The debate over the government shutdown has extended to New Jersey, where polls have shown a tightening governor’s race with a month to go before Election Day.
The contest to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy features Republican former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, who narrowly lost to Murphy four years ago, and Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill. It’s one of two gubernatorial races set for next month that are likely to act as a pulse check on how voters are feeling nearly a year into unified Republican control of the federal government.
The Trump administration cited the shutdown, in part, when it announced Wednesday that it was withholding roughly $18 billion in funds for two New York City infrastructure projects, including the Hudson River Tunnel Project, which is aimed at easing congestion between New Jersey and New York — a key issue for many North Jersey commuters.
“Once again, the Trump administration is targeting New Jersey by gutting this funding,” Sherrill, a longtime supporter of the project, said in a Wednesday statement. “As governor, I will fight tooth and nail to complete this essential infrastructure project for New Jersey. Jack Ciattarelli will not.”
Ciattarelli, meanwhile, has slammed Sherrill for voting against the stopgap funding bill to keep the government open. Only one House Democrat, Maine Rep. Jared Golden, voted for the measure when the chamber considered it last month.
“She is part of the shutdown,” Ciattarelli said Thursday on Fox News. “When Joe Biden was the president, she repeatedly voted for resolutions to keep the government open, but now suddenly she’s voting no on those resolutions. It just shows that she’s a hyperpartisan that’s not about the country.”
Sherrill, a Navy veteran who won a crowded Democratic primary in June, has been leading in most polls of the race, although recent surveys have painted a mixed picture. A Sept. 22-23 Emerson College Polling/PIX 11/The Hill poll showed both candidates tied at 43 percent, while a Sept. 25-28 Fox News poll showed Sherrill ahead 50 percent to 42 percent among likely voters.
Both sides are trying to link their opponents to less popular figures in the party. Sherrill has tried to tie Ciattarelli to President Donald Trump, who remains underwater with voters less than a year after he lost the state by a narrower-than-expected 6 points. Ciattarelli, in turn, has sought to link Sherrill to Murphy.
While New Jersey generally leans blue, Sherrill is hoping to defy recent history this fall as no party has won a third consecutive gubernatorial election in the Garden State since the 1960s.
The latest jabs over the shutdown come after a recent CBS News report shook up the race. A branch of the National Archives released a mostly unredacted copy of Sherrill’s military records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from a Ciattarelli ally. The documents included Sherrill’s Social Security number, home addresses for her and her parents and life insurance information, as well as her performance evaluations and a nondisclosure agreement between her and the U.S. government to safeguard classified information, according to CBS News.
In a letter to Sherrill, the National Personnel Records Center apologized for the incident and said staff failed “to follow proper administrative procedures” in releasing the records. The inspector general of the National Archives is launching an inquiry in the release of Sherrill’s records, Politico reported.
Sherrill’s campaign has accused the Trump administration of illegally releasing the files. Campaign spokesman Sean Higgins said in a statement that the administration was “targeting political opponents with an absolute disregard for the law, this time in concert with the Ciattarelli campaign.”
The campaign has also cut an ad in which the narrator concludes, “They broke the law to attack a veteran. Just think what Jack Ciattarelli might do to you.”
Ciattarelli’s campaign has opted to focus on another recent revelation. CBS News and the New Jersey Globe reported that Sherrill did not walk at the Naval Academy’s 1994 commencement ceremony, which followed a cheating scandal that implicated more than a hundred midshipmen.
Sherrill was not accused of cheating, CBS News reported, and she told the outlet her name did not appear in the commencement program because “I didn’t turn in some of my classmates, so I didn’t walk, but graduated and was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Navy, serving for nearly ten years with the highest level of distinction and honor.”
Ciattarelli’s campaign has urged for Sherrill to release her military records related to the 1994 scandal, as have New Jersey’s three Republican House members.
Sherrill is currently serving her fourth term in the House representing New Jersey’s 11th District. Ciattarelli, who served three terms in the New Jersey General Assembly, is making his third bid for governor.
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