N.J. deciding on 2nd Murphy term

TRENTON, N.J. » New Jersey voters on Tuesday decided whether Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s first term of fulfilling his left-leaning agenda merits a second one or if they want to hit the brakes and go in a new direction with Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli.

Polls opened at 6 a.m. and closed at 8 p.m., though, already some 700,000 votes — about a third of the total in 2017 — had been cast by mailin ballots or in early in-person voting.

Murphy has been leading in the polls, has a 1 million-voter registration advantage and had more cash in his campaign coffers than Ciattarelli in the final days of the race. But the Republican has far surpassed his predecessor four years ago in fundraising and has seen the gap in public polls move in his favor — if only by a few points.

At the Washington Township Senior Center, Joseph Buono wore his red Make America Great Again hat to vote. He voted for Ciattarelli for governor largely because of his promise to address property taxes in a state where the average bill is more than $9,000 — and because he doesn’t want Murphy to remain in charge of the state’s pandemic response.

“The fear is he’s going to mandate everything if he does win,” said Buono, 31, an accountant. His wife, Nadia Buono, 37, who works in finance, said she doesn’t want their two young children to be required to be vaccinated when they turn 5.

Washington Township is the biggest town in Gloucester County, home to middle-class suburbs of Philadelphia. The county, generally more conservative than the state, has been a bellwether, voting for the winner in the last five gubernatorial elections.

Outside the bustling senior center, home to voting for several precincts, Murphy voters said they approve of the governor’s handling of the pandemic.

“I think he did an excellent job with COVID,” said Julie Steinman, 60, a second-grade teacher in a nearby community. Steinman said she’s an unaffiliated voter but usually supports Democrats running for governor, largely because they’re friendlier to teachers and their unions.

In Franklin Township in Ciattarelli’s home county of Somerset, some Murphy voters were focused more on the national political scene than his stewardship of the state.

“This is an election where there is no way in hell where I would vote for a Republican. I’m so frustrated with the division in this country,” said Elizabeth Ranney, 89, of the Kingston section of Franklin Township. “It just breaks my heart.”

No Democrat has won reelection as governor in New Jersey since Brendan Byrne in 1977, and the party opposite the president’s has won the New Jersey governorship going back to 1985.