STUCK WITH THE BILL
4 more years of de Blasio
New Yorkers will have to put up with a case of de Blas for a not her four years after Mayor de Blasio, here after voting in Brooklyn yesterday, easily defeated GOP challenger Nicole Malliotakis.
Democrat Phil Murphy cruised to victory Tuesday night in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race, making the most of outgoing Gov. Chris Christie’s unpopularity.
The former US ambassador to Germany had been consistently ahead by double digits in the polls over his Republican rival, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, and networks called the race for Murphy just a minute after polls closed at 8 p.m.
Murphy, 60, will succeed Republican Christie, who has record-low approval ratings and has to leave office due to term limits.
“Tonight, we declare the days of division are over. We will move forward together,” the governor-elect said moments after appearing to do a little victory jig as he came onstage.
“This is exactly who we are, New Jersey. We have each other’s backs, to believe in each of us is to believe in all of us.”
With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Murphy had 55 percent of the vote to Guadagno’s 42 percent.
“Eighteen months ago, I chose to run for governor on a belief that New Jersey’s best days are before us, that our future is unlimited and that we have been failed by leadership which forgot what it meant to dream big,” said Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs exec.
His campaign relentlessly tied Guadagno to the unpopular Christie and aired attack ads linking them both to the George Washington Bridge toll-lane scandal.
Three Christie aides and appointees were convicted of crimes involving the 2013 plot to cause traffic jams in Fort Lee as political payback against the town’s Democratic mayor for not endorsing the governor’s re-election.
Guadagno had promised to lower property taxes if she had been elected.
While Murphy served as then-President Barack Obama’s top diplomat to Germany, this will be his first elected office.
When Murphy is inaugurated in January, New Jersey Democrats will control the governorship and both houses of the state Legislature.