Democrat Phil Murphy re-elected in exciting New Jersey gubernatorial race
New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy narrowly won reelection on Wednesday, scoring a victory that saved Democrats from losing a second gubernatorial seat.
He is the first Democratic governor of the state to win a second consecutive term in 44 years, defeating former Republican Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli.
Ciattarelli waged a formidable campaign in heavily Democratic New Jersey, his spending nearly equaling that of the governor and outperforming the Republican Party four years ago. But Murphy’s advantages, including 1 million more registered Democrats, turned out to be too much for Republicans to surpass.
The victory gives Democrats a ray of light after Republican businessman Glenn Youngkin defeated Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia gubernatorial race, exacerbating concerns that President Joe Biden’s low approval ratings are hurting the government. match. This year’s elections were the first major tests of voter sentiment since Biden took office and marked a potentially painful year for Democrats as they try to maintain small majorities in Congress.
The closeness of the race has surprised experts, who saw public polls showing Murphy comfortably leading and sought his match’s record advantage.
“If you had asked someone several months ago in the state, I think anyone would have predicted a double-digit landslide for Murphy,” said Ashley Koning, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Surveys at Rutgers University.
Murphy’s victory also ends the more than three-decade trend of the party opposing the president’s victory in the New Jersey gubernatorial race. Voters got much higher rates for Ciattarelli this year than for his Republican predecessor in 2017.
The 64-year-old governor said he was well aware of political trends and called them a “cheering” force for his re-election effort that prompted him to run as if he were 10 points behind.
Murphy built his campaign around the progressive achievements he signed into law, such as a $ 15 hourly minimum wage and paid sick leave alongside taxes on the wealthy, and brought in Democratic allies, such as the progressive United States senator. Bernie Sanders, campaigning. for him.
With a Democratic-led legislature, Murphy achieved most of the promises he made in his first race four years ago when he ran to succeed Republican Chris Christie.
Paid sick leave, taxpayer-funded community college and some pre-kindergarten, stricter gun laws, expanded access to voting, recreational marijuana, more state aid for schools, and a fully funded public pension, all promised and delivered during the first term . A proposal from a public bank to finance projects was not fulfilled.
Murphy is a former Goldman Sachs executive and served as ambassador to Germany under former President Barack Obama, who campaigned for Murphy in the weeks leading up to Election Day.
He has said that his next term will be on the enactment of a Reproductive Freedom Act aimed at codifying Roe v. Wade in the state, as well as additional gun control laws and the expansion of taxpayer-funded pre-kindergarten for 3-year-olds.
The headwinds that Democrats face, such as the falling approval ratings of President Joe Biden and the struggles of Congressional Democrats to enact his agenda, did not sufficiently influence the pre-election analysis of some experts, Ben Dworkin said, Director of the Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship at Rowan University. . He counted himself among them.
A Ciattarelli spokesman said Wednesday that the campaign focused on the counting of votes and said a possible legal search for a recount was on the table. Murphy also called Wednesday morning to have every vote counted.
Ciattarelli is a former member of the State Assembly, in office until 2018. He is the founder of a medical publisher called Galen Publishing, and served as a local and county official in Somerset.
He walked a line between defending the moderate positions he had in the Legislature, such as supporting Roe vs. Wade, and appealing to Republicans who embraced Trump, particularly on cultural issues that have garnered attention across the country.
(AFP)
