New Jersey’s Republican Primary
It may be hard for any of the Republican candidates running for governor to attract enough voters to win
NEW JERSEY’S PRIMARY ELECTION for governor is next Tuesday. And, with the incumbent governor, Democrat Phil Murphy, running unopposed, the public will be focused on who will clinch the Republican nomination.
Four Republican candidates will appear on the ballot — though, as it stands, it is increasingly becoming a two-man race between businessman-politician Jack Ciatarelli and Engineer Hirsh Singh, as a poll from the left-leaning Democratic Governors Association shows the former leading at 29% to the latter’s 23%.
The remaining candidates — Phil Rizzo and Brian Levine — didn’t raise enough money to participate in the only two scheduled primary debates and currently rank at 8% and 2%, respectively.
Currently, the leading candidate is “undecided,” which nets a chart-topping score of 38% of those polled.
It should not be surprising that the majority of Republican voters are undecided, as it is the nature of not only primary elections but of blue-state politics that harbors a local media that largely ignored the contest. And, unfortunately, for the GOP, what should be a modestly easy election, will become an uphill slog in November, as both of their leading candidates are deeply flawed.
The gubernatorial race in November is conservatives to lose. For all his niceties, Phil Murphy is Democrat that promises more progressive policies if reelected. Chiefly, Murphy is a supporter of Congressional Democrats’ H.R. 1 bill, which would eliminate things like voter ID requirements — which most of the American public supports — and cement into federal law pandemic voting exceptions forever.
On top of this, Murphy supports just about every woke theory imaginable and wishes to have indoctrination programs like critical race theory pushed into every public school through curriculums like The New York Times’ “1619 Project.”
Pushing progressive politics on people’s children is a fraught business as was recently put on display in South Lake, Texas, where families in the school district organized in a matter of days to vote out the entire school board for such biased education plans.
Matters involving public education are especially tense in New Jersey this year. Not only does The Garden State consistently rank highest in the nation when it comes to property taxes, but that one of the leading reasons for that price tag is paying off the demands of the states’ outrageously powerful teachers unions.
Most residents should rightly be fed up with public school teachers after their abdication of duty throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Murphy, for his part, however, was a willing accomplice to the New Jersey Education Association’s schemes. His failure to even speak a stern word about them throughout the pandemic — while the goal of homeownership is turned into a Sisyphean task due to the property taxes that paid teachers while they actively kept children out of school — should be enough to give him the boot.
* * *
UNFORTUNATELY, NEW JERSEY REPUBLICANS are not as effective or well organized as their Democratic counterparts are.
While every Democratic politician to make rank in the state must receive the blessings from the influential South and Central Jersey Democratic coalitions to prove they will advance their party’s interests, Republicans seem to be knighted by fellow country club members in Bergen County.
And while the line-of-attack that Republicans are “the party of the wealthy elite” is often thrown around without regard for its truthfulness, the New Jersey GOP makes it glaringly apparent that well-to-do residents in Northwest New Jersey are the only voters they care about. How else would one explain Jack Ciatarelli’s boasting that he received endorsements from Republican leaders in all of New Jersey’s 21 counties? The marching orders come from the North.
What is wrong with Ciatarelli? Well, nothing if you do not actually care about conservative issues.
The most prominent issue on nearly every voter’s mind in the state come election season is New Jersey’s outrageous tax rate. While Democrats may receive some cover from progressives who don’t care how high taxes are — as long as they are chasing businesses from the state and advancing “equity” — most people realize that their property tax bill is almost as large — or larger — than their mortgage is.
This is a cruel joke that grows more unfunny by the year. Yet, for some reason, nothing gets done. Enter Ciatarelli’s plan to deal with property taxes and the state’s school system.
In the readout of his plan on his campaign website, nowhere does he say that he will combat the NJEA, which is the only realistic plan of bringing down costs. Chris Christie challenged the public unions in the state by making them finally contribute to their health insurance, and his rhetoric towards the teachers unions along Hurricane Sandy may have won him his second term.
Instead, Ciatarelli wants to rejigger the state’s funding formula for school aid. Murphy changed the formula during his term, which prompted some protests from affected schools. But if Ciatarelli thinks he will win the favor of local teachers who were outraged at Murphy, he will have a better case pointing to himself as an example of a failed education.
Also in Ciatarelli’s plans for school reform is the proposal to reduce costs by incentivizing the voluntary regionalization of “our 565 towns and 600+ school districts.”
Regionalization would be an effective cost-cutting action. Unfortunately, it is not very popular among unions or parents — who often pay for the privilege of living in a town with a high-performing school.
Another flaw in Ciatarelli’s school plan is that it simply moves the cost of education around without really reducing it. For example, Ciatarelli wants to “shift extraordinary special education costs, which create an unfair burden on property taxpayers, to the state.” This may help some towns divert funds to other matters but does very little to actually cut costs.
In terms of actually keeping money in New Jersey resident’s pockets on a month-to-month basis, Ciatarelli’s plan is mixed.
A highlight of his plan is to reduce taxes for all income brackets by making the first $20,000 of taxable income taxed at 0%. This, his campaign website says, will “provide relief to the middle class, and lowering [sic] the uncompetitive top rate from the nation’s second highest to out of the top ten.”
Ciatarelli also plans to make all retirement income tax-free, which would be excellent to help elderly residents struggling to live on dwindling 401K plans and social security but would be a boon for pensioned workers who have profited on the backs of state taxpayers for years.
The rest of his wealth-creating plans revolve around tax credits that do little to keep costs reasonable in terms of a family’s monthly budget. Most notable among his tax credits is his plan to provide a tax deduction for charitable contributions, which will do a lot more to help the Bon Jovi’s of New Jersey than the average working family.
Where Ciatarelli shines is in his rhetoric about rights.
Ciatarelli joins a number of national conservatives in announcing his support for an E-Verify system to confirm a job applicant’s legal eligibility to work. Unlike Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Ciatarelli combines his call for E-Verify with his support for a more secure border and the promise to end “sanctuary cities.”
Far from depriving the agricultural sector of The Garden State of the immigrant workers it needs, Ciatarelli’s plan also calls for reforming the H-1B and H-2A visas that allow many productive foreign workers to come to labor in the sectors that rely on them.
Ciatarelli’s plans to reduce taxes on businesses while supporting companies who wish to obtain a legal foreign workforce will help New Jersey’s economy tremendously.
* * *
BUT, IRRESPECTIVE OF THE fact that some money may be recouped locally, the state cannot cut taxes without coming into legal issues with the Biden administration. By accepting the latest batch of coronavirus aid, the state agreed that it could not cut taxes for several years. So, even if money is recouped, taxes cannot be reduced unless the next Republican governor is willing to fight.
Unfortunately for hopeful Republican voters, both of the leading candidates are looking to strike infrastructure deals with Biden — lessening the chances they challenge the president.
Both Singh and Ciatarelli want federal funding to go to The Gateway Tunnel project to build two new passageways under the Hudson River to connect New Jersey to New York. The current cost of the project is estimated to be over $11 billion and would only help a percentage of state residents — hardly worth selling off better priorities such as lower taxes to help only part of the state.
Unfortunately, South Jersey residents get a second unwanted infrastructure project foisted on them in the form of an extremely unwanted passenger train that the incumbent Murphy and both leading Republican hopefuls seem to support.
The project would add a train route from Camden City to Vineland in Cumberland County. There appears to be zero need for the project, and over 2,000 people have joined the opposition group’s Facebook.
Plans to expand South Jersey’s light rail station into South Jersey have met fierce opposition. Throughout affected towns and beyond, yard signs supporting the “Say No to the GCL” movement can be found littering the lawns of houses opposed to the project.
New Jersey residents are already paying for a years-long project to “reduce traffic congestion” heading north, in the form of interchange upgrades to the area Interstate 295/42/676 merging area. The only purpose of funding the train, it would seem, would be to help Camden’s lucrative heroin market form a Silk Road throughout the southern suburbs.
* * *
HIRSH SINGH’S SUPPORT FOR unwanted infrastructure projects is not the only problem facing the candidate: He belongs to the “Make New Jersey Great Again” coalition of the Republican party.
During the first Republican primary debate, Singh declared that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election, stating that he believed Biden was declared the winner fraudulently.
Such fealty to President Trump may play in some states, but in a blue state like New Jersey, it will serve as nothing but cannon fodder for the Murphy campaign if Singh were to win the primary.
His beliefs will become a more potent weakness, as it has been reported that Trump believes he will be reinstated as president in August, following an election audit of certain battleground states.
When such a reversal does not come to pass right before the election, Singh will look like a Q-Anon conspiracy theorist and will be vulnerable right before the November election.
And, in making matters worse for himself, Singh ended up getting the second Republican Primary Debate canceled after he refused to produce a negative COVID-19 test to participate in the debate, NJ.com reports.
The debate was to be held on Zoom, so Singh does have a point in declaring the rules nonsense. However, putting on a spectacle that gets a debate canceled is not good optics. And appealing to the angriest of New Jersey Trump voters over COVID — an issue that will likely be far from voters’ minds come November — is foolish.
The amount of self-harm Singh is inflicting on his own campaign is a tragedy, for his political positions are home run.
Unlike Ciatarelli, Singh understands that taking on public school unions is the only way New Jersey residents are going to get any tax relief.
According to Singh’s campaign website, the Republican hopeful plans to expand school choice in New Jersey. This stance has been a successful campaign issue for other Republican governors across the country, such as the extremely popular Ron DeSantis of Florida.
When it comes to economic issues, however, Singh relies heavily on calling for the state to “open up.” And this isn’t a matter of his campaign website not being update either: that open-up message was posted 12 days ago. It is, alas, just an outdated pitch.
Singh does, however, correctly point to New Jersey’s pension problem as the cause for its fiscal woes. He highlights on his campaign page that The Garden State is $240 billion in debt and that $80 billion of that price tag is pension promises alone.
Singh falls short on a solution, though. Other than calling former Governor Christi Todd Whitman a “never-Trumper,” he declines to offer any ideas.
A good start would be Democratic state legislator Chuck Sweeney’s “Path to Progress,” which called for the converting future public workers’ retirement plans into pension-401K hybrids. Perhaps, though, it is too much of a liability to revive a Democratic proposal while running for the Republican nomination.
Where Singh excels is his belief in the 2nd Amendment in advocation for concealed carry in New Jersey. It may be nearly impossible to pass in the state without judicial intervention but speaks much louder than Ciatarelli’s call for concealed carry for “dangerous professions” only.
* * *
THE MORAL OF THIS story is that no matter who clinches the Republican nomination, it is going to be an uphill battle for either candidate to excite both the base and independent voters.
While Singh may excite more of New Jersey’s basest Republican’s Ciatarelli will appear to be a saner choice for independents.
This would make Ciatarelli the candidate that possesses the best chance to beat Murphy in November as the amount registered independent voters is greater than Republicans. And Democrats lead Independents in voter registration number by only a small margin.
Ciatarelli has greatly out-earned Singh, with the former earning raising $5.7 million to the latter’s $515,000. This means the support is there for Ciatarelli. But if he hopes to keep Republican voters interested through November, he may need to veer right after the primary.
* The Broadside Review will be away next week *
Please remember to Like, Share, and Subscribe
When Subscribing, please be sure to check your spam and promotions folders as content can show up there. Subscribe in the box below: