The hotly contested New Jersey governor’s race will take center stage on Wednesday as Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill meet in their second and final debate.
How to watch the second N.J. governor’s debate
The debate will be held from 7-8 p.m. at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center in New Brunswick. It will be aired on WABC-TV in the New York City area and northern and eastern parts of New Jersey, and on WPVI-TV in Philadelphia and areas of western and southern New Jersey. Both of those stations will also stream the debate on their respective websites.
After a relatively civil first debate that saw the candidates taking a cautious approach, Kristoffer Shields, the director of the Eagleton Center on the American Governor, told CBS News New York’s Chris Wragge on Tuesday morning he expects more aggressiveness from Ciattarelli and Sherrill on Wednesday.
“It’s a very different point in the race right now,” Shields said. “We are exactly four weeks until Election Day. So, this really is the moment if you’re going to sort of start to get more aggressive, if you’re going to push a little bit harder. I think, like you said, both candidates are seeing this as a close race. So I think tomorrow night you’ll see them get a little bit more aggressive, go after each other.”
Topics likely to be addressed at second N.J. governor’s debate
Ciattarelli, who lost to current Gov. Phil Murphy in the last election — a result that was much closer than previous gubernatorial races in the normally blue Garden State — and Sherrill, a former U.S. Navy pilot who served for nearly a decade, will likely face questions about affordability. Polling has consistently shown that voters are concerned about the economy and housing prices. Utility prices and taxes are bound to come up in that discussion.Â
“The No. 1 issue of the campaign, without a doubt, is affordability, and there’s sort of a big package of issues that surround that. I think you have seen the candidates sort of take the first step in that process. They’ve made the case that they understand that affordability is important. You’ve seen utility bills be an important issue in this race, taxes,” Shields said. “What I think we haven’t seen yet from either candidate is a broader sense of sort of a vision for the future of New Jersey in terms of affordability.”  Â
Another thing likely to come up is ties to party leadership in New Jersey and beyond.Â
“The themes will be similar. You’ll still hear Mikie Sherrill try to tie Jack Ciattarelli to Donald Trump. You’ll hear Jack Ciattarelli try to tie Mikie Sherrill to Phil Murphy, but they’ll go at it a little bit more aggressively, and I think start to make the positive case for themselves and what it is they’ll do as governor of New Jersey,” Shields said.
Their views on education may also come up. Ciattarelli has been a proponent of charter schools. Sherrill has advocated for public schools.
It remains to be seen if the candidates will broach the topic of last week’s CBS News report that found a branch of the National Archives admitted it had released a mostly unredacted version of Sherrill’s military records to a Ciattarelli ally. The documents included her Social Security number and other personal information.
As a result, the potential for lawsuits hangs over the race. Sherrill and Democrats have alleged her unredacted records were released intentionally, which Ciattarelli’s campaign strongly denies, blaming it on “laziness” by the National Archives.Â
Highlights from the first N.J. governor’s debate
Shields said the candidates really didn’t take the gloves off when they met in the first debate, a town hall-style event held at Rider University in Lawrenceville on Sept. 21.
“I’d call [the first debate] sort of controlled aggressive. Like you said, they did go after each other. Most of the lines they used were versions of things we had heard before. I think both candidates in that first debate were kind of feeling things out a little bit,” Shields said. “It’s a complicated political moment that was fairly early in the race. I think they were trying to get a sense of how far they could go with each other, not make a big mistake. I think they did a pretty good job of that, actually, in the first debate, getting through it.”
The candidates sparred over Mr. Trump’s policies the last time they were on the same stage.
“He’ll do whatever Trump tells him to do,” Sherrill said in her opening statement.
Ciattarelli did not criticize Mr. Trump, who endorsed Ciattarelli during the Republican primary, and emphasized his independence.
“My job is to advocate for the 9.3 million citizens of this state, and I’ll always do right by the citizens of this state, no matter who occupies the White House,” Ciattarelli said.
The candidates disagreed about what is to blame for the state’s rising costs. Sherrill blamed higher prices on Mr. Trump and his One Big Beautiful Bill Act and tariffs
“All he does is say that Trump’s right — it’s OK to drive up your tariffs. It’s OK to have the One Big Beautiful Bill, which drives up your health care and utility costs,” she said. “Not on my watch.”
Ciattarelli blamed New Jersey’s high tax rates on Democrats who have run the state government in recent years.
“The Democrats have controlled our state Legislature for 25 years,” he said. “The Democrats have controlled the executive branch, the governorship for eight years, and look where we are today.”
Shields said Wednesday may be the candidates’ last best chance to make inroads with voters, especially those still on the fence.
“What they can do tomorrow night is really sort of lay the foundation, lay the groundwork, the argument, they want to make over these next four weeks. This is the beginning of, maybe not the stretch run yet, but it is the beginning of the end of this race,” Shields added. “So, they are running out of time to make that positive case for what will I do as governor of New Jersey. What is it that I’m going to do that will will be different from my opponent that will help the people who live in the state of New Jersey.” Â
contributed to this report.
More from CBS News