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Democrat Analilia Mejia wins election to US House in NJ's 11th Congressional District

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News 12 Staff

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In case you missed it, there was a winner in that special election in New Jersey for a seat in Congress this week. Anna Lily Mejia, a Bernie Sanders, progressive Democrat endorsed by AOC. Mejia beating Republican Joe Hathaway in a spot that used to belong to Governor Sherrill in the 11th congressional district. This means that Mejia now has the job to just finish out this current term. Joining me now to go over the results of the race, the takeaways is Mike Erasmussen, uh, director of the Redbush Institute in New Jersey Politics over at Rider University. It's great to see you as always. You too, Eric. OK, so let's, uh, let's dive right in and talk, talk about your takeaways here, uh, on turnout, who voted, who didn't vote. So these special elections that are not November, they are held when a seat becomes vacant. They are really electoral poison for Republicans and they're electoral magic for Democrats, and the reason for that is because you get a super concentrated Democratic vote. Republicans are not that motivated to come out in Trump midterm, the Trump midterm year. They're just, you know, sitting at home, right? You know, they're not. Motivated to come out, but Democrats are, they're very fired up, and so you get a lower turnout in the election, about 130,000 voters, where you'd normally get at least 180, but they're super concentrated as Democrats, and that means 20 point result. So were you surprised by how large the margin was here? I really wasn't, especially as we were following the early voting coming in. I'm always looking for the Republican to start making it up, not in the male vote. We know that that's pretty Democratic, but you were looking to see whether or not Hathaway was making up any ground in the in-person early vote that Republicans don't mind. He wasn't. In the election day vote, he wasn't, so we knew that it was going to be big. There just wasn't a lot of opportunity for him to. He did a good job of persuading some of the unaffiliated voters. There just weren't enough of them coming out. Alright, let's talk about some of their statements upon the results of the election. Hathaway released a statement congratulating Analiia Mejia, but he also warned, and we hear this a lot in the results of every election. We will also be watching closely and holding the congresswoman-elect Mejia accountable for the votes she casts and the policies she supports. Now, different tone if you heard some of the congresswoman-elect's comments, even in victory, there's some sour grapes there. Anna Louie Mejia with some less than gracious remarks. Let's listen. My opponent, uh, he, I'm going to, uh, I guess be political and say he ran the best race that he could. However, he spent the majority of his campaign calling me names like a little boy and saying my ideas were too radical, but you know what, that was a mind trick. All right, so, uh, trying, trying to drive home the point there that, you know what, maybe not so radical after all, but is that the case? Do you think that the voters who turned out by and large were voting for Ms. Mejia on her record or just voting anti-Trump? Yeah, so in this very partisan environment, partisans were voting partisan. Democrats were voting Democrat, Republicans were voting Republican. There just wasn't a lot of room to win people over. So, you know, the things that she's saying, those are red meat, that's exactly what Democrats wanted to hear. The other thing that I'm struck by with Hathaway's comment is we have to remember, very unusual circumstance. Each of them has 4 elections. This year to get to Congress, right, we've gone through the 2nd 1 just now, the special election, general election, but now we're going to have another primary in June to see who the nominees are voters in that district have election fatigue, and then in November we elect all over again. So Mejia mentioned the name calling in that sound bite that you just heard. Hathaway did call her out for a tweet that she had put out there. Right after October 7th that he says could only be interpreted as blaming Israel for Hamas raping and murdering and slaughtering innocents, and he pointed to her toeing the socialist democratic line and false genocide narrative. He said that endangered Jews in the district that seemed to resonate at least at least among the Jewish. Population in the district. Yeah, it did. So there are communities in Essex County that are very heavily Jewish, Livingston, Milburn, and those are areas that were much, much closer than any of the other Democratic towns in the district. They were sort of 50/50 split. So if you think about performing the way that the other towns were doing, she would have gotten about 1000 more votes than she wound up getting. There was a protest vote. What really obscures it here is that she was replacing those votes with other Democrats that were coming out in other parts of the district, so it was there, it was there to see there was a protest vote from Jewish voters, but it just didn't necessarily dent her. Is this a harbinger of what we will now see in the rest of the midterms and in in some of the other congressional races. Here in New Jersey, especially, you have a Bonnie Watson Coleman's district, for instance, the 12th. Yeah, and I think we're going to see that there. I think we're going to see a closer race in the 7th district with Tom Kaine. Look, when when Mejia can win by 25,000 votes, that's a resounding number, especially given her progressive politics. She's not somebody who really. She may have tried to moderate, she tried to play up fiscal issues, right, rather than downplaying social issues. So there was a lot of that going on in the race, but the point is that, um, you know, if, if, if Rebecca Bennett becomes Tom Kaine's opponent in the 7th district, a pretty moderate candidate, you're going to have a real race on your hands there, given this Trump environment, this Trump midterm environment. I think there are many races we're not even expecting, not even on the radar screen, that could be competitive this year, and Republicans by and large in the House anyway, don't have a seat to lose at this point. No, they don't. Yeah, it's a razor thin margin, and that's why every race is being contested as hotly as it is across the country. Very quickly, talk about mayoral races because we have got a couple of big ones coming up in New Jersey. As well, yeah, it's hard to, you know, we, there's always another election in New Jersey. So, so Ras Baraka is running for reelection in Newark and should not really have a problem there, you know, we'll see, right? Politics can always be funny, but you know, May is a big election time in New Jersey, even though we think about November, we think about special elections in June and so we've got municipal races coming up. Yeah, exactly, and Patterson, thank you. Yeah, you're right, and and that's a race that has one of the council people who's running for mayor has had some election problems there and some election charges that were just dropped, so he's got that off of his shoulders. He's hoping that he can be a real challenger to say. Mike Rasmussen, it's always a pleasure to have you in the studio. Thanks so much. Thank you. And keep it right here on Power and Politics. Much more coming up for you right after the break.

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Welcome back to Power and Politics. $150 for an energy transit train to MetLife Stadium. How about $80 for a bus? Those are the prices to get to FIFA World Cup game days. News 12 New Jersey's Tom Krasnowski breaks down what it means for ticket holders and New Jersey commuters. It's going to cost more than we first reported to take transit to the FIFA World Cup games in New Jersey. You pretty much have to. Increased international security means no on-site parking. Everyone wants to know how does New Jersey Transit justify an 11-fold increase in event ticket prices in order to move 40,000 people. And to pay for the cost of $6 million we have to charge $150. Governor Sherrill added that FIFA is expecting to make $11 billion during the World Cup and contributed nothing to transportation costs. The $150 train tickets will go on sale May 13th exclusively on the NJ Transit app. Ticket holders will get a wristband. If they lose it, they cannot get on board. The train. These are first come, first tickets. Once 40,000 tickets are done, that is the end of it. Officials confirmed that New York Penn Station will close westbound only from New York to New Jersey for four hours before all FIFA matches. New Jersey-bound commuters can take a PATH train or New Jersey Transit bus, cross-honored on the two most impacted game days, those are June 22nd and June 30th. Workers are strongly urged to stay home. There are also FIFA shuttle buses. These cost $80 and New Jersey's Park and Ride is at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine in Clifton. These tickets are available now on the host committee website. What if the Amtrak wires fail during intense summer heat? More than 400 buses stationed around New York and New Jersey are the contingency plan. Officials expect heavy traffic along the turnpike, Route 3 and 495. Rideshares will drop off guests at the Meadowlands Racetrack. It's a mile walk from there to the stadium. There are 5000 parking spots offered at American Dream for $225. Regular New Jersey Transit commuters who aren't going to the World Cup will receive discounts on the two most impacted days. Those details are on our website. The first game is set for June 13th. Are you ready? In Newark, Tom Krasnowski, News 12, New Jersey. Meanwhile, NJ Transit is planning to modernize trains and buses over the next several years. They gave us a look at their brand new trains, buses, and upgraded service vehicles, all part of a $3 billion investment over the next 5 years. Hundreds of new multi-level rail cars. Will replace current equipment and speed up commutes. 1000 new buses equipped with Wi Fi and USB ports, along with upgrades to para transit and emergency response vehicles too. Officials say riders could start seeing some of these improvements by the end of this year. And that'll do it for this week. I'm Eric Landskronner. As always, we thank you for watching New Jersey Power and Politics. We'll see you again next time.

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U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Director of the Rebovich Institute of Politics at Rider University Micah Rasmussen join the show this week.

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