By Gloria Vittadello
Staff Writer
With New Jersey’s gubernatorial election fast approaching, knowing where each candidate stands can be helpful before heading to the polls on Nov. 4.
The candidates for governor are Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill (D), a former United States Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor, and Jack Ciattarelli (R), a New Jersey native, entrepreneur and former state assemblyman.
The candidates have faced off in two official debates: the first at Rider University on Sept.21, and the second at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center on Oct. 8.
In each discussion, the two candidates tackled topics such as education, youth mental health, affordability, New Jersey transit, property taxes, electricity rates, public safety, immigration and more.
Though both candidates talk about driving down the cost of living and other topics, Sherrill displays a more progressive approach when it comes to LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights.
Ciattarelli focuses more on law and order and aligning himself with President Donald Trump.
Here’s what the candidates had to say about issues during the debates:
Education, youth mental health and segregated school districts
Sherrill said that she would pass a safety act for children that would drive more mental health resources into schools. She said she is deeply concerned about New Jersey’s public school system and wants to strengthen phonics education to improve literacy outcomes.
Ciattarelli agreed, saying he is also very concerned about the youth mental health crisis in the state. Ciattarelli says he wants to work with the 21 counties of New Jersey to create community mental health centers, so people could have easy and convenient access to high-quality care.
Ciattarelli brought up Policy 5756, which discusses the rights of transgender and nonconforming students in New Jersey, during the first debate. He said he wasn’t in support of the policy's promotion to keep secrets from parents on behalf of students when it comes to their gender identity.
Since 2018, New Jersey has been embroiled in a lawsuit that alleges more needs to be done to improve the state's segregated school districts.
During the debate, the candidates were asked, “Would you continue fighting this in court, and what do you think New Jersey can do to achieve less segregated schools?”
In regard to the segregated schools, Ciattarelli emphasized school choice, advocating for publicly funded scholarships, vouchers and charter schools to give families in struggling districts more options. He also advocates for a more rigorous curriculum in schools, ultimately aiding students where they need to be.
Sherrill declared how deeply she cares about the New Jersey school system, and she promises to make performance better. She also said artificial intelligence should be implemented into the curriculum.
Sherrill said she plans to “attack segregation” in New Jersey’s schools, though she did not provide specific policy details.
Affordability
The cost of living in New Jersey is higher than the average for the nation. Property taxes and housing prices are contributors to this, according to the World Population Review.
Ciattarelli said on his first day in office, he would pull New Jersey out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
“This policy has cost New Jersey $300 to $500 million a year for home owners, tenants and businesses, and it’s been a failure,” Ciattarelli said.
He said he would tackle high property taxes by implementing a new school funding formula, building more strategic affordable housing, capping property taxes at 1% of a home’s assessed value, making the first two years after high school or college tax-free, allowing seniors to deduct 100% of their property taxes, freezing property taxes for those 70 and older, and making sure all retirement income is tax-free for seniors.
Sherrill said on her first day in office, she would declare a state of emergency on energy prices, freezing rate hikes. She said she would tackle managers who drive drug prices up. She says this would drive down New Jersey’s healthcare costs. She also said she is going to confront landlords who are driving up rent prices for those who are not homeowners.
Sherrill also wants to “Join the court case against the tariffs that the president is implementing right now. These tariff costs are raising everything from a cup of coffee to the groceries [New Jerseyans] they buy at night.”
Employment
The national unemployment rate is a little bit over 4%, but in New Jersey, it’s around 5%. There are further hiring concerns due to tariffs, AI and inflation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Sherrill's approach to employment focuses on supporting workers' rights, strengthening unions, supporting legislation that creates jobs, federal funding and economic development initiatives.
She says she is for collective bargaining rights, supporting fair wages and benefits, expanding job opportunities for young people and advocating for small businesses.
She also mentions that she is going to push for STEM and occupational schools. She says New Jersey needs to “push into the jobs of the future, because we know AI is going to have huge reverberations through the job market.”
Ciattarelli said New Jersey is always last, or close to it, when it comes to “states best to do business.” He says he is going to responsibly reduce the size and cost of state government to afford a tax cut for individuals and businesses. He says he would make New Jersey a better state to do business with by growing the economy and creating jobs, though he did not specifically state how.
Electricity rates, wind farms and climate change
Ciatterelli said he is very much against wind farms off the beaches at the Jersey Shore.
“I will reopen and repurpose the [nuclear] plants. We’ll expand our nuclear footprint in South Jersey. We will accelerate solar on the rooftops of our warehouses,” Ciatterelli said.
Sherrill said she supports offshore wind projects and cleaner energy alternatives.
“Anyone from New Jersey should know this has been a long time coming,” she said, noting that inaction from previous administrations has worsened the state’s energy and environmental challenges.
In terms of climate change, Ciattarelli says that the state needs a rational transition to the future regarding its energy. He said natural gas is a rational transition to the future, as is nuclear energy in South Jersey and solar energy.
“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 many suburban communities,” he said, attributing the flooding to the overdevelopment in New Jersey.
Sherrill rebutted and said, “Our climate is changing, and we need to act. As governor, I'm going to make sure that we drive down carbon emissions, drive massive amounts of power to the grid so we can decrease costs and ensure people are paying lower costs.”
New Jersey Transit
New Jersey Transit is notorious for frequent delays and cancellations. Between May and July, about one in every 18 trains ran at least 15 minutes late or was canceled entirely. For a commuter taking the New Jersey Transit, that translates to a bad commute roughly every two weeks.
Even though working commuters experience this, President Donald Trump’s administration temporarily stopped funding for the Gateway Tunnel project this month, thereby delaying the construction of the Gateway Tunnel to build a third rail tunnel between New Jersey and New York City.
Sherrill says that in her administration, she “would take [the Trump Administration] to court over it, because those are congressionally appropriated funds for the Gateway Tunnel.” She also said that these funds can lead to about 100,000 jobs.
“I was called the ‘tunnel obsessed congresswoman.’” Sherrill said. “I demanded Amtrak [to] keep up their rail system better, because we utilize New Jersey Transit, and got $300 million into Northeast Rail for catenary wires. Now I am on the Port Authority because [Amtrak] is not handling the wires underneath the tunnel well, and we’re seeing fire after fire.”
Ciattarelli said, “We have to fix New Jersey Transit.” He proposes something being done in other states: putting all of the massive transit systems under one roof. He says that this way, there will be better accountability and better transparency, ultimately leading to a better transport system in New Jersey.
Public safety and immigration
“I support the president in securing the border,” Ciattarelli said. “I believe that it is a matter of national security.”
Ciattarelli says he feels passionately about making sure New Jersey doesn’t have sanctuary cities and is not a sanctuary state. He says that this only invites undocumented immigration and puts “handcuffs” on New Jersey police in certain ways.
“Anyone who came here from a history of criminality, came here illegally, or from a history of criminality in their city of origin, has to go back. Anyone who came here illegally and has committed a crime or has scammed our government assistance programs since coming here has to go back.” Ciattarelli said.
He says that everyone else, though, should be put on a pathway to recognition by being given some form of government identification, so workers in New Jersey aren’t in the shadows or under a false social security number.
“I think we can all agee that violent criminals should be deported, but what I also believe deeply in, is due process.” Sherrill said. "The due process rights that are in our Constitution. So I'll follow the law and I'll follow the Constitution."
Sherrill says she cares deeply about public safety, and advocates for comprehensive immigration reform. She says she supports securing borders, but also wants to implement a pathway to citizenship for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, Temporary Protected Status recipients and immigrants who are working, paying taxes and adding to the state's economy.
Reproductive rights
On reproductive rights, Ciattarelli has a more moderate stance. He supports banning elective abortions after 20 weeks, requires parental notification for minors seeking abortions, opposes taxpayer funding for abortion and stands for education and prevention to reduce unwanted pregnancies.
“Any decision to terminate a pregnancy is deeply personal… it should be between a woman, her partner, her faith and her doctor,” Ciattarelli said.
Sherrill, meanwhile, supports broad access to reproductive care and protecting abortion rights.
She backs the Right to Contraception Act, opposed national abortion bans, extended reproductive care for servicewomen and military families, worked to ensure emergency abortion under EMTALA, and supported privacy protections for medical records related to reproductive healthcare.
"When you put in place things like my opponent has suggested, people die," Sherrill said. "We also have the fact when he was last in office, he voted to defund Planned Parenthood, so these are not pro-choice positions."
