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From NJPBS studios.

This is NJ Spotlight News with Brianna Vannozzi.

Hello and thanks for joining us.

I'm Brianna Vannozzi.

We're bringing you a special NJ Spotlight News edition of Reporters Roundtable with David Cruz giving you a roundup of the week's top political headlines and stories with a panel of journalists.

First though, a few of our top headlines.

A Rockaway Township teacher has resigned after online comments she made about conservative activist Charlie Kirk sparked backlash.

At a Board of Education meeting this week, some residents demanded she be fired.

The teacher, Elizabeth Clark, told the Daily Record she was placed on administrative leave on September 11th as her comments spread and her personal information was made public, saying she resigned out of fear of safety for her family and her students.

Now Clark is one of several educators targeted online for posts seen as critical or insensitive after Kirk's assassination.

The group The New Jersey Project has been flagging those posts to employers and urging others to do the same.

Meanwhile, large crowds have gathered at vigils across the state this week to honor Kirk.

A Hasbrook Heights memorial drew hundreds.

A planned service at a stadium in Sussex County for this weekend was canceled after too many people planned to show up.

Also, landlords in the state are now required to tell renters if their drinking water may contain lead.

It's part of a new law signed today in Trenton by the Murphy administration.

The move expands previous rules that only apply to property owners, leaving many renters, especially those in older homes and urban areas, unaware of potential risks.

Now, exposure to lead and even low levels in the blood can lead to serious health complications, especially in kids.

The new law also requires free lead testing from public water systems upon request and bans landlords from blocking water line replacements.

New Jersey is aiming to replace all lead service lines by 2031.

And rideshare company Lyft has paid New Jersey more than $19 million to settle a years-long dispute over how it classified drivers.

State labor leaders say Lyft misclassified roughly 100,000 workers as independent contractors between 2014 and 2017, dodging taxes that fund unemployment, disability and family leave benefits.

Lyft fought the claim for years but backed off just days before a scheduled hearing and paid in full.

A spokesperson for Lyft says the company still disagrees, arguing drivers prefer the flexibility of contractor status.

But advocates say it denies them basic protections.

Now state lawmakers are weighing a new rule that could reshape how rideshare workers are classified moving forward.

And those are today's top headlines.

Reporter's roundtable with David Cruz starts right now.

[Music] Heading into the home stretch of voters finally engaging on the race for governor.

Hey, everybody, it's reporters roundtable.

I'm David Cruz.

Our new season begins with the governor's race heating up and voters.

It seems now starting to pay a little bit of attention.

The panel for our season opener includes Colleen O'Day of NJ Spotlight News.

Daniel Hahn from Politico NJ and Charles Stile columnist for the record in USA Today networks panel.

Good to see you all.

Hope you had a nice summer.

It's go time now in the governor's race.

Is it Colleen.

Yeah, it sure is.

I mean, we've only got about seven weeks left, maybe even a little bit less until Election Day.

Ads are running.

If you happen to watch TV or cable TV, the ballots are about to go out.

Some counties have already mailed out the vote by mails, and tomorrow, Saturday, is the deadline for doing that.

So if they're not paying attention yet, people should certainly be starting to pay attention.

Any evidence that anyone's paying attention other than us?

Yeah, boy, that's a good question, right?

I mean, I think that we live in this kind of bubble where we are consumed.

I speak for, I think, the two of us, maybe everybody who is on today by politics.

But I think if you did go out and ask the man on the street, he might say or she might say, there's an election or I don't know who's running or.

Yeah.

Get out of my face.

Yeah, you might say that to you.

Dan.

What what are you seeing out there are any voters telling you to get out of their face or are they saying gee, I'd like to know more about this election.

Well, no one has told me to get out of their face yet.

I think I will say that I agree with Colleen's analysis that the four of us on this panel may be a little bit more plugged in than the average New Jersey voter.

Because I think that, you know, the the axiom that all politics is local has been kind of flipped on its face for a while now and all politics is national.

So I think that you have people who are more that are more engaged in the assassination of Charlie Kirk rather than debates around affordable housing in New Jersey, or Jamie Kimmel not hosting a show anymore, versus what to do about property tax relief programs.

So I think that's going to be, that's going to be the the dueling competition for a while, trying to engage voters on state issues when national politics, especially in the Trump era, just dominates so much.

I think so.

I mean, I think so.

I mean, I think so.

I mean, it may my views may be skewed somewhat because I live in Princeton and in Mercer County.

You have a lot of government workers, people tied to politics and they're asking me a lot of questions like, you know, how's the race going?

Who?

What do you know about shit?

A rally?

What is my keys record on this?

And there is I think you know, I think that's starting to cause some people to pay attention.

I think Dan's right, though.

All this bombardment of national news is kind of obscured all that.

And I think that's what kind of obscured all that.

Yeah.

Then you wrote about Chitarelli courting black voters at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark of all places.

How's that going for him.

Well I did them in Elizabeth New Jersey.

But I think I will say that you really you really seen a push from Chitarelli to try to appeal to black and Hispanic voters.

And traditionally these have been core parts of the Democratic constituency.

But as we've seen in recent years, especially in a 20 or 20 24 election.

These are communities that are much more open to voting Republican or voting for Trump.

That doesn't mean that Chitarelli or Republican will win them outright, but simply siphoning away enough of those voters can really make the general election competitive.

And what I saw in Elizabeth this past Sunday was Jack speaking to a church there, a congregation, and he was promising diversity within his cabinet.

He was promising more state contracts for minority-owned businesses if he's governor.

And I think that's a really interesting contrast given the Trump administration, National Republicans really cracking down on so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

I think what we're seeing is Cittarelli kind of trying to take a different approach to that and trying to court these voters.

Yes, selective rhetorical approaches.

Charlie, this is the guy who said his last campaign was too white, but is there any evidence that it's been really less white this go-around?

That's hard to say.

I do think, though, the Cittarelli campaign is trying to exploit a divide.

There are the black voters and the older generation of black voters who might be lured to a Republican message on social issues, socially conservative issues.

Remember the black community, the older black community, opposed gay marriage and issues, cultural issues like that here in New Jersey.

He's appealing to the business community.

The challenge for Mikey Sherrill, who does lead, does hold a substantial lead, somewhere between 55 and 69% if depending on which polls among black voters is she's going to need to bring out more of the progressive base, the socially activist community, the community that finds Trump appalling on so many issues and as a sort of an existential threat to everything that the civil rights and activist community has worked for for generations.

Colleen, I didn't see Mikey Sherrill at the Montclair Jazz Fest last weekend.

Maybe she was there, but she needs a surge from the kind of progressives in the People's Republic over there, no?

Yeah, she sure does.

I can tell you she was near me on Saturday, at least.

She was in Clinton, walking around, talking to business owners, taking some pictures at the beautiful Red Mill there.

So I know she was there, she was up in Warren County.

She does need a push from progressives and I'm not sure that there is a great enthusiasm among progressives for her at the moment because she is not the Ras Baraka or the Steve Fulop who were the progressive Democrats in the primary.

She's kind of more of a moderate Democrat.

And so that's going to be a little bit hard to I think motivate those folks.

Although you know I do think that as you know as Charlie was pointing out you know people do if they are very anti-Trump I think they recognize that they don't want a Republican to win the New Jersey governorship.

What do you think they will come out for her.

What do you think of this.

What do you think of this Quinnipiac poll out that has their up eight points Colleen.

About where you expected.

Yeah.

So it's it's pretty well tracking what we've been seeing there.

There have been three, I think three, maybe four polls since, you know, since the fall season, even though it's not fall has begun.

Just, you know, be aware that there is a four plus or minus almost four point margin of error.

So, you know, her lead could be as small as four points, as large as 12 points.

There are some positives for Cittarelli in that poll and that his voters were much more enthusiastic, at least had high enthusiasm for him than those who had, you know, great enthusiasm for Cheryl.

And he also was leading on the issue of property taxes, which we know is constantly, you know, one of, if not the biggest issue that New Jerseyans complain about.

Yeah.

Charlie, you had a piece in the paper this week about Mikey Sherrill.

What did you find about that campaign?

Well, that was just really she was staging a press conference about transparency.

Right.

And I and but she was giving us a 12 minute, 12 minute, untransparent window to ask questions about it.

And I, to me, it was sort of representative.

It's not just Mikey Sherrill, but it seems like all campaigns now are so tightly managed.

There's very little opportunity for give and take with the press to flesh out some of the answers.

They're all worried about how their answers are going to be perceived and distorted on social media.

And as I pointed out in the column, it took, you know, 12 minutes.

I mean, Chris Christie gave you one answer in 12 minutes and, you know, or cleared his throat in 12 minutes.

It's just a a new form of engagement.

And I think it does a disservice to voters.

And I think I'm talking to Colleen earlier.

She saw or witnessed the same sort of attempt at press management with Chitarelli.

Yeah.

You know, we might as well go there because it's been something we've been talking about in our little reporter sewing circles about how we've been getting the cold shoulder from the governor's campaigns.

We've been trying to get them on chat box.

One side says the other candidate is getting a free ride.

So they won't let their candidate talk to us unless the other side lets their candidate talk to us.

And the other side won't talk to us because their candidate maybe is prone to blunders.

Is this where we are.

I think it's a flimsy.

I think it's a flimsy excuse.

The reality is they don't they want to limit minimize discussion with the I would say mostly in legacy media as much as possible.

So he uses the other side didn't talk.

So I'm not going to talk.

That's just smokescreen.

Yeah.

Colleen, are you getting your calls returned or your requests fulfilled?

Well, I can get calls returned from press spokespeople.

As for speaking with the candidate, again, I got a couple questions with Cheryl because I went to walk with her around Clinton the other day at the event that Jack Ciattarelli had to advance his affordability agenda.

As I was speaking with Charlie, we got four or five questions in and then we're told that that was it.

And I happened to bring up Charlie's column and say, hey, you know, like you, Cheryl gave 12 minutes.

Can't you do better than that?

And so we did get a few more questions in.

But in terms of being, and Charlie and I, and you David, are kind of old souls here.

You used to get a half hour, an hour long sit down, four years ago I had it, an hour long sit down with Jack Cittarelli.

And I've asked for similar things from both campaigns and haven't gotten them.

So I think that they think and maybe they know that they can, you know, get away with this, not talk to the press, you know, do more social media.

I mean, look at Tom Kane.

He cut Tom Kane Jr.

He won reelection last year, doing very, very little, very few public events and almost no press interviews.

This is me and Charlie Pauline yelling at a cloud.

All right, let's move on to the highlight of the week.

Video-wise, Senator Cory Booker and FBI Director Kash Patel going at it before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Here's the big finish from them.

That rant of false information does not bring this country together.

If you want to work on bringing this country, it's my time, not yours.

My God, my God, if you want to talk about fighting this country, it is my time on your social media posts that tear my car to address your falsehoods.

Oh, you want to try all you want in this country, not say it was my time for what you said.

So you're a time over committee.

So you don't tell me my time is over.

You know, people are we tell me what my time is.

You can't lecture me.

My time is over.

You may be the target.

I'm not going anywhere.

I am not afraid of you.

Mr.

Chairman.

I'm not afraid of you.

I'm not afraid of you.

Colleen Booker, The Avenger or more Cory Booker Theatre Company.

I mean, I think it's both.

I, you know, I do think that he in his heart feels those things.

I think that he is passionate about his, you know, his feelings about the country, about divisions in the country.

We've certainly seen him, you know, 25 plus hours speaking on the floor, but certainly it helps his name recognition.

It helps his profile for what I think many of us believe to be a future run for president.

Yeah.

Dan, you think this works for Booker?

Yeah, so I think that this really serves two roles, as Colleen just mentioned.

This really helps build Booker's profile and ahead of an anticipated 2028 presidential run.

And also, I feel like there's this larger debate right now of how do Democrats fight back against the Trump administration?

They're in the minority in Congress, they're locked out of power.

What can you do when you're in the minority to still try to be a representative for your constituents?

I think one of the most important things that someone can do when they're locked out of, you know, hard legislative power is to use the power of the bully pulpit to be able to use their voice to express an idea.

And I think that's really what you're seeing Booker doing here.

He's, you know, going all Jersey on the FBI director.

And that's his way of saying, look, this is how I'm pushing back against the Trump administration, which also feeds into the number one point I mentioned, building Booker's presence ahead of a 2028 presidential run.

Yeah.

Civility tour.

John Bramnick and Joe Kryan, bipartisan senators, going out there and on college campuses and asking people to be more civil to one another.

Charles, now more than ever, I guess, given events this year, we need this.

Yeah.

That's a nice -- sounds a little quaint, but I'm -- Yeah, it is a little quaint, I think, but let me ask you this.

Joe Kryan doesn't sound -- Have you -- I've never really thought about political violence covering campaigns or town halls.

It's been down 30 years.

Is it a little different out there right now, Charlie, the feeling?

I think so.

I am looking over my shoulder a little bit, and I haven't gone to full disguise mode yet, but I do feel like -- I felt this actually a couple years ago during the parental rights debate.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, but this has happened on and off there throughout my career, going back to the old Trenton Times days, but this is different.

And usually people would come up to you and who disagreed with you, but they would do it in a kind of an amiable, I see you, I know you, but I don't agree with you, but I read you occasionally.

You get that kind of thing, but I, you know, I've had people come up to me with their fangs are bared.

So, yeah, fangs baring, excuse me.

So, Dan, I get you, Charles.

Dan, how about you?

How much is security part of your mental checklist?

- Well, I can speak anecdotally.

When I was with Chitarelli at a church in Elizabeth on Sunday, you would have thought that POTUS and the POTUS were there because there were drones flying overhead.

There were police decked out in tactical gear.

They had one of those police trucks that almost kind of looks like a SWAT or FBI truck.

It was definitely a level of security that I was not generally used to, but I think is relevant given the times I were in the administration and concerns of high instance profiles of political violence.

Yeah.

Colleen.

I remember a brief period there during the Christie administration when his town halls had extra security.

I felt then that that was a little bit of theatrics, but now you you can't be too careful.

I mean you certainly can.

It's you know it's obviously Charlie Kirk is in the news, but you had lawmakers shot or killed out in Minnesota.

You know you had Esther Salas, the judge's son, killed here in New Jersey.

It's just you know it's it's it's a terrible situation.

I mean we're as a democracy people are supposed to be able to speak to one another and speak freely to one another.

That's a whole other story.

Right.

But we're supposed to be able to converse and work out our differences through words certainly not through violence and you know deadly gunshots.

Yeah.

What about the debate this weekend.

The first full debate between these two.

Who needs it more.

Dan I think that you really need to see.

Obviously since we're seeing in the polls that Chitarelli is running a little bit behind he's trailing still competitive race but you know right now Mikey Strauss is definitely the favorite.

I think Chitarelli needs to pull off a strong performance or try to capture a moment that could be a that becomes a moment or a theme within the campaign.

I think what I'm watching out for is how closely does Chitarelli still align himself with Trump.

That was obviously a very big theme in the primary still big theme in the general election but we've seen some instances of him suggesting that he's I wouldn't say distancing himself from Trump but he said if if if if a situation comes to it I'm willing to call the president's telling my disagree with him yeah which is a slight shift from when he was saying you know there's not a single thing I could think of of which I disagree with Trump.

Yeah.

Charlie does Mikey Cheryl need to jersey herself up a little bit.

Yes.

And I agree with everything that Dan said.

That was those were excellent points.

But yes I think there's some questions about her ability to you know fight fire with fire in public.

I mean she there's an ad that the Chitarelli campaign has repurposed her appearance on the Marcia Kramer show where she couldn't answer a question on the.

I've had.

Both of them have done that a lot.

Highly edited material.

Let me get right.

Colleen here.

Thirty seconds.

Colleen what does she got to do in this debate.

I think she's got to show that she can think on her feet that she can fire back at Chitarelli.

You know, he's very well.

He's been doing this.

He's ready.

You know, 12 years.

She's got to show that she can answer a question quickly and make a point not just kind of wander.

All right.

On that note, Colleen O'Day, Daniel Hahn, Charlie Stahl.

Good to see you all.

Thanks for coming on with us today.

That is Roundtable this week.

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I'm David Cruz.

For all the crew here at Gateway Center in downtown Newark, we thank you for watching.

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I'm Brianna Vannozzi.

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