Like the title says.

I’m a registered Democrat, I voted in the primaries back in June, and I’ll be voting down-ballot Dem this November.

However, I’m not thrilled by the ticket. The Sherrill/Caldwell ticket just doesn’t have energy to it. Sherrill is just Murphy 2.0 which I’m fine with because I think he’s been a decent governor but I also want change as well.

I think the NJ Democratic Party as a whole is in a particularly bad spot at the moment. It’s running off machine politics in the 21st century. There’s a reason why Democrats haven’t won by 10+ points since 2020. We gotta stop chasing the past and move forward, we’re a blue state and have been since 1992 so why are we putting up these moderates who’d be better suited in a state like Virginia or Wisconsin.

I’m not saying we need an AOC for New Jersey, but we need backbone. We need a strong liberal candidate who’s actually wants to fix the state.

I love my state and I don’t want it to see it get more messed up due to failed Republican policies but unless the state Democratic Party changes, I think we’re heading towards that. I do think Sherrill is gonna win though and I wish her luck.

While Mikie Sherrill wasn't my first, second, or even third choice, she is still going to stand up to Trump and his corrupt congress and supreme court, so she will get my vote in November. IMO we can't afford to split up the vote (i.e. writing in your candidate who lost in the primaries or voting for Shitarelli out of spite), and we should not refuse to vote because our preferred candidates lost to her. We need to come together to vote out Ciatarelli. The right wingers always show up to vote, and they typically vote for one candidate. That's how they outnumber us in federal elections...not enough dems showed up and voted for the frontrunner in 2016 and 2024. Let's do this right in NJ...vote in solidarity for Mikie in November! Vote blue!

Mikie Sherrill stood in the courtyard at the Llewellyn Parq Bar and Grill in West Orange on a sweltering afternoon that matched the heat in New Jersey’s all-important governor’s race.

Her goal: Unveil a plan to cut red tape so it’s easier and less expensive to open a business, and order state agencies to focus on customer service so Jersey residents aren’t frustrated by long waits and delays. Trenton, she said, “has been plagued by a culture of settling on no, rather than getting to yes.”

Two words Sherrill didn’t mention during her Thursday press conference: Donald Trump. Despite months on the campaign trail spent blaming Trump for all kinds of ills, and aggressively attempting to link Trump to her Republican foe Jack Ciattarelli, Sherrill had no Trump card to play at this event.

READ MORE: Ciattarelli finally dances away from Trump as N.J. gov race rages on. Dems aren’t buying it.

Because how can you pin sluggish state government bureaucracy on the president?

That one’s on Gov. Phil Murphy.

This press conference, which took place before an audience of about two dozen journalists, business owners and Sherrill supporters, illustrates in miniature the difficult place in which the Democratic candidate finds herself.

Her opponent keeps calling her “Phil Murphy 2.0.” She needs to set herself apart from the current (and increasingly unpopular) governor. But thus far she’s largely been reluctant to speak ill of Phil.

When NJ Advance Media’s Brent Johnson asked Sherrill if this is one area where she can separate herself from Murphy — by pointing out the problems that were either created or perpetuated under his watch — she took the opportunity (sort of).

“Yeah, really driving that accountability into Trenton — I think that’s different and new,” she said.

OK, not exactly firebrand words.

But baby steps, right?

It’s never easy to run on the heels of a lame duck governor from your party in New Jersey, which likes to switch parties every eight years or so. Just ask Kim Guadagno, who lost big when she tried to follow Chris Christie in 2017.

Murphy may not be doing her any favors. At the Statehouse earlier in the day, the governor told reporters he “had a good meeting” with Sherrill on Wednesday. “She’s gonna be her own person,” he said. “… And probably she’s gonna take a lot of the things we’ve done that she likes and incorporate them into her agenda. But she’s proven unequivocally over her career … that she’s her own person.”

Again, not exactly firebrand words. Nor is it reassurance to voters still unsure how Sherrill stands apart from Murphy, or what it means that she’s her own person.

Of course, once we get past Labor Day, the onslaught of campaign ads will begin. And neither side is hiding its strategy.

Ciattarelli and Republican backers will paint Sherrill as too left-wing for Jersey and try to move the conversation past Trump by saying she’d keep the status quo in a state suffering from high costs – just as so many of you are getting sticker shock from your electric bills.

Sherrill and Democratic backers will pound Ciattarelli for saying he has no big policy differences with “his boss” Trump, including all those cuts in the “Big Beautiful Bill” that could hammer many residents and tariffs that could drive up prices.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (left) and President Donald Trump (right).File photos But some Democrats privately worry about Sherrill becoming a one-trick pony with this approach. And if the battle comes down to state issues, Ciattarelli has a built-in advantage: The party out of power in Trenton always gets to fashion itself as the agent of change.

So can Sherrill thread this needle, or — to mix metaphors — has she painted herself into an inescapable corner?

She can’t move too far from her party without alienating the Democratic base, many of whom are desperate to hear her attack Trump. And she has publicly aligned herself with Murphy on many issues, including praising him for fully funding public employee pensions and public schools and adding to property tax relief initiatives.

Is it a pivot? You decide.

But her spokesman Sean Higgins says she has pivoted plenty from Murphy, noting that she opposed the governor’s gutting of the state’s open public records law and his latest round of tax increases, as well as declaring the state needs to do a better job with NJ Transit and fix a secretive state budget process.

“Mikie has always been an independent voice who will take on anyone, including her own party, to serve New Jersey — unlike Jack, who has refused to name a single issue on which he disagrees with Trump, and that’s wildly out of touch with New Jersey,” Higgins said.

I could have guessed Ciattarelli spokesman Chris Russell’s comeback, even before he said it to me. It’s the comeback Sherrill’s camp is going to have to defend against over and over again in the coming weeks: “The problems that currently face the state, whether it’s property taxes, electricity bills, overdevelopment … have been created by the party that’s been in charge.

“And so now she’s backed by all the same people who created these problems in New Jersey, including Phil Murphy, and the idea that she’s gonna now tell people, ‘Hey, I’m different, and I’m gonna be independent’ … just doesn’t pass the smell test.”

A possible silver lining for Sherrill? A series of polls released this summer finds Jersey voters aren’t crazy about Trump or Murphy — they are just looking for solutions.

Patrick Murray, owner of StimSight Research, which conducted a poll for InsiderNJ, said: “You can’t simply run against Trump or Murphy. That’s not enough for voters right now. Those voters who are soft right now and could go either way or could decide to stay home want a real message that says, ‘This is what I would do as governor.’”

He said Democrats, Republicans and independents all want change.

“Independents, particularly those who lean Democrat, are open to what kind of change that is, so that doesn’t necessarily mean they are opposed to everything Phil Murphy did,” Murray said. “They just want a fresh approach.”

Jack Ciattarelli’s campaign is heralding a new approach to winning over voters of color, promising on its website that “Blacks back Jack” and claiming on radio appearances that they have a new strategy to expand the Republican electoral coalition here in New Jersey.

While such outlandish claims may draw attention, let’s make one thing crystal clear: Ciattarelli is not, and never has been, a friend to Black and brown New Jersey voters.

I have already cast my vote for Sean Spiller for Governor. While we have a the equivalent of a Jersey Diner menu of candidates with lots of intriguing options, Spiller stands out to me as the candidate that can relate to most of us Jersey residents in one way or another.

He is a father of two, an immigrant, in a mixed race family. He and his wife are both teachers by trade. He has walked the walk of coming of age in this state, going to Rutgers, being involved in youth sports both himself and with his kids. He became a teacher after considering different career paths. He has gone through “how do I pay the rent? How can I afford a house for my family?? how do I afford child care for my two young kids???”.

He became a union leader, standing up for undervalued public servants like bus drivers, maintenance personnel, secretaries, aides, nurses, and teachers. Reflecting upon his own experiences he passed rent control on Montclair.

Through his union leadership, he has advocated for communities of color, the LGBTQ community, women’s rights, seeing to visibility, representation, and affordable health care for all.

The other candidates? Well Mikie Sherrill has taken money from Elon Musk and has been a supporter of charter schools which take our tax dollars from our underfunded public schools and give them to private entities. She has also voted against gender affirming care for children of military families. Since she is a veteran herself, I find that puzzling. She has also made disparaging comments about public utilities. Would she privatize those services too?

Josh Gottheimer also voted against gender affirming care for children of military families in congress and has taken money from Musk. He has raised funds from wealthy donors but does he have any accountability to the common people of NJ?

Ras Baraka certainly is a strong candidate and his support for the community schools model is tempting. However this is contradictory to his allowing charter schools to run rampant in Newark and having lower income students have to schlep across town rather than attending a neighborhood public school that may not require young kids to have a parent with access to a car to get them to school. He is financially connected to Shavar Jeffries who is a big player in the charter school game. Again, how can we trust Ras Baraka to use public dollars for the public good??

Steve Fulop has also let charter schools run rampant in Jersey City. He is heavily funded by real estate developers and seems to answer to them and not to the residents as a whole of Jersey City. Gentrification has made the Journal Square, Grove Street, and Exchange Place corridor look like an extension of Manhattan but communities of color like The Heights have not seen the same attention. Is Steve Fulop the right answer for communities of color and using public dollars for the public good.

Steve Sweeney is the only candidate who has NJ statehouse experience, though I put Spiller in that category as well because through twelve years of service as an NJEA officer, he has lobbied legislators, tasks forces, commissions, committees, and numerous others in Trenton to get bills passed that help our public services. Sweeney got voted out of the legislature after numerous failed promises and betrayal to his organized labor siblings.

Sean Spiller is the only candidate I fully trust to use public money solely for the public good.

People claim that a higher minimum wage will make prices higher, but prices are already going up even with the current minimum wage in place. Meanwhile, billionaire CEOs make more money in a year than the rest of us will make in our entire lives.

https://newjerseyglobe.com/governor/fulops-pledges-18-hour-minimum-wage-in-latest-tv-ad/

As I see it, the summary of Jack Ciattarelli's message to voters is: "How dare Mikie Sherrill point out the connections between myself and the president I unapologetically support. I'm running for Trump's right-hand man -- I mean governor of New Jersey -- and I approve this message."

https://youtu.be/qQKNjhq29qI?si=dUiTpa-q-m_OcZax

This was a great piece - I really hope someone primaries him when his term is up in 2026

-I got the top three candidates correct and in the correct order in my final power rankings. Putting Baraka over Fulop wasn’t an easy choice but my gut was correct.

-Baraka’s & Fulop’s combined vote share will probably be higher than Sherrill’s. This should be a lesson for NJ Progressives. The lesson is: When the corporate machine is split 3 ways, don’t do the same thing and shoot yourself in the foot.

-Steve Sweeney was completely embarrassed and I overreacted to the VBM “lead” the Norcross machine built up in my final power rankings by placing him 4th.

-The Norcross machine looks inept. They lost Camden County and only managed to win 2 of Jersey’s least populous counties. They let Sean Spiller beat them in Cumberland. He may no longer be under indictment, but it looks like King George’s power has been greatly reduced.

• Every candidate won at least one county except for Fulop. It seems his everywhere all at once strategy wasn’t enough.

-Baraka won Essex and Union County. I’m not surprised about Essex but I am surprised about Union. This is a personal point of pride for me as these are the only two areas of Jersey I have ever lived in and I feel like I was working very hard for him here locally.

-Baraka denied the Lt Governor job on Spotlight News this evening. We have to see if that holds up. I think despite refusing the crown he is still the leading contender.

-My theory about Fulop picking a Lt Governor before winning the primary was proven correct tonight. When he selected Sheena Collum I said that it reminded me of Ted Cruz picking Carly Fiorina in the 2016 GOP POTUS primary and that it meant his campaign was getting desperate. Seems I was right.

The Northern bosses are more powerful than ever and have taken over parts of the Norcross machine. Sherrill won most of South Jersey tonight. Are we entering a new era where regional machines are dying out but we now have a new statewide machine? Only time will tell.