2017: NJ Gubernatorial/legislative elections

[Gass3268]

Does any resident New Jersey residents know the views of Joe Piscopo?

[Gass3268]

Murphy is too connected to Wall Street to get my endorsement in the primary, but I'd be happy to see him replace Christie next year if and when it comes to it.

[Gass3268]

The Democratic primary race seems to be heating up. Murphy's apparently paid county chairs up to hundreds of thousands of dollars for endorsements.

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/03/how_much_phil_murphy_donated_to_nj_democrats_in_recent_years.html

All this article says is that he donated a lot of money to the state party and country parties. Nothing about paying for endorsements.

[Gass3268]

What time do the polls close?

[Gass3268]

It is the off-year election that does it - I've never seen the reasoning behind it.

fwiw, off-off-year turnout in Virginia's gubernatorial elections tends to rival midterm turnout. For instance, 2013 had even higher turnout than VA's 2014 elections. The election laws regarding voter access are actual pretty similar for NJ and VA, so for NJ, it is either a local culture of low turnout, relatively non-competitive elections, or both.

I'd also note that if/once Democrats unify the NJ state government next year, I'd fully expect a large election reform package to fly through the legislature. They were already pushing hard under Christie with some substantial changes, but obviously that didn't take. After those get implemented, I could easily see turnout getting a boost in future NJ elections.

They should move their elections to even years with the Governor race coinciding with Presidential years.

[Gass3268]

Pretty sure that Murphy's got this.

[Gass3268]

I do not yet concur with the Atlantic's call. Well under even 5% in still.

Governor
Republican Primary

CANDIDATE   VOTE   PCT.
Kim Guadagno
4,301   49.4%
Jack Ciattarelli
2,550   29.3
Joseph Rullo
683   7.8
Steven Rogers
619   7.1
Hirsh Singh
555   6.4
1% reporting (86 of 6,386 precincts)

Democratic Primary

CANDIDATE   VOTE   PCT.
Philip Murphy
6,223   50.6%
John Wisniewski
2,431   19.8
Jim Johnson
1,929   15.7
Raymond Lesniak
679   5.5
 Others   1,034   8.4
1% reporting (86 of 6,386 precincts)

Totally can for Murphy

[Gass3268]

Next week in Virginia should be more interesting.

[Gass3268]

So what were the results in the state legislature?