At an event most thought would take place 24 hours earlier, Gov. Phil Murphy delivered a victory speech that highlighted his accomplishment and looked forward to the next four years.
Murphy was declared the winner of New Jersey’s gubernatorial race by the Associated Press for a second term in an unexpectedly tight race. Murphy said he was “humbled” to become the first Democrat in 44 years to be elected to a second term, last accomplished by Brendan Byrne in 1977.
Delivering his remarks at the Asbury Park Convention Hall Nov. 3 to his supporters, Murphy framed the next four years in which he plans to pursue a “stronger and fairer” agenda.
“In New Jersey, we know how to make forward work,” he said in a speech that was less than 10 minutes long. “From the middle out and the bottom up. We know how to move forward and accomplish big things.”
First Term Accomplishments
Murphy then rattled off a list of progressive accomplishments during his first four years, including raising the minimum wage, educational gains, expanding funding for women’s health, affordable healthcare and childcare, and increasing voting rights.
“If you want to know what the future looks like, come to New Jersey. If you want to understand where America is heading, look to New Jersey,” said Murphy.
The incumbent Democrat attempted to reach out to those who came out to vote against him but failed to mention the name of his opponent, GOP challenger Jack Ciattarelli.
Governor for All
“If you want to be governor of all of New Jersey, you must listen to all of New Jersey,” he stated. “And New Jersey, I hear you. I renew my promise to you, whether you voted for me or not, to….keep moving us forward for greater opportunities for all 9.3 million who call the Garden State home.”
Murphy closed by quoting Byrne about how lawmakers are not judged by how they fared in an election but what we they do as an administration.
“These are the words (my administration) have lived the last four years and will live everyday for the next four as we continue the work to make New Jersey stronger and every fairer,” said Murphy. “Those words will always remind us to keep moving forward.”
No Concession from Jack
While Murphy was triumphant, the win was a costly one for the Democrats, as their majorities declined in the State Senate and Assembly. Additionally, Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney was shockingly defeated, leading Democrats to jockey to replace the longest-serving legislative leader in New Jersey history.
Despite the victory call, the Ciattarelli camp was not conceding. After the AP’s declaration, Stami Williams, Ciattarelli campaign spokeswoman, tweeted “With the candidates separated by a fraction of a percent out of 2.4 million ballots cast, it’s irresponsible of the media to make this call when the New Jersey Secretary of State doesn’t even know how many ballots are left to be counted.”
Murphy’s victory speech came after a day that saw the lead go back and forth between the two candidates. As of about 10:00 p.m. Nov. 3, Murphy had just under 24,000 vote lead over Ciattarelli. With 90% of the precincts reporting, the incumbent has 1,217,043 votes compared with the former Assemblyman’s 1,193,262.
Waiting for All Votes
Ballots continue to be counted as some mail-in ballots (as long as it has a Nov. 3 postmark) can be accepted until Nov. 8 and provisional ballots won’t be counted for several days.
Historically, this is shaping up to be the closests race since 1981 when Republican Tom Kean defeated Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Florio. The race would be called for Kean 26 days after election day.
“Last night was a historic one for New Jersey Republicans, who picked up at least a half dozen Assembly seats, several Senate seats, along with county and local seats up and down the state,” said Williams during the day. “Jack is proud to lead our ticket and our party’s resurgence. Right now, our team is focused on making sure all the legal votes are counted and our citizens can have confidence in the system.”
Recount Rules
Under New Jersey state law, a recount must be requested and is not automatically triggered due to the closeness of the race. Candidates may request a recount within 17 days of Election Day by filing a lawsuit in the Superior Court in the county where a recount would be requested. Additionally, voters or outside groups can request a recount. For this and other races in New Jersey, the deadline is Oct. 19.
Election night ended with both camos stating the election would not be decided until the following days. GOP nominee Ciattarelli led the incumbent Murphy 50%-49% as the clock struck midnight followed by both candidates telling supporters to go home from their respective campaign parties.
Lead Goes Back and Forth
By morning, Murphy edged ahead, resulting in the incumbents having a 1,667 votes lead. But at noon on Nov. 3, Ciattarelli moved back ahead by a 465 vote lead over Murphy. An hour later, Murphy would regain the lead as mail-in votes from Democratic strongholds continued to come in overwhelmingly in favor of the former Ambassador to Germany.
In general, Ciattarelli’s strong showing was due to the Republican candidate outperforming in such GOP hotbeds as Ocean and Monmouth counties while Democrats did not retain the gains in recent elections such as Bergen and Morris.
Ciaterrelli’s supporters had argued in the closing day the election was going to be much closer than the eight point spread in three different polls published in the last week of the election.
Jack’s Message
Ciattarelli, the former Assemblyman, ran a race that centered on the Garden State being broken, and he was the man to fix it. That plan included a number of tax cuts, a new school funding formula favoring the suburbs and argued for personal choice when it came to COVID-19 masks and vaccine mandates.
Addressing his supporters after Murphy the night of the election, Ciattarelli proclaimed “We are winning…we want every legal vote counted. When that is done, I will be standing in front of you not saying we are winning but that we won.”
Murphy, who never fell below 50% in polls leading up to the election, ran on his progressive record—including a higher minimum wage, social justice reforms and clean energy initiatives—that he said was just the start of attempting to make the state “stronger and fairer.”
He consistently received good marks for the handling of the coronavirus pandemic in polls over the last 20 months and vigorously defended his actions during the campaign, including those at long-term care facilities early in the pandemic and then later mask and vaccine mandates.
Ratman carpetbagger – the million + who voted against you do not want your so-called progress – recall carpetbagger – recall!
“If fair elections are your issue, New Jersey is probably not your state.”
— Mass Murderer Governor Phil Murphy
The commenters here calling Gov. Murphy a mass murderer are fit for one thing: fellate TFG while masturbating to Holocaust documentaries.
RULE #1 — NEVER TAKE HEALTH ADVICE FROM A MASS MURDERER.
What’s the difference between NJ Governor Phil Murphy and serial killer Ted Bundy?
Ted Bundy only killed 36 people. Murphy killed thousands.
Gov. Murphy keeps mandating masks and vaccines to “prevent deaths”, meanwhile he single-handedly killed more people than serial killers Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy—COMBINED!
Report: NJ Gov. Murphy Office Warned ‘Patients Will Die’ Before Ordering COVID Patients into Nursing Homes
‘Patients will die,’ an administrator reportedly told Murphy’s office.
“Democratic New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s office was warned that ordering nursing homes to readmit residents recovering from COVID-19 would lead to unnecessary deaths, a new report reveals.
But Murphy went ahead with implementing the order anyway—KNOWING THAT PEOPLE WOULD DIE!”
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/coronavirus-new-jersey-governor-phil-murphy-nursing-home-patients-will-die
The AP doesn’t decide elections—they just publish fake news.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/11/nj-election-update-56-voting-machines-shut-shipped-warehouse-election-night-dem-stronghold-county-gov-murphy-got-113k-votes/
Counting all the votes sounds like a good idea and why not? What’s the rush? Is anyone afraid of counting carefully or even recounting to make it clear to all that the result is correct? Anyone who wants to rush the decision before all the votes are counted when the number of votes between the two candidates is so small must be afraid of democracy.
Murphy is killing this state ! we can’t survive 4 more years of this ass hat.
Counting all votes was Murphy’s pledge a few days ago. The AP calls it and it should be over?
Not surprising—mass murderers also lie about winning elections.
How many votes were manufactured in the morning Mr. Murphy? We can only guess……
And why no story about how Sweeney was beaten by a truck driver who spent $154? That was by a bigger margin than the governor’s vote.
Let that sore loser spin his wheels…just like that former guy. Murphy won…stop the whining and crying.
The Record did a very poor job this year regarding calling out false statements in political ads and in my town and publishing a one paragraph statement from all the Board of Education candidates as happened in past years. Lastly, why is the only ad at the bottom of the page an ad for our Democrat Congressman?
can democrats use a democratic counting mechanism like the republicans used in Maricopa county?
Murphy says if taxes are your issue then New Jersey is not for you! Murphy you are the issue and New Jersey does not want you!!
NJ is quickly becoming the Calif. of the east coast, run by idiots in suits who think they can tax anything for revenue and keep their power by having the working few support the low life scum who have become takers of these useless state programs that support welfare not workfare. These unionized teachers push these democratic money suckers for power while we throw more money at education and get poor results. the inner cities are a trove of trouble mostly not reported by a liberal media being paid to hide the real truth about our cities. With over 60% of people on some sort of govt. assistance, this state should change it’s slogan to New Jersey “the welfare state”. It’s no wonder businesses and legal residents are leaving, only the illegals are staying to suck the state dry with these useless programs aimed toward law breakers while telling our citizens illegals get more benefits and you can go to hell as real Americans.
Good luck with that recall. Tell me the name of the last governor of NJ who was successfully recalled.
Oh, are you pulling a Trump and declaring fraud because you don’t like the outcome? What evidence do you have for the election being unfair?
Source being Fox News? LOL. Surely you jest.
The reality is that there was nowhere to place these patients, as hospitals were overloaded with critically ill ICU COVID patients, and those who had recovered sufficiently, but were still possibly infectious, therefore had to be released. SNFs failed to properly isolate these patients or to employ infection control, due to understaffing and profit motive, so the result was that they spread infection to others, who then died. It was a no win situation for Gov. Murphy.
Wow, you still have TDS? We were in a Pandemic. There were options. How can you sleep at night when you agree to the deaths and killing of our seniors? Why not reach out to NYC and use the ship that Trump sent that was virtually empty? Or go to the makeshift hospital at the convention center? Or make our own makeshift hospital.
There is really something wrong with anyone who feels that Murphy handled this in a competent way. Oh, but he was on TV every single day touting his great handling of the process. SMH
Perhaps you should consider moving to a state more in line with your values, like Alabama, or maybe Florida?