The first face-off between Democrats hoping to succeed Gov. Phil Murphy revealed broad agreement and a handful of sharp divisions. (Courtesy of New Jersey Globe/On New Jersey)
Six gubernatorial hopefuls met on a debate stage for the first time Sunday, revealing broad overlaps and a handful of sharp divisions between the Democrats hoping to succeed Gov. Phil Murphy.
The debate, hosted by the New Jersey Globe and On New Jersey at Rider University, is the first of three set for Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, teachers union chief Sean Spiller, and former state Sen. Steve Sweeney.
Baraka and Fulop, the only two sitting mayors on the stage, carved out a lane as the race’s progressives, arguing for a more confrontational Democratic brand in the face of a second Trump administration.
“I know people out there are afraid and scared because Donald Trump has been wreaking havoc for the last week. That’s why we need a strong leader, a strong governor that stands strong on Democratic values,” said Baraka. “We don’t have the time to meander in the middle, to be mealy-mouthed or this way or that way. We can’t fight extremism with moderation.”
The two broke with their rivals on whether they would maintain partisan balance on New Jersey’s Supreme Court by nominating a Republican to replace Justice Anne Patterson when she retires in 2029.
“We repeatedly go back and say, ‘We’ll play nice,’ because it’s the historical way that it’s been, and you’ve seen what’s happened with the federal government,” Fulop said. “It’s no secret that New Jersey is viewed as a purple state. If it becomes red, do you think that the Republicans are going to say, ‘Well, this is the way it’s been historically?””
By tradition, New Jersey’s seven-member high court has at most four members who belong to or lean toward a single party, though some governors, including former Gov. Chris Christie, have sought to shift the court to a more partisan makeup.
Other candidates backed maintaining the tradition, arguing New Jersey should not seek to have its high court emulate the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sweeney said packing the court would leave Democrats no avenue to complain if Republicans eventually won control of the governorship and Senate and moved to build a GOP supermajority on the state’s high court.
“As Democrats, we always think we’re winning everything all the time. We don’t,” he said. “We had Chris Christie for eight years, so if we’re going to pack the courts, they have every right to. We have the best system in the country, and we need to protect it.”
The candidates broadly backed a shift in New Jersey’s court system that would allow the governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate, to nominate appellate judges. In New Jersey, the chief justice of the Supreme Court has sole authority to assign Superior Court judges to the Appellate Division. Lawmakers proposed such a shift last year but have not acted on it yet.
Some candidates diverged on senatorial courtesy, an unwritten rule that allows New Jersey senators to indefinitely and unilaterally block gubernatorial nominees from their home county or legislative district. Sherrill said she supports the practice, and Sweeney, a former seante president, also defended it, but not all were so keen.
“One of the reasons we have the shortage that we do is because there’s so many holes with senatorial courtesy where we can’t fill positions,” Spiller said.
There was some space between the candidates on immigration. While each backed protecting the state’s undocumented residents and condemned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids lacking warrants or targeting places like schools and churches, some said they would back efforts to deport undocumented migrants charged with crimes. Gottheimer faced criticism from some of his rivals for supporting the Laken Riley Act, which expands mandatory detention requirements of immigrants charged and arrested on petty crimes.
“If you are a murder, criminal, a rapist, if you’re breaking into people’s homes in the middle of the night while the kids are sleeping and you’re undocumented, you shouldn’t be here. You shouldn’t be in the state, you shouldn’t be in this country,” Gottheimer said.
Sweeney agreed, saying undocumented lawbreakers should not be in the United States and pointing to high deportations under Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
The former Senate President was the only candidate to oppose allowing New Jersey residents to launch ballot referendums to amend the state’s constitution, arguing it would only push more money into politics. Currently only the Legislature can put a voter question on the ballot.
“Do you realize how much money will be spent on initiatives where working-class people don’t have the same tools? No, I don’t support it,” he said. “I support elections that elect a governor and a legislature, and if you’re unhappy with what they do, you should not vote for them again.”
Every candidate supported allowing trans children to participate in sports teams that align with their gender identity, though some urged their party to avoid letting Republicans set the terms of debate on the issue.
“It’s targeting vulnerable people, and quite frankly, it’s bulls***,” said Sherrill. “We have to do better at protecting vulnerable people, but we can’t fall into these traps because we’re losing on this issue.”
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