OPINION: Gottheimer, Malinowski, Sherrill are the Choices for North Jersey. The last six years, close election after close election, have shown that your vote matters. And that is why North Jersey residents should be casting their ballots for Reps. Josh Gottheimer, Tom Malinowski and Mikie Sherrill this Tuesday if you have not done so already. Why do we say this? Because each of these lawmakers represents what the majority of North Jersey voters want—centrists who continually work across the aisle putting New Jersey and the country before the party. The U.S. is facing big challenges, global challenges, that will need your voice, the voice of centrists that make up this country far more than the loud extremes of each party. The voices that do not care if good ideas are from R’s or D’s. That is why Rep. Gottheimer, Malinowski and Sherrill have our support. They will fight for what is best for North Jersey and have proven they will work across the aisle so Washington is not in constant gridlock. North-JerseyNews.com
Election results from last year in New Jersey have Democrats wondering if they weren’t anomalies but precursors to what could unfold in Tuesday’, both in the Garden State and across the nation. Democrats currently hold 10 of the state’s 12 House seats, and any losses could make it harder for the party to keep their majority as Republicans aim to retake control of Congress two years into President Joe Biden’s term. “At the end of the day, notwithstanding all the passion people have about taking away reproductive freedom, concealed carry, as well as democracy under siege, it’s always about the economy,” said Assemblyman John McKeon (D-27). “I think that’s where anybody’s consternation is from. Folks are concerned about being able to put food on the table.” NJ.com
The latest Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) Poll New Jersey residents generally support abortion rights doesn’t mean that those will change voting behaviors. The FDU Poll found 51% of New Jersey residents “unconditionally support” a woman’s right to have an abortion and 37% who believe abortion should be allowed under certain circumstances. Overall, respondents who were asked about abortion first were slightly more likely to say that they were “certain or almost certain” to vote in the upcoming elections when compared to respondents who were asked only after answering questions about the election. “The big question in this election has been about whether abortion is going to mobilize people who otherwise don’t turn up in midterms,” said Cassino. “In New Jersey, the answer is yes, even if the effect isn’t as big as Democrats might have been hoping for.” North-JerseyNews.com
In the last days of the 2022 campaign, North Jersey Democrats called on Republican lawmakers to denounce a “race baiting” mailer sent out by a former Trump aide. The mailer, from former Trump White House Advisor Stephen Miller’s America First Legal PAC, claims Democrats are intent on giving unfair advantages to Black and Latino people while excluding Whites and Asians. “There is no place in New Jersey for Stephen Miller’s racist, White nationalist agenda and every Republican who doesn’t want to be associated with Miller and his group should join us in disavowing this filth and standing against racism in any form,” said New Jersey Democratic State Committee Chairman LeRoy J. Jones, Jr. North-JerseyNews.com
Joseph Biasco, the Libertarian candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s 11th district, has dropped out of the race and endorsed Republican challenger Paul DeGroot. “This Election Day, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to wipe out the radical left as we know it. But to do so, we need all hands on deck,” Biasco said. “After meeting with Paul and his family, it was easy to see that he was a man of conviction and honesty. And unlike his opponent, Paul is not there for himself. He’s there for you.” Biasco during his campaign called Joe Biden an illegitimate” president, falsely stated that Donald Trump was the winner of the 2020 presidential election, and COVID-19 was a conspiracy. New Jersey Globe
Conspiracy theorists across the U.S. are urging for voting to be made as late as possible on Election Day to ‘stop the steal.’ Election deniers and others who believe unfounded conspiracy theories about the legitimacy of the 2020 election have been pushing voters not to vote early and to cast their ballots on Election Day, saying voting late in day would thwart plans by Democrats to commit fraud once they know how many ballots they need to win elections. But if large numbers of voters show up to vote late on Election Day, elections officials warn it could overwhelm already overworked election offices and create long lines, forcing polling places to stay open late into the night to accommodate everyone waiting to vote and push back when election workers could start processing late-arriving mail ballots, delaying the release of election results and allowing more time for misinformation to spread. New Jersey Monitor
Election officials reported 684,072 votes cast as of Nov. 5, bringing the total turnout for the 2022 election so far to 11.3% statewide. Of the more than 972,000 vote-by-mail ballots sent out by county clerks since Sept. 24, a total of 505,397 have been recorded as returned – roughly 52%. The VBM vote is made up of 64% registered Democrats and 20% registered Republicans, although the margin is closer in parts of the state where there are competitive races for the U.S. House of Representatives. The number of advance votes is up 9.9% from the same point one year ago. New Jersey Globe
Tight supply and rising oil prices are driving New Jersey gas prices sharply higher, a trend for the foreseeable future according to experts. The statewide average for a gallon of regular gasoline has hit $3.93, according to AAA, higher than the national average of $3.78. Garden State drivers are paying about 8-cents more than a week ago, and 40-cents more than we were paying at the beginning of October. NJ1015.com
President Joe Biden’s top national-security adviser has engaged in recent months in confidential conversations with top aides to Russian President Vladimir Putin in an effort to reduce the risk of a broader conflict over Ukraine and warn Moscow against using nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction. U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan has reportedly been in contact with Yuri Ushakov, a foreign-policy adviser to Putin, and spoken with his direct counterpart in the Russian government, Nikolai Patrushev. The aim has been to guard against the risk of escalation and keep communications channels open, and not to discuss a settlement of the war in Ukraine. The Wall Street Journal
Ukraine’s president is warning that Russia is planning more mass strikes on its energy infrastructure as officials over the weekend urged civilians to stock up on essentials and brace for a cold Winter. “We also understand that the terrorist state is concentrating forces and means for a possible repetition of mass attacks on our infrastructure. First of all, energy,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in his nightly address. The strikes have left 40% of Ukraine’s power grid damaged or destroyed and officials have imposed rolling blackouts to keep it from failing. The New York Times
The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 7 will hear arguments over the Federal Trade Commission’s authority, the latest case before the high court that seeks to rein in federal agency powers. The justices will hold an oral argument in Axon Enterprise Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission, a lawsuit brought by the maker of Tasers and other police equipment against the antitrust enforcement agency. Axon and other critics of the agencies say defendants should be able to challenge the constitutionality of the in-house courts by taking their arguments to federal district courts. That could allow them to avoid the in-house proceedings and have their cases heard instead before a jury or judge. The Wall Street Journal
Gov. Phil Murphy said threats las week against Jewish houses of worship were “mitigated” a day after the FBI warned they were targets in New Jersey. A threat warning was made by the FBI’s Newark office on Nov. 3 when it announced that it had “received credible information of a broad threat to synagogues in NJ. We ask at this time that you take all security precautions to protect your community and facility.” Murphy said in a statement Nov. 4. “While this specific threat may be mitigated, we know this remains a tense time for our Jewish communities who are facing a wave of antisemitic activity.” Rep. Josh Gottheimer added that “this is what happens after years of antisemitic comments from public figures, including, most recently, Kanye West, Kyrie Irving, and others. To those who made these antisemitic terroristic threats: We will not cower. We will not back down.” North-JerseyNews.com
An employee-led push in Atlantic City to ban smoking on casino floors has gathered momentum and clout, representing a potentially critical moment for the industry nationwide. But Mark Giannantonio, the chief executive of Resorts and the new president of the Casino Association of New Jersey, is opposing the effort to do so right now, pointing to what he sees as several economic threats to New Jersey’s gambling industry: the lingering effects of the pandemic; the risk of a prolonged recession; and the three new casinos that could be built in or near New York City. The New York Times
Children in psychiatric facilities in New Jersey would be supervised 24 hours a day, seven days a week under a bill that mandates these facilities adopt the same staffing requirements as children’s group homes and juvenile detention centers. A child receiving treatment at a facility would never be left unsupervised by designated staff members, except when that child is using the bathroom, showering or changing facilities or be left alone with one or more children without active, visual supervision by designated staff members. NJ Spotlight News
Gov. Phil Murphy has signed a bill into law designed to help out-of-work New Jerseyans get unemployment benefits more quickly in the wake of repeated criticism the state’s system doled out payments too slowly during the coronavirus pandemic. The bipartisan legislation (S2357) makes a number of changes to how some unemployment payments are distributed in the state in an effort to speed them up, including extending the time frame for appeals and increasing fines on employers who don’t give the state information about claims. Additionally, if workers are overpaid because of errors made by the state or the employer, the worker will only have to pay back up to 50% of the amount. NJ.com
Liberty State Park activists are warning of the potential noise nuisance from helicopters that a new federal plan could cause. A federal draft plan by the National Park Service (NPS), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and tour operators will propose limits for commercial air tours around the Statue of Liberty and Governor’s Island by creating a 1,000 feet buffer from them. While the intentions of the draft plan are meant to protect the two parks on the Hudson River, the Friends of Liberty State Park have warned that the plan could come at Liberty State Park’s expense by causing helicopters to fly over the park, Hudson Reporter
And finally….Drawing for tonight’s Powerball is a record $1.9 billion. The Record
