Power & Politics: 1:1 with Connecticut Attorney General William Tong

Sen. Kim, nonprofit leaders discuss impacts of President Trump’s executive orders

Freezing of federal aid impacts NJ organization supporting refugees

‘I worry for myself.’ Hundreds debate adding abortion and LGBTQ rights to CT constitution

Westchester County initiates arbitration to resolve Playland Park management dispute

Connecticut seeks to limit Treasury access for Musk's DOGE 

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News 12 Staff

NJPP28B

Welcome back to New Jersey Power and Politics. I'm Eric Lanz Kronner. It is time for the latest in our series of candidate conversations. I'd like to welcome back to the studio fresh off the chamber train and on the heels, quite frankly, of a pretty feisty first debate. Republican gubernatorial candidate and former assemblyman Jack Ctarelli. It's good to see you, Eric. Great to be back. All right, so let's get things started, uh, talking about the debate this week. Given how much talking there was over one another, what do you think voters were able to take away from this? Uh, that there's a lot of animosity between some of the clients, some of the, uh, candidates, but listen, I, I wish that debate was more substantive in terms of policy discussion, uh, but given the nature of this, uh, this particular primary, that might be the way it's gonna be. I would expect the two elect debates to be different. All of you agreed on your day one priorities if elected, and that would be to end New Jersey sanctuary status. Can you elaborate on that and can you also share your thoughts on some of the ICE raids that we've been seeing today? Well, I said back in 2021 that if I'm governor, we won't have any town be a sanctuary city, nor we be a sanctuary state. I think that only encourages illegal immigration. And I don't think we should be telling any mayor that their local police department can't work in partnership with a federal agency with regard to keeping their community safe. I just think that's wrong. Um, the president campaigned on this one overwhelmingly. uh, this is a major promise that he made, and he's keep trying to keep that promise, and I think every governor has an obligation to work with the president, quite frankly, in making America safe again. Uh, you talk to Governor Murphy this week, uh, related to this very issue. Let's listen. I don't wanna get into too much detail, but there's someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not yet at the point that they are trying to get it to, and we said, you know what, let's have her live at our house above our garage, uh, and, and good luck to the feds coming in to to try to get her. OK, so the governor's spokesperson tried to walk that back, saying that an offer was never extended to the person that the governor mentioned there, nor did that person ever move in. Was that explanation enough for you, enough for New Jersey, especially given the fact that you had said that if the governor didn't come out and address this, that there should be impeachment proceedings? So this is the 2nd time in less than a month that Democratic politicians around the state have called the wrong kind of attention to New Jersey. A couple of weeks ago, Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison. And now we have a governor who based on what he said is in violation of federal law. And so even though he's saying that it never happened, I, I didn't hear him say that. I hear his spokesperson saying that so we wanna hear from the governor on this and if he doesn't come clean on what it was is factual, then I think the legislature should begin impeachment proceedings because he's in violation of the law and no governor, no citizen should be in violation of any law, let alone a sitting governor and then to taunt. To taunt a federal agency when in fact that property is under 24 hour surveillance by state police, you're now taunting a federal agency to have a raid on your property. It's the height of irresponsibility. I want to go back to uh some of what was discussed in the debate. Uh, fellow candidate Senator John Bramick sat right where you were. Uh, he was there last week and he had said that his rivals in this race are more worried about who is. More Trumpy while he's concerned about the people of New Jersey. So, so how do you two differ and how do you respond to that? Well, this is a guy who's campaigning on a platform of Mr. City, civility, but yet he's called the 2 million New Jerseyans, 2 million New Jerseyans who voted for Donald Trump crazies in a cult, and this is why our debates take on the nature that they do. We have some people making some pretty outlandish comments. If not lies, and I'm not going to forego the opportunity to address them during the debate. A self-proclaimed forever Trumper has just entered the race. Former Engle Cliff's mayor Mario Kranz, he wants to make New Jersey great again, according to his page. Does this for you change the dynamic of this race at all? It really doesn't, Eric. I'm gonna go out there and do what it is I do best, pressing the flesh with New Jerseyans every single day of the week. And we've got a Republican primary, so I'm gonna spend a lot of my time over the next couple months primarily in front of Republican primary voters talking about the need to unite our party. We can't win unless we're united in New Jersey. We're the minority party. And so I did that in 2021. It was our best night in 34 years. I could do it again here in 2025. You don't win as a Republican in this state through division. That's what Mr. Spay does or subtraction. That's what Mr. Bramnick does. You do it by someone who believes in the power of addition. All right, so let's talk about some of the animosity that was on stage. You and Bill Spady exchanged quite a few jabs, uh, during the debate. And uh you had called him a grifter and accused him and Town Square Media, which owns 1015, as a parent company of running an illegal shadow campaign. Does it level the playing field now for you that he is no longer on the show? Anyone who is in favor of possibly supporting Bill Spay's candidacy, we're going to let the truth be known about Mr. Spay because he's not what he says he is. Just look at the video tapes of his podcasts over the past 10 years. Look at the op-eds that he's written, look at the IRS filings for his Common Sense Club where he solicited donations to help Republicans get elected but then paid himself a significant amount of money. So we're gonna go out there and tell the truth. This is a primary, and we want Republican primaries to vote for Jack Chittarelli because I'm the only guy that can win in November. Both Bill Spadia and Ed Durr have both taken this anti-establishment stance, and they announced they're not going to take part in the county conventions. Spadia had said that he would only serve one term if elected, saying, quote, We have to separate the politics of re-election from the job of governing. Do you think comments like those could win over some voters? I don't. This is a Republican primary that we are taking part in, and what he just did is insulted a lot of conservative pro-Trump delegates in the Republican Party who were duly elected. They're on the ballot every 2 years and they're duly elected by their fellow Republicans, and not showing up at their conventions is a slap in the face. Cutting taxes seems to be a promise that we've heard from every candidate no matter which side of the aisle you're on, what would your plan be? You know, I answered the question this way in Pennsylvania, the business tax is heading towards 5%. Murphy and Company just raised ours from 9 to 11. 5. How can Pennsylvania's be half of ours? On the personal tax side, our top bracket is 11%. Pennsylvania has a 3% flat tax. How can Pennsylvania do that and not us? New Jersey individuals and businesses face the highest overall tax burden in the country. And part of the affordability crisis in New Jersey is based on the taxes they pay. We need to lower them. Gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, thanks so much for being here in the studio. It's good seeing you again. Eric, good to see you. All right, and keep it right here and more on power and politics coming up right after the break.

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Jersey Congressman Democrat Josh Gottheimer teaming up with New York congressman and Republican Mike Lawler this week to reintroduce the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act. It's a bill that requires the Department of Education to use the most widely recognized definition of anti-Semitism in the world. Forcing federal anti-discrimination laws, it was born out of the explosion of anti-Semitic violence and intimidation on college campuses after Hamas's October 7th massacre. The bill would require that perpetrators are held accountable and colleges too if they fail to protect Jewish students. It's all here in a bill that should be across the finish line and when it was passed last year, it got out of the house 320 to 91. Then the Senate turned their backs on the Jewish community and refused to bring it up for a vote. As Mike said, we are all confident. That this will now come to the floor of the House and pass and go to the Senate and pass and become the law of the land because we will not be silent as as, as Jewish Americans, as all Americans. So we're here today to say enough. We are here today to say that we will not tolerate anti-Semitism or Jew hatred anymore. Most of New Jersey's congressional delegation voted for the act in the last session except Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman and then Congressman Andy Kim, both of whom voted no. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order designed to prevent transgender athletes from participating in girls or women's sports. The order titled Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports gives federal agencies leeway to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with the Trump administration's position, which interprets sex as the gender assigned at birth. A federal judge temporarily halts President Trump's buyout for federal workers. The White House saying the offer would allow workers to quit now and get paid through September, part of an effort to curb government spending. Several state attorneys general, including New Jersey's, warned workers against taking the buyouts, though more than 60,000 already have. The deadline to decide was supposed to be midnight Thursday night. The judge ordered an extension until after a court hearing on Monday. New Jersey's Attorney General Matt Platkin saying, quote, federal workers have protections that do not change when a new president takes office. I urge all New Jerseyans employed by the federal government to closely scrutinize the buyout offer they've received. New Jersey cancels a 4th round of bidding for an offshore wind farm, yet another blow to Governor Murphy's clean energy goals. The board of Public Utilities says it did so after two bidders pulled out last week. Shell backed out of the Atlantic Shores project too, despite investing nearly a billion dollars in it. This follows President Trump's executive order pausing leasing and permitting for offshore wind projects, and that'll do it for this week. I'm Eric Lansker. We thank you for watching New Jersey Power and Politics. We'll see you again next time.

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Ashley Koning and Micah Rasmussen have analysis on the primary debates. Plus, a conversation with Jack Ciattarelli. 

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Power & Politics: Highlights and fireworks at NJ gubernatorial primary debates

Ashley Koning and Micah Rasmussen have analysis on the primary debates. Plus, a conversation with Jack Ciattarelli.

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