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Briana: Tonight, deadline day.

We are three weeks from the election and if you plan to vote, today is the last day to register.

Plus, the always controversial black bear hunt is underway.

Close to 100 have been harvested in New Jersey in the first day alone.

Also, the two candidates looking to replace former senior senator Bob Menendez our studio to talk about the issues impacting you.

>> This has been a challenging and difficult race, a very dramatic one, and one that has changed New Jersey politics forever.

>> We are going to take our campaign and message as a political outsider to all voters of New Jersey, we are in this to win it.

Briana: Can reducing food prices.

Congresswoman Mikey Cheryl is campaigning to win her fourth term and introducing a bill that could help you get more bang for your buck.

>> I hear too many stories from people throughout the state about how grocery prices are impacting affordability in New Jersey.

Briana: NJ Spotlight News begins right now.

>> from NJPBS Studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Briana Vannozzi.

Briana: Thank you for joining us this Tuesday night.

We begin with a few key stories.

First, today is the deadline to register to vote in the upcoming election, now just three weeks away.

You have a few options to get your registration in before it's too late.

You can go online to the New Jersey division of elections website, where you will need to provide your date of birth and ID, or you can register in person at a local election office.

Some counties are running extended hours to give voters more time.

For Lincoln County will have some offices open until as late as 9:00 p.m. tonight.

If you have a registration application filled out, you can still mail it, just make sure it's postmarked by today.

To qualify you have to be a U.S. citizen, not incarcerated, have lived in your county at least 30 days before the election, and be 18 years old when you vote.

Get those applications in because early voting starts next week.

Also tonight, longshoremen in New Jersey and other ports from Maine to Texas are in line for significant pay raises after their union went on strike a couple of weeks ago.

Top paper dockworkers will hit $45 an hour, or about $93,000 a year, before overtime.

Even with that pay boost, rank and file union members will still make only a fraction of what union leadership is paid.

Federal filings from the union, first reported by New Jersey monitor, show the international Longshoremen's Association president rakes in nearly $1 million a year in salary.

That's coupled with lavish benefits like limo service and Yankees tickets.

Beyond that, the union's two dozen vice presidents each make hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

Multiple members of the Daggett family hold highly paid roles within the union.

Critics have warned the family has amassed a dangerous amount of power over a union that's critical to the nation's capital I Jane.

An attorney for the union defended the pay, noting the ILA's net assets soared under Daggett's leadership while his pay barely changed.

They also argue Daggett is committed to protecting the jobs and livelihood of dockworkers.

New Jersey's Baer Hunter is back on, now underway for its third season.

State wildlife officials say 90 bears were harbored at the first day alone.

The most came from Sussex County, no surprise, where the population is largest.

But bear sightings have been reported in all 21 counties.

The controversial event is one way the state tries to control the black bear population with -- which has doubled the last six years from 1500 to 3000.

The first phase began Monday and it's only open to both hunters.

Later this week the hunt will open to archers and muzzleloader rifles.

That ends on Saturday.

The second phase runs from December 9 to 14.

New Jersey's Fish and game Council expects 500 total bears will be harvested.

The hunt was reinstated 2022 by Governor Murphy following a four year ban.

The animal protection league of New Jersey has continuously called on the Murphy administration to put a permanent ban on the practice.

Tonight we are hosting a live conversation with the two leading U.S. Senate candidates, Democrat Andy Kim and Republican Curtis bash.

They are vying for Former Senator Bob Menendez's seat.

A year ago that seat was barely in play with Menendez poised to easily win a fourth term.

That changed when he was indicted on federal bribery and corruption charges, setting off a chain reaction that rocked the state political arena, bringing about lasting consequences and interparty rivals.

Brenda Flanagan reminds us how we got here.

Brenda: The race for Jerzy senate seat between Andy Kim and Curtis bash off started with a stunning indictment.

Bob Menendez and his wife Nadine charged with bribery and corruption.

Call it the first political domino to fall.

>> the senator and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands in bribes in exchange for Senator Menendez using his power and influence.

Brenda: The scandal, with lurid images of gold bars and cash, rocked New Jersey on September 22.

Menendez refused to resign, jarring the second domino one day later.

Andy Kim announced his run for Senate.

It hit like a thunderclap, sending shockwaves through the Democratic Party.

>> Those are the paradigm shifts we saw this year.

Bob Menendez started the set of dominoes with his legal problems , and eventually his indictments and conviction.

The power vacuum that was left by the race to replace him.

Briana: Micah Rasmussen says the power struggle over who should lead the campaign to replace Menendez roiled New Jersey Democrats.

Tensions soared in November when First Lady Tammy Murphy entered the race.

>> I'm running for United States Senate.

Briana: Murphy rolled out a standard campaign, well-financed, backed by party bosses, the usual playbook that would crank up powerful political machines to get out the vote for their candidate at the top of Jerzy's singular party line primary ballot.

>> We will pick Tammy Murphy and we will anoint her and give her the preferential ballot position and that will be that.

It's not the way it worked out because Andy Kim saw that he was going to be buried by this system.

So he challenged it.

He took the parties to court and took the county clerks to court.

Brenda: Against the backdrop of this high strakes courtroom battle, Kim and Murphy slugged it out for each county's preferential party line, tearing Democrats apart as a grassroots revolt gained momentum.

In late March, without a guarantee of that county line, Murphy called it quits.

>> My path to winning the Senate race was crystal clear.

Once I realized what a Bloody, expensive, and divisive path I was going to have to go down, I realized OK, it's got to be now.

Brenda: Brenda: Brenda: Brenda: Brenda: Brenda: Brenda: Brenda: Brenda: Brenda: Who won the primary and the court ballot battle, a watershed moment that has radically reformed and reshaped jerseys entire political landscape.

>> Topples the system with him and in the process I think becomes the most consequential politician of our time in New Jersey.

Brenda: Curtis Bashaw also had a self financed primary campaign.

The political newcomer bested the Republican's Trump endorsed candidate.

The Cape May hotel your, who says he will vote for Donald Trump, is viewed as an unlikely moderate in his party's MAG a Line-Up.

>> I am proud during the month of pride to be the first openly gay person running for the Republican seat in the Senate.

We are going to take our campaign and our message as a political outsider to all voters of New Jersey and we are in this to win it.

Brenda: Cam and bash won their primaries handily, setting up a Senate race no one could have foreseen before September 22.

>> it has been one domino after another that has resulted in monumental changes.

Brenda: And some nasty scars.

Menendez finally resigned and Governor Murphy opted to appoint his loyal former cheese -- Former Chief of Staff as placeholder instead of Kim.

Murphy once came to ask for his support, saying if he called me right now and asked for my endorsement, I would give it to him.

Which shows in New Jersey, some things never change.

Briana: Join me and senior political correspondent David Cruz as we sit down with the two candidates in our studios.

This is not a debate, it's a one hour live conversation where we dig into the issues that affect you.

We are partnering with Rowan University as we look to boost civility during a very divisive with a collection.

For more on what to expect, David Cruz joins me live now.

We are going to be sitting here in a couple of hours.

Brenda looked back at how we got here.

Are these the candidates you would have expected to become not just the front runners for their parties but the eventual nominees?

David: In the short answer is no.

It has been the damnedest political year.

All the stuff you saw happen and that Brenda recounted got us here.

It is surprising to me, not that Andy Kim is the candidate, because once Menendez fell, he was in there immediately.

It was like wow, this guy is pretty gutsy to do that.

On the other site, we assumed Menendez was going to be the nominee.

I mean on the other side, on the Republican side, there was a wide-open field that there could have been, but nobody stepped up.

All of them were figuring, this is always a democratic seat so we will keep our powder dry for the gubernatorial race next year.

Curtis Bashaw says, I have millions, I can raise more, why not?

Briana: He emerged as the more centrist Republican candidate.

He went up against Christine Serrano Glassner, who by all accounts supports Trump, backs Trump, and rides the conservative line pretty hard.

Andy Kim making more of a progressive, I would say, of the party.

The two of them now appear to be fighting more for the middle, for the centrist voters, when that wasn't the case during their primaries.

What do you think it's going to come down to?

Is it going to be the issues, turnout?

Is it going to be the organizations doing get out the vote?

David: When we talk about the top of the ticket, it's operation now.

Who's going to be able to get their people out?

You don't see that many people who are undecided for the top of the ticket.

I think in New Jersey you find it's a little softer on the Senate side.

There is some room of undecided for which they could battle.

Who is going to be able to do that?

It's going to be interesting to see and we will see some of that tonight.

Andy Kim is a progressive but he can't let himself be pulled to the left too much, because then that will sway the moderates or undecided to go to Bashaw.

And he in turn can't be too Trump because that doesn't work for him to try to get some undecided voters.

Briana: I think they have both got a little bit of shark in them.

Bashaw beating out Sorrento Glassner, having to navigate, which is not easy to do in this political climate, the Republican Party to become the nominee.

And Kim pulling off some pretty stealth maneuvers to get his party's nomination and beat Tammy Murphy out of a spot.

David: These are two guys you would not have expected to be able to pull this off, but I think it's only because of the political upheaval of this past year that made this kind of thing possible.

Andy Kim in retrospect, the First Lady proved to be an easy candidate to beat that has she was so enmeshed in everything people were fighting against.

Briana: You feel like it kind of set him up well for that?

David: He knew that that was what the climate was.

I think from the first lady's side, they couldn't pivot away from it.

Even when they tried, it was awkward.

I think for Curtis Bashaw, when nobody -- Bramnick, Kane, any of these others decided they were not going to try to get the senate seat, Bashaw thought, I can do this just as easy as anybody else.

Briana: We talked leading up to this about making sure this was not a debate style format.

What went into your thinking?

What's the benefit for the audience?

David: We tried this on "Chat Box," and the idea was let's get these people talking.

Obviously about issues that are important to people, but also not to ask them questions that are easily answerable in 30 seconds on a prep sheet somewhere.

I think tonight you will see the questions are going to be more conversational and we are going to encourage conversation rather than debate and time limits and opening statements.

Briana: Don't live too much away.

Save it for the show.

Cap the full conversation live tonight starting at 8:00 p.m. on NJPBS and streaming on the NJ Spotlight News general.

Voters say the affordability crisis is a top concern as they prepared to cast a ballot.

Prices at the grocery store are front and center, remaining stubbornly high even as inflation slows and prices of other goods fall.

Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill announced a new plan to tackle the high cost of groceries, staking her claim on a key issue as she also considers running for governor next year.

Joanna Gagis reports.

>> I hear too many stories from people throughout the state about how grocery prices are impacting affordability in New Jersey.

Joanna: Outside a small independently owned grocery store in Hamilton, Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill today explained grocery prices have risen more than 25% between January 2020 and July 2024.

>> Working-class families are not able to afford food.

That impacts children and the elderly.

That means families are constantly making decisions about whether they pay their bills or buy food.

>> the price of groceries is ridiculous.

I would say 30% of my budget is groceries.

Joanna: Today she unveiled a bill called reduce, which stands for restoring establishment deductions and uplifting competition to reduce food prices.

The bill would give tax incentives for small grocery stores to open in neighborhoods, creating competition to drive down prices.

>> The key cause of rising prices is corporate concentration in market power of the grocery industry, which has pushed small businesses out of communities like ours.

The four largest food retail companies accounted for about 25% of national grocery sales in 1990.

The four largest companies today account for 53% of sales.

This dramatic expansion in grocery store consolidation has had significant consequences for the prices families face at the supermarket.

Joanna: This grocery store is an example of what sherill's Bill would hope to duplicate.

This one was not started with county or federal support but it is expanding with the help of the county.

>> This would give tax credits for employees as well as some of the infrastructure investments if you are turning a new building over to develop a grocery store, if you are purchasing some things you need for the grocery store, this would offer tax credits.

>> Mercer County has a high concentration of the big food stores, which means they focus on the most profitable areas, leaving food deserts in other parts of the county.

Joanna: Mercer has several areas where residents earn between $38,000 to $48,000 a year, according to Benson.

Between housing and food, there is little left for anything else.

>> Having more jobs that are high-paying to help the median income up.

Bills like this help because grocery stores, you can see how busy they are, creates good local jobs.

Joanna: How impactful will it really be?

A Stockton University economist and public policy analyst says it's not actually supermarkets driving costs up.

He says we need to look at the macrolevel decisions contributing to inflation.

>> It's not so much the groceries and what they are selling.

They work on 1% to 2% profit margins.

How do we get rid of inflation?

The federal government needs to get closer to balancing their budget, and they are not getting any closer.

The current fiscal year, which ended in September, the deficit was nearly $2 trillion.

Secondly, we need to get energy prices down.

Whatever we decide is the best way to provide energy.

Joanna: The bill was introduced today and Sherrill plans to seek support for it, but one might also wonder if she too is focused in the macrolevel at least in New Jersey, pushing for this program in Mercer County well outside her district.

Any thoughts about a run for governor?

>> Right now with 21 days until the election, I am totally focused on 2024.

That's what's on the table now is we are fighting hard for New Jersey.

Joanna: What's on the table now might not be all she is cooking up behind the scenes.

Joanna Gagis, NJ Spotlight News.

Briana: In our spotlight on business report, more questions and confusion for people working in the hemp industry after a court decision struck down part of a new state law regulating the sale of hemp products that would have required stores to pull the products from their shelves, but instead only requires them to follow an age restriction, banning sales to anyone under 21.

The back and forth has left manufacturers and store owners in limbo as they try to make sense of what to do next.

Ted Goldberg reports.

>> we are looking forward to this date clearing things up.

>> It's confusing and disappointing.

Ted: Thanks to a recent judge's decision, you can still buy intoxicating hemp products statewide.

Last month a new law was signed that would regulate THC derived products like cannabis, which would have forced most stores to pull most hemp products off their shelves.

Companies sued and won a partial victory.

>> There could be standards.

There should be a way to make sure that a sample on the website is represented of the product people are purchasing.

These are important questions.

The answer cannot simply be, we don't know and therefore we are going to ban everything that helps people, that people want.

>> If we knew factually that the ingredients in an aspirin was different than in the packaging, week would take it off the shelves immediately, a Total Recall.

The same thing is going on but they are keeping products on the shelves.

Ted: Scott leads the cannabis business Association.

He says his group has frequently found cannabis products with far more THC than what is found on the label.

>> It has to go through this process.

I know there are lawmakers very disappointed that there is a hold on this.

There is disappointment right now.

The lawsuit has to go through its proper process.

We are advocating that the state does have the authority to take those products off the shelves and they should do so.

>> They should be able to be sold here and imported, but through a proper regulatory process.

Whenever New Jersey deems as a process with a testing threshold to ensure products sold in the market are adequately tested.

Ted: Adam Terry owns a Massachusetts-based company -- selling THC drinks and one of the parties suing New Jersey.

Part of their lawsuit argues the new law is unconstitutional because it would put undue burden on businesses in other states.

>> We don't tariff what's coming in from out of state.

You can't have a tariff on things coming from Pennsylvania the same way you can from China.

You can't discriminate against stays economically like that, part of the Constitution.

>> The addition -- the issue of out-of-state intoxicating hemp products was never going to be enforceable because of interstate commerce and the court ruled that was the case.

When New Jersey developed its regulated market, it could not prevent the importation of out-of-state hemp derived products.

Ted: The big issue is treating hemp, legal federally, like cannabis, which is not.

The only part of the New Jersey law still standing is a requirement you must be 21 to buy these products, leading to confusion among smoke shop owners I spoke to but who didn't want to appear on camera.

>> We want to see a rule that creates the system and regulates it while creating the resources law enforcement needs to uphold this law.

There is thousands of liquor stores in New Jersey and probably 1000 or more hemp shops.

For them to police every retailer in the state was a monstrous task.

Ted: Cannabis attorney Bill Caruso says the federal government is also to blame for this mess, since cannabis is still listed as a schedule one drug.

>> Congress has failed to act and clarify.

There is some efforts going on, but don't hold your breath.

We will all be old people before Congress weighs in on this.

It has been left to the state to regulate and deal with this.

Ted: And figure out a compromise between keeping people safe and letting businesses succeed statewide, as the legislature will likely go back to the drawing board to rewrite this law.

Briana: That's going to do it for us tonight.

Before you go, a reminder to download the NJ's light news podcast so you can listen to it at any time.

For the entire team at NJ Spotlight News, thanks for being with us.

Have a great night.

We will see you back here tomorrow.

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