many parents, because they know what’s going on with Medicaid, and they know the deep funding cuts going on that are imperiling many of the programs that support their children. And so that’s why, as governor, I’m going to make sure my AG is fighting this tooth and nail, because here’s the truth: I was recently at a federally qualified health center in Camden, and I have to tell you, traditionally, that’s been one of the poorest cities in our state. So we were moving away from emergency room care, which is both the most expensive kind of care and also the care that goes to charity care in our state budget, not the federal Medicaid dollars. And she was telling me how much their costs were going to go up—about 20% more—in going through the red tape and bureaucracy that the Trump administration is implementing instead of going to care for people. She said so many of the people are now going to be going back to emergency room care, which will be very expensive for the state.

Jack Ciattarelli: I think the fair question of any gubernatorial candidate, and obviously that includes my opponent, is this: Do you believe it’s fair to have anybody verify their eligibility for Medicaid twice a year? Do you believe it’s fair to continue Medicaid by giving us 20 hours a week of education, volunteerism or work, if you’re able-bodied and your kids are 15 or older? I believe that’s fair. You meet that criteria, Medicaid continues.

Mikie Sherrill: So it’s not about fairness, it’s about cost-effectiveness. It’s about who’s going to drive down the cost for the state by making sure we’re going into better and cheaper care like in federally qualified health centers, or are we going to go back to the bad old days when we’re sending everybody to emergency room care, which is both worse care and more expensive care?

We have one more question for our audience before we go back to our panel. It is one of our younger members of the audience, Mark. He is a middle school student from Bridgewater: I’m only 12, but I’ve already seen one of our U.S. Senators go to prison. Restoring public trust in government — how would you do it?

Jack Ciattarelli: First of all, congratulations on being here tonight and having the courage to stand up and ask a question. Leadership matters, and it starts at the top. So I’ve never broken the law. My opponent has, and I’ve never broken the law. And so you won’t have to worry about me. I will set the tone for the way that public service ought to be. And we’ll call out anybody on either side of the aisle that does the wrong thing, either if they’re self-serving or if they’re breaking the law. So my attorney general will be very, very aggressive in looking at public corruption all up and down the state. But thank you for your question.

Mikie Sherrill: Thank you so much for your question, and you have a great mom bringing you here tonight. So thank you for being here. You know, I think this is the key question. I go around the state and I tell people this is the most nonpartisan race I’ve run, because I think people have lost a lot of faith in both parties, and it’s really important right now in this race that here in New Jersey, in this state, as we’re holding the line, that we’re restoring faith. So that’s why I talk a lot about being a Navy helicopter pilot, because I think people know what that means. I think they know that I’ve always served this country and I’m proud of it. I also talk about being a mom, because I think that also lets people know why I’m doing this and who I’m fighting for and what I care about. And so I have constantly and consistently listened to as many people as possible to make sure I’m hearing just what it is that people need to sleep at night. How can I, as governor, make that a little bit easier? And what I hear is, the cost of housing is too high, electricity costs are too high, utility costs are too high, and I want somebody fighting for their rights and freedoms, and that’s what I’ll do as governor.

We’re going to go back to our panel. Our next question is coming from Micah Rasmussen: It’s been more than 20 years since the last fix for the DMV, yet the agency still has not returned to full in-person service since COVID. It’s now five years after COVID. It’s still disenfranchising voters when it botches their motor vehicle registrations and can’t keep up with demand for REAL IDs. So what does the fix for DMV of 2026 need to look like?

Jack Ciattarelli: So in any gubernatorial campaign, we’re going to end up talking about education reforms and policy, property tax reform and policy, public safety, housing… But what’s easy to overlook is that the State of New Jersey now is a $59 billion enterprise with 60,000 employees, 9.3 million citizen customers, and 1 million business customers, small, medium and large. And one of the reasons I’m running is I feel very strongly this state needs a hands-on CEO governor who’s going to show up every damn day and make sure that this state government works for its citizens. You can walk into a DMV office tomorrow in Florida and walk out an hour later with your REAL ID. Call DMV today in New Jersey for your appointment. They’re putting you off until December. I find that embarrassing. So I and my administration will show up every single day and make sure that this state government works on behalf of its citizens, and that means Executive Order Number Two. And Executive Order Number Two is: everyone is coming back to work. They work for us. Let’s make this state government work for our citizens.

Mikie Sherrill: You know this is a difference between myself and my opponent, because I am willing to take on anyone, including members of my party, when it comes to serving the people of New Jersey. He’s not. He just serves Trump. But that’s why I’ll tell you right now that our MVC is not working. We were worst in the nation for REAL ID. You couldn’t get one. People were being told, go get a passport. It will be quicker. And that is the one way in which so many people interact with our government. And so if you’re asking, how do we build trust in government? How do we rebuild faith in government? We make sure government’s working. And so I’m going to make sure that MVC is working for everyone, that you can go and you do most of what you need to do online. You don’t always have to go in person. And then when you go in person, you can get an appointment quickly, and you can get through the process quickly in and out. If you need an inspection, you can get your car inspected. And so all of these things are the ways in which almost every person in this state engages with our state government. Almost everyone in this state has a really bad story to tell you about it. Not on my watch as governor.

Our next question comes from Sophie Nieto-Muñoz, and it goes to Mikie Sherrill.
The Immigrant Trust Directive has limited local, county, and state police from assisting in civil immigration enforcement since it was put in place in 2018. If elected governor, would you continue the Immigrant Trust Directive?

Mikie Sherrill: As governor, I’m going to make sure here in New Jersey, we’re following the law and the Constitution. And let me tell you a little bit about what’s going on right now. I just had a friend talk to a police officer here who had an interaction, and he walked up to him in town. “What are you doing here?” And the gentleman said, “I don’t have to tell you.” And he said, “You’re walking around my town, and you do have to tell me.” And he said, “No, I don’t.” And so the police officer said, “Well, then I’ll take you to jail. We’ll work it out in jail.” But here’s the thing: it was an ICE agent, masked. So as governor, I’m going to make sure that people can’t go around masked here in our state. Now, my opponent supports policies where people who are here legally can be detained, rolling back rights for American citizens, and separating children and parents. I’m going to make sure people here in this state are safe and follow the law.

Congresswoman, can you clarify — is that a yes or no on would you continue the Immigrant Trust Directive?

Mikie Sherrill: What I’m going to do is make sure we’re following the law and the Constitution. So that’ll include due process rights and the Constitution.

Jack Ciattarelli: I don’t think she answered your question. Executive Order Number One: On day one, we’re getting rid of the Immigrant Trust Directive here in New Jersey. I said this back in 2021, I’ll say it here again. I’ve said it every single day I’m out on the campaign trail. I believe the Immigrant Trust Directive, us having sanctuary cities, us being a sanctuary state, only encourages illegal immigration and restricts our local law enforcement in a number of different ways. The goal here is to keep our community safe. To do that is us not having sanctuary cities. Let me say something else. My attorney general, unlike the current attorney general, who I think she has said she’s considering reappointing — my attorney general will support local law enforcement. We’re not getting rid of qualified immunity. She voted to get rid of it in Congress. We’re not doing that. We’re going to take the handcuffs off. Let these trained professionals do their job. Flash mobs on our Jersey Shore, flash mobs in our malls, break-ins, car thefts, nonviolent crime is through the roof. Did anybody see what went down in Secaucus three weeks ago? Total disregard for law and order, total disregard for law enforcement. We’ve got to get back to being a law-and-order state and safe communities.

Mikie Sherrill: So I’ve served as a federal prosecutor. I’ve ensured that we’re working hard to drive down crime in this state. I’ve prosecuted people who were criminals here and who were undocumented, and they were deported, because I care deeply about public safety for the people here. And I think we can all agree that violent criminals should be deported. But what I also believe deeply in is due process — the due process rights that are in our Constitution.

Jack Ciattarelli: Getting rid of the Immigrant Trust Directive doesn’t mean we’re violating your constitutional right to due process. But since she brought up her time as a U.S. Attorney, check her record. In the 11 months that she was supposed to be prosecuting cases, she pled most of her cases, and people that committed some pretty heinous crimes were allowed to go free.

Mikie Sherrill: I’m very proud of my prosecutorial record. I worked really hard to take illegal guns off the street to make sure our streets were safe. Jack has never served in law enforcement. He’s never served to keep this country safe. I have, and I’ll continue to do that.

Our very last question, and it comes from David Wildstein. It goes first to Jack Ciattarelli.

Jack Ciattarelli: Laura, I’m going to throw you a little bit of a curveball. There’s a man here named Tom who wanted to ask a question. Quite frankly, his question is more important. I’d like to give him my time.

Tom from Princeton: Please describe New Jersey’s current state of care for residents with severe and persistent mental health illnesses, and the reasons why it’s so difficult to address it.

Jack Ciattarelli: Tom, I would like to do more of this. By law, we have to do two (debates). CBS News out of New York invited us to a third. I agreed. My opponent did not. Let me say this: We know we have a mental health crisis, and I’m proud of what we did in Somerset County. We created the first public-private partnership, and it was a 24/7 community mental health center, because we saw what was going on in the community, and people could not get access, convenient access, to high-quality mental health services. So we actually employed in county government in New Jersey — psychiatrists, psychologists, licensed clinical social workers. People had a place to go. It didn’t matter what your coverage was. You got quality service. As governor, there are two things: We should be approaching 564 towns at a time. I think our state, our county governments across the state, are underappreciated and underleveraged. We’ll put a plan in place. The state will fund a community mental health center in every one of our 21 counties, and a homeless shelter. We need that here, and you can’t expect us to address that, 564 towns at a time. So I think we need to use the Somerset County model to provide for community mental health clinics all across New Jersey so people have convenient access to high-quality mental health services.

Mikie Sherrill: Tom, thanks for raising this question, because as I’ve sort of mentioned already tonight, we have a mental health crisis. We have a loneliness crisis. I see it in our kids. I see it in seniors. I see it across this state, people who aren’t connecting anymore. And so that’s why this is so important, and we need to add resources. I’ve added federal resources to the Mental Health Association of Essex. I’ll continue to work hard to fund the different programs that we have, making sure that we also put in place things like red flag laws so people, like many of our veterans, who are contemplating suicide, can be protected by those and keep those red flag laws as the courts attack them and people like Jack Ciattarelli vote against them. I’ll also make sure that as we have our police officers going out, we use the Arrive Together program. In talking to so many of our police officers, they don’t have the tools or the training sometimes to handle some of the most egregious mental health problems, and it often creates really bad outcomes.

Jack Ciattarelli: Tom, the one other thing that we need to do, and I will instigate as a member of the National Governors Association, I think it’s long overdue: It’s time for us to get rid of the Medicaid reimbursement rates. Community physicians will tell you off the record they won’t see Medicaid patients, many of whom have mental health issues. We need to start reimbursing at one rate — the Medicare rate. Community physicians find that acceptable. They do not find the Medicaid rate acceptable. So let’s work together with our Congressional delegation, the other 49 governors, and start reimbursing at one rate. Let’s move everybody into Medicare — one rate, which community physicians find acceptable, and people will have better access as well.

Mikie Sherrill: Tom, you’re really on point, but I think what we also need to do is add money to housing. Many mental health professionals will say what you first need to do is stabilize people in housing and have wraparound services from there.

Closing statements

Mikie Sherrill: Well, thank you so much, everybody. I really appreciate it. This has been a great debate, and I think you’ve heard some clear differences here. I’ve served this country my entire life, as I mentioned, as a helicopter pilot, prosecutor, member of Congress, and mom of four great kids. I’m going to continue to serve this state as I want to drive down your costs. So whether it’s utility costs or housing costs or energy costs, you’ve heard again and again and again, I have a plan to drive down your costs. Jack’s going to go in lockstep with Washington as he drives — as Trump drives — up your energy costs. So at every level, I’ll continue to work for you, and at every level. He’ll raise your costs like he’s done at every level of government with taxes. So I really appreciate all of you coming out tonight to hear about this. This has been a great evening, and thank you once again, New Jersey. Appreciate it.

Jack Ciattarelli: The Ciattarellis have been here for 100 years. Three generations of Ciattarellis have all achieved their American dream right here in New Jersey. My grandfather started out in the ditch as a laborer, saved his nickels and dimes, and became a very successful independent contractor. My parents were successful restaurant bar owners, but that wasn’t their only job. My mom worked midnights for J&J. My dad was in the street department for Public Service Gas. Every dime they made went to their family — the roof over our head, clothes on our back, meals on the table, and our public schools. In my grandparents’ and parents’ footsteps, I’m a two-time successful business owner here in the state of New Jersey, having created jobs. I’ve also had the privilege of serving at every level of government — municipal, county, and the legislature — term-limiting myself each time, not taking the salary or the benefits at the municipal or county level. I’m an MBA, CPA. No candidate has ever come before you with that resume, and so I’m committed to fixing our state. When something I love is broken, I want to fix it. I believe leadership matters. I believe that we can fix the state of New Jersey, or I wouldn’t be asking you for your consideration. We can do this. But I want you to know this: unlike governors on both sides of the aisle over the last 40 years, I’m not using this to get to Washington. This is my final destination. When my four or eight years are over, you’ll find me at the Shore. Four or eight years of the best years of my life, and we’ll work in partnership with the Legislature, and we’ll get things done, and we’ll fix the state of New Jersey. Thank you very, very much.

That concludes tonight’s debate on behalf of the New Jersey Globe ON New Jersey and Rider University, thank you for joining us for this historic evening.

Post-debate press conference with candidates

Jack Ciattarelli

Jack, your website says that you will, quote, oppose a one-size-fits-all vaccination schedule. Can you just explain your position on the vaccine schedule, and if what you said tonight was at all a change in position or reversal?

Jack Ciattarelli: People have to be vaccinated. Children have to be vaccinated for things like measles, mumps, rubella, polio, chickenpox, particularly when you have a state or community that’s getting below the threshold for herd immunity. I think that presents a danger in the community, and my job is to protect the public health and safety.

Asked about actions he opposes:

Jack Ciattarelli: I’m not real happy about the Empire Wind farm off the Long Island coast. I hope that’s not the beginning of something else that could happen off of our Jersey coast. I’m not real happy about the potential downsizing of the Picatinny Arsenal up in Morris County that would include 1,000 jobs. We’re a donor state. We send way more to Washington than we get back, and I don’t want to be losing those jobs.

Reporter: Jack, did you feel as if you accomplished tonight what you wanted to accomplish?

Jack Ciattarelli: Absolutely, I answered the questions directly, and at the end of the day, there’s something I want more than people’s vote. It’s the respect for being honest. When I was asked a question, I answered it. My opponent did not.

Reporter: Hi, Jack. The Congresswoman says that you would never stand up to President Donald Trump if you have to. Would you question him or stand up?

Jack Ciattarelli: What I’ve said tonight is there’s no Republican in this state that’s had a more independent streak than I have. I’ve called for the resignation of national Republicans over their rhetoric. I called for the resignation of Chris Christie when he stopped governing because he was flying all around the country campaigning for Trump. And my job is to stand up for our 9.3 million citizens. I’ve done that at every level of government. And by the way, one thing I forgot to say tonight, I won in a town, a county legislative district where Democrats significantly outnumbered Republicans, and won reelection every time, because I stand up for everybody.

Reporter: Do you think your opponent references the president too much? Because at the end of the day, it seems like Democrats are just fixating on Trump. That’s become the playbook. And do you think that that’s a strategy you can exploit in the next 24 days — your ads are doing that — you can keep doing that for the next 24 days?

Jack Ciattarelli: With what it is that New Jerseyans are up against every single day — property taxes, look at their monthly electricity bill, public safety, public education, overdevelopment, trying to do business on Main Street. They want to hear answers from a candidate that’s speaking specifically to what challenges them every single day in this life. The more she wants to talk about the President and Washington, good for us.

Reporter: Jack, energy prices have been a dominant issue in this campaign. How do you feel about what the answers were tonight on stage and the contrast between you and your opponent?

Jack Ciattarelli: Well, what I forgot to say tonight is the plan that she has put forth is illegitimate, not feasible, and even the governor has slapped it down. Here’s the other thing that’s easy to overlook. We have 77 Democratic legislators in this state. Not a single one has endorsed her plan. Not a single one has called on the governor to do exactly what it is that she’s suggesting, because it’s illegitimate. It’s not feasible, and it’s illegal. You want to save people money. By the way, she’s saying that she’s going to freeze electricity prices. So we’re going to freeze them at their highest levels ever? I’m going to end them with an executive order. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and the carbon tax that comes with it, has been a failure. Air is no cleaner, electricity is only more expensive, and ratepayer dollars go to other states. It ends on day one, when we pull out of RGGI.

Reporter: So for weeks you’ve been attacked on air, falsely accused of supporting a 10% sales tax increase. Your opponent tonight was asked pretty much the same question — yes or no — and she said nothing, no plan tonight. What do you make of that?

Jack Ciattarelli: So for those that were listening closely tonight, I gave you a specific plan on how to lower your property taxes and how to lower your income taxes. What you heard from my opponent is no reduction in taxes and the possibility of taxes increasing. I gave a specific plan on how to lower the tax burden, and that included me saying, we’re not raising the sales tax. It’s a lie what she’s done in that ad. She knows it. But winners don’t lie, and liars don’t win.

Reporter: Were you surprised that education was such a hot-budget issue tonight?

Jack Ciattarelli: Education is a critically important issue. We’ve slipped from two to 12 on the national report card, and I believe we need to get back to teaching critical life skills. Noting that we ran out of time on tonight: She supports us maintaining an LGBTQ curriculum in our schools. I believe we should teach the golden rule. I want an inclusive environment. I want a welcoming environment that is fair and welcoming and inclusive to all minorities, but we’ve got to get back to the basics of teaching critical life skills in our schools. We’re graduating illiterate children.

Reporter: A question was not asked specifically about business tonight. If you had 30 seconds, what would you say you would do for small businesses in New Jersey?

Jack Ciattarelli: Simply this one — it has a soft spot in my heart, because Ciattarellis were all small business owners. The first $100,000 of income will be tax-free. The first $100,000 of payroll will be exempt from employer payroll taxes, and there’ll never be a tax on the gain on the sale of a small, family-owned business. Watch entrepreneurship take off in New Jersey.

Reporter: Democrats are pouring a ton of money into this race. It was recently announced they’re doubling their investment here, on top of their $20 million investment. I know the RGA has given a million dollars to you now, but can we expect more national Republican money to come into this race?

Jack Ciattarelli: Listen, they know their candidate is in serious trouble here. And so it doesn’t matter. They could spend $100 million — we’re not losing this race. People want change. It’s the reason why, in the last month alone, three Democratic mayors across the state have endorsed my candidacy — three — because people have had it.

Reporter: So the state of New Jersey and Governor Phil Murphy have enjoyed an exceptionally close relationship with Princeton University, including the New Jersey AI Hub. What is your stance on continuing this relationship with Princeton, including the New Jersey AI Hub?

Jack Ciattarelli: So the governor of New Jersey gets an automatic seat on the Princeton Board of Regents, so therefore they’re going to be involved with Princeton. And I know that the governor supported an endowment to Princeton to establish an AI center. I thought that should have gone to one of our public universities, like NJIT or Rutgers. But my first job is to take care of our public universities and our public college and university students.

Reporter: I have a question about how many people — young people — are stepping into adulthood during a time of uncertainty. How would your administration support Gen Z in New Jersey to create more opportunities and stability in their future?

Jack Ciattarelli: So the question is with regard to Generation Z and staying in New Jersey, right? People are going to live where they believe they can achieve their American dream. And right now, a whole lot of people, including that generation, are seeing greener pastures elsewhere. There’s a terrible little secret about New Jersey. Our K-12 students, when they go out of state to college, the fewest come back. Okay, we’ve got to make New Jersey a place where people believe they can achieve their American dream again. So I’m going to try to incentivize them to do that. Your first two years out of high school, your first two years out of college, will be income tax-free. We’re going to have affordable housing here in New Jersey, consistent with smart growth strategies, and we’re going to have vibrant cities. That’s what young people want today — job opportunities, great education, good tax incentives, and a vibrant place in which to live.

Reporter Charlie Stile tries to ask a question.

Jack Ciattarelli: No, you’re not independent. I’m not answering your question, Charlie, you’re in the penalty box.

Reporter: As TCJA individual and pass-through provisions are set to expire next year, many small business owners face a significant tax increase. How would your administration respond to these federal changes, and do you have a plan to mitigate the impact on New Jersey’s Main Street businesses?

Jack Ciattarelli: Are you talking about the film tax credit program here in New Jersey? Yes. So listen, I prefer to create a tide that lifts all boats. We do that by lowering our business tax the way Pennsylvania is. While they were cutting theirs from 10 to 5% we were increasing ours from nine to 11½%, the highest in the nation. I’m going to responsibly reduce the size and cost of our state government to afford a tax cut for businesses and individuals, and for businesses, what that means is: for big business, lower the business tax from 11½% to 5% over a six-year period; adopt Delaware’s bylaws for corporate governance. Stock could be headquartered here. I told you what it is I’m going to do for small businesses. Right now, the film tax credit program has been a huge success, and that’s very, very niche. We want to see it continue to succeed here in New Jersey.

Reporter: Your opponent is constantly saying that you’ve raised taxes all throughout your career. I mean, it’s not something I heard brought up the last time you were running.

Jack Ciattarelli: You want the truth — it’s bullshit. Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve worked like hell to lower taxes here in New Jersey. And if you take a look at my record with regard to the levy and the controlling of spending, I did at every level of government where I had control. When I got to the Legislature, I didn’t have control. And quite frankly, I find it insulting when that comes from someone whose party has increased spending 70% over eight years. It took us 238 years to get to $36 billion. In eight years, we went from $36 billion to $59 billion. Shame on her. Thank you.

Mikie Sherrill

Reporter: Hi, Congresswoman. How are you? First question for you is — I was a little unclear about what you said about the income tax. Would you raise the income tax?

Mikie Sherrill: Look, I didn’t put that on the table. Jack Ciattarelli did. I’m committed to lower costs, including your taxes at every level, and that’s what I’ll do.

Reporter: Would you raise the income tax?

Mikie Sherrill: So again, I’m going to lower taxes in this state, and I’m going to lower them and lower costs for people across the state.

Reporter: Good evening, Congresswoman. You did not say directly whether you would still support the Immigrant Trust Directive. Are you reversing your position on this issue, and will your administration reverse that directive if you’re the governor?

Mikie Sherrill: You know, my position has always been to make sure that here in New Jersey, we’re following the law and the Constitution. I’ve always been a supporter of comprehensive immigration reform, ensuring that we are both securing our borders and ensuring that people who are here are paying taxes and working hard. That’s how I think we should move forward here in this state. As governor, I’m going to make sure that we have due process, that we put in place legislation so that nobody could be masked and unidentifiable as law enforcement in the state, and that our police officers here in the state are doing work to keep people safe. You know, as I said, I’m going to focus on following the law and the Constitution in the state.

Reporter: I know you mentioned the President a lot tonight, but certainly — in fairness — Jack mentioned that the Democrats have controlled the legislature for over 20 years. They’ve passed bills. They’ve passed inflated budgets. At the same time, Democrats have caused a lot of the economic peril that residents are feeling. What can you tell New Jerseyans tonight about whether or not you’ll stand up to party bosses in the Democrat Party?

Mikie Sherrill: Yeah, you know what I find so interesting is that I talked a lot about my record, and I’ve stood up to everyone, including really powerful members of my own party. And I think people in this state know exactly that when it comes to fighting for New Jerseyans, it’s what I’ve always done, always do. I thought it was interesting that Jack didn’t talk about his record because it’s indefensible, because he’s raised taxes at every level of government. He talked a lot about going to the Shore, but I find it interesting that he has voted against Superstorm Sandy funding three times. He also supports a president who has cut all funding for the Shore. So at every level, he’s voted to defund Planned Parenthood, so he continues to have a record that’s indefensible in this state, and that’s something he didn’t mention.

Reporter: Congresswoman, there was not really a question about small business tonight. If you had 30 seconds, what do you think you could tell small business owners about how you’re going to help small business as well?

Mikie Sherrill: I’m going to help small businesses. This is so key, and when I talk about cutting through red tape and permitting issues, a lot of this is related to small businesses. So I heard from a woman who was trying to open a restaurant, and she went again and again to get the permitting done for the restaurant. It took her eight months— I think she did it about three times. She went in, every time in person. She couldn’t do it online, and every time paying hundreds of dollars for that permitting fee and never getting any feedback about why her permitting was wrong, which is why when I talk about how I’m going to support small businesses and cut through red tape and bureaucracy and change the culture of Trenton — that’s why I talk about having a dashboard, so you can see exactly where your permitting and regulations are; having a fast-track center that you can go to to have help back and forth on your permit. But a lot of this is going to be a culture change in Trenton, as we have a “get to yes” culture, instead of a “gotcha” culture.

Reporter: Public transportation in the State of New Jersey — what do you plan on doing to implement changes?

Mikie Sherrill: Yeah, so I talked a lot about what I’ve already done in public transportation, but let’s face it, we have transportation issues across the state. So whether it’s the things I outlined in North Jersey and how I pushed money into the Gateway Tunnel project, money into the catenary wires and Northeast rail. Now I’m on the issues related to the PATH system, but we also have to do more across the state. We need more transportation in South Jersey. I’ve been supportive of light rail and other projects. We need high-speed bus terminals across the state so people can move around differently and get more people off the road and into public transportation across our state.

Asked about makng law enforcement carry identification

Mikie Sherrill: So this is a piece of legislation I’m on in Washington, and I want to see it here in the state. And it’s really important, because if you have people — as one former law enforcement officer put it — dressed as if they’re about to go to Afghanistan, carrying sidearms, wearing masks on the streets of New Jersey, refusing to provide any identification — that is not something that keeps people safe. It’s not something that helps the people of New Jersey. So that’s why I want to make sure that law enforcement here in this state are identifiable, that they aren’t wearing masks, carrying no identification on the streets here in New Jersey.

Reporter: You want to cut taxes, and you also — both of you — said you wanted to cut taxes, and both of you have ideas about spending more money on things, but the state has a pretty big structural deficit. So aren’t you making things worse? Why can’t we tax the rich, or find ways of raising revenue from people who can afford to pay it?

Mikie Sherrill: So when I look through the state budget, we see a lot of areas where we need to do better. So that’s why I talk about a report card online, so we can see the contracts that are going on, who has the contracts, and whether or not those contracts are delivering in the way they said they would, and the ones that aren’t delivering, we either need to get rid of that program or update it so it actually works for people. We also have property here that we either are leasing, that we’re not using, or that we own, and that we’re paying a lot of money for upkeep on. Those are areas that we need to address so we can drive down the state budget. We also have certain things that are in the sort of pork area of the budget — things like the Pompidou Center — where there was no accountability for how much money the state would be on the hook for for years to come, and no plan for how we would pay it. We get hooked up into these things, and then we have overruns on our state budget, and that is something, as governor, that I’ll put a stop to.

Reporter: A question about Princeton University, President Eisgruber, and supporting Princeton University and other universities.

Mikie Sherrill: So I was at the forefront of getting the AI Hub and working with the Department of Commerce on some of the work that we did to make sure we were getting that. But I would love to see more work put into our working together so we could get more bang for our buck when we go to the federal government for money and bring it back in regionalization programs. I’ve worked closely with President Eisgruber on some of the work we’ve done to make sure students feel safe on campus. I’ll continue that work, but especially ensuring that we’re continuing to push money into our colleges, our universities, including where we are tonight, to make sure that we are ensuring we have innovation driving up our research. We know those dollars are being cut at the federal level, so we are taking the federal government to court again to claw back a lot of that money.

Reporter: Congresswoman, political hate speech in the state. I just want to get the clarification. Would you sign that bill into law if you were governor?

Mikie Sherrill: I’d like to see exactly the ins and outs of that. In too many cases, I think we see rollbacks in free speech protections in some of the right-wing legislation, so I’d want to make sure that there are good provisions in there to ensure we have free speech, while at the same time, I think there is never any room for political violence or speech that leads to violence.

Reporter: Should transgender athletes be allowed to take part in girls’ sports?

Mikie Sherrill: You know, we have groups in New Jersey — sports groups — and the NCAA does as well, that determine this. That’s something that I think they need to determine. What I am focused on right now in this state is making sure that all of our kids are safe, that we implement the Kids Online Safety Act to ensure that our children are safe online. Right now, we have seen rollbacks on platforms like Meta and Reels, which no longer have protections against hate and bullying, and we’ve seen the uptick in hatred and bullying in LGBTQ youth, and then also pushing in more mental health resources for our students.

Reporter: Democrats in the past few years have brought up bringing the sales tax back up to 7% in budget negotiations. Are you against increasing the sales tax at all?

Mikie Sherrill: I just will tell you, I find it odd that Jack Ciattarelli brings up raising the sales tax at every opportunity, even tonight in this debate, and then turns around and says, no, he’s never done that. So he’s the one that continues to talk about this, put it on the table, and then walks himself back, sometimes even minutes later. And so what I’m going to do is drive down costs for people. I’ve constantly put out an agenda of exactly how I’m going to do that. I’m going to work hard for families to make sure that their costs in this state continue to go down because too many people can’t afford to stay here. Thank you all very much.