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News 12 Staff

NJPP131B

Welcome back. The race to fill Governor Mikey Sherrill's old House seat will be center stage this coming week. The special primary election for the 11th Congressional District is this coming Thursday. And joining me to talk about the race, what's at stake in the very crowded field is Ben Dorkin, director of the Rowan Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship at Rowan University. Ben, always great to see you. Good to be with you. Thank you, Ben. 12 candidates here, a lot of noise, 11 Democrats. It's a free for all for them. Only 1 Republican running though. Let's start there. Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway. What does it say to you that there is only 1 Republican in this field in what the governor herself calls a purple district? It's less of a purple district than it was when Mikey Sherrill first got elected there back in 2018. Redistricting after the 2020 census made it much more democratic, and that's why I think you see the surge in uh very ambitious and talented Democratic candidates entering this race, trying to nab this seat. There are only 12 House seats in the state of New Jersey. Democratic ones that lean Democratic don't open up very often, and so you had a lot of people with a lot of ambition jumping in. Endorsements are always key, as is fundraising. Leading the pack among Democrats, you have a Passaic County Commissioner John Bartlett, Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill, who of course got the endorsement from Governor Murphy, former Governor Murphy. You've got former Congressman Tom Malinowski, progressive Ana Lillian Mejia, and former Lieutenant Governor Tahisha Way. I mean those are among the biggest names here. Who has the edge at this point? How close do you think this could actually be? I think it's gonna be very close, uh, in the end, we're talking about potentially a few 100 votes that could separate who comes in first, who comes in second, etc. Um, and because we have to understand what this race is, to fill this the rest of this term. We're having an election in February when no one thinks about elections on a Thursday, not even a Tuesday, about voting. This is less gonna be about who has the right, uh, endorsements because the names won't matter as much and even the money isn't gonna matter as much. What will matter are personal networks. These candidates are out there, and they're trying to call everyone they know to say, hey, buddy, I need you to come out and vote on Thursday, February 5th. It's a random date, but you know me, and that's gonna make the difference because people aren't naturally going to show up at the polls on a Thursday in February. So it's these personal networks and to the degree that There are political party organizations that get behind one candidate or the other that will make a difference too, simply because the ability to draw people to the polls on this rather random day is really the key, even more than money or endorsements and you know the front runners in this case, the candidates really don't differ all that much ideologically except for maybe Ana Lily Mejia who's much farther left. Yes, uh, and I'm not sure, so what's gonna happen is that Annaia Mejia, who has adopted the, uh, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wing of the party, the Bernie Sanders wing of the party, she is trying to get all the people who would be on those kinds of lists. Here are the people who supported Bernie Sanders, who live in this district. She's trying to rally them to her cause. There are plenty of very Progressive candidates also running, but she has cornered that at least, and has the endorsement of Bernie Sanders, so that's gonna make a difference because she'll have a, a specific group of people. But the issues, uh, in terms of their policy uh differences are really minor and, and more a matter of emphasis. Does the lack of polling, I listen, I, I, I know you mentioned that it's all about their networks, their own networks in this race, at least for the primary, does the lack of polling in this race hurt? Do people truly know the candidates in the district? I'm not sure they do. We have not seen any public polls. I'm convinced all of, a lot of these candidates have raised a significant amount of money, and I'm sure they've spent it on internal polling. And what they're probably finding out is that a lot of the regular Democrats in the 11th Congressional District just don't know who they are. And if they heard the name, they don't really know much about them. Therefore, it's gonna come down again, to those personal networks. The lack of polling hurts the outsiders because we don't know who's up and who's down, but it's really not about that. Right now, it's about, you've got to identify people who will show up on this particular day to vote for you and get them there. Ben, is this race a preview of what we're going to see in the race to replace Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, who's retiring? At the end of this term over in the 12th district, and, and does it set the tone for the midterms? Well, to answer your first question, yes, I mean, I think we should recognize how different this is from what it was, what the political world was like in New Jersey just a couple of years ago. A few years ago, each county party organization had the ability to pick their endorsed candidates and to create a ballot that Put the voter in a situation where they look to favor the endorsed candidate, and all other candidates were placed far away. This is not the situation we have now the line, as it was called, has been eliminated and thrown out and ruled unconstitutional, which is why every Everybody is just listed. It doesn't matter. They're all on just one column. And because of that, yes, I think in the race to replace Bonnie, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman in the 12th Congressional District, a woman who's retiring after many years of service, you're gonna see lots of people throw their name in. Because there is no insider primary before the election. Everybody has an effectively an equal shot. And so if you're ambitious and talented, this is the moment to jump in. So we expect, I mean, we've seen in the 12th district a number of candidates running, and we expect that, uh, I expect that to remain the way, the same way heading into that election. Ben Durkin, always great to have you on. Thanks so much, Ben. Thanks so much, Eric. And keep it right here on Power and Politics. We'll be right back with more of the day's news.

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Welcome back to New Jersey Power and Politics. New Jersey is rolling back COVID era changes that gave more freedom to nurse practitioners. A new executive order signed at the end of former Governor Murphy's term reinstates pre-pandemic rules requiring all practices to have a collaborating physician. Providers say the shift could change how patients receive care. News Twelve's Amanda Eustace has the story. Getting timely health care is something patients here at IVs by the Seas in Point Pleasant have come to rely on, but that access could soon look very different. I'm extending my hours to see my patients because they don't know if I'm gonna be able to take care of them. What do you think is happening to primary care and, and these other places? If it's happening here, it's happening somewhere. The new order rolls back pandemic waivers which expanded the role of nurse practitioners and now again requires a collaborating physician in order to prescribe, medicate, and treat, affecting other providers like Join Prosper Health at a Fairfield that focuses on primary, urgent, and wellness care. We've been doing this for 6 years now, um, and. We did this because of COVID because it our healthcare system was so, so strained. We just feel that it's like, OK, we're done here, we don't need you guys anymore, and it's, it's not true for our patients. Now right now 28 states let nurse. Practitioners work independently. Those are the states that are colored in blue. Now while New Jersey doesn't, there is pending legislation that could change it. Didn't these executive orders show you that we could practice safely, we could expand care. We're taking care of our patients, but also we're contributing money to state taxes. We're trying to reduce unemployment. Under the order, nurse practitioners operating their own practice have until February 16th to find a collaborating doctor to work with. Now, if not, they'll be forced to close their doors. Nurses say it all comes down to access, and this will stress a system that's already struggling. We have the tools to provide healthcare, and there are just so many barriers that are preventing that from happening. Um, And this is one of the barriers. While Join Prosper Health will be able to operate, it remains to be seen if IVs by the seas will. Amanda Eustace, News 12, New Jersey. This weekend, the TSA will enforce a new policy for travelers without a real ID. If you don't have one or a passport, you'll pay a $45 fee to fly in the US. This new cost covers you for 10 days. If you travel back home after that, yeah, you'll pay the fee again. TSA urges travelers to make an appointment to update their ID. Many passengers say it's tough enough to get an appointment with the NBC. And that'll do it for this week's show. As always, we thank you for watching. I'm Eric Landskronner. This is Power in Politics. Stay warm, everybody. We'll see you next time.

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Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara and Ben Dworkin join the show this week.

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