(upbeat music) - From NJ PBS studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Brianna Vannozzi.

- Hello, and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gaggis in for Brianna Vannozzi.

Tonight a few stories we'll get into later in the broadcast.

From the latest polls to the top issues, we get you caught up on the latest in the gubernatorial race, including concerns over free speech in the wake of the Charlie Kirk assassination.

Then, what are lawmakers in D.C.

doing to prevent a possible government shutdown?

We hear from U.S.

Senator Andy Kim, and later, celebrating one of our own, rocker Jon Bon Jovi, honored for his impact on the arts.

But first, a few of today's top headlines.

College campuses have long been a prime location for political discourse.

And lately, they've become the hot zone for political protest, even political violence, with the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk during a speaking event on a college campus.

Well, after that event, two state senators here in New Jersey, Republican John Bramnick and Democrat Joe Kryan, decided to launch a college civility tour.

The goal, to foster political debates among students while also highlighting civility and bringing down the temperature on some of the political rhetoric we've all been witness to.

The bipartisan duo kicked off the civility tour today, making their first stop at the Rutgers Democracy Lab at the Eagleton Institute of Politics.

The senators debated each other on a series of topics, demonstrating to the students that it's possible, even okay, to disagree and still be friends.

Also, customers struggling to pay their utility bills will soon be protected from having them cut off during the hottest part of the summer.

A new law signed this week by acting governor Tahisha Way prevents a customer from having their electricity, water and sewer services shut off between June 15th and August 31st if that customer can't pay their bill because of issues like unemployment, illness or medical expenses.

A similar protection is in place in the winter months called the Winter Termination Program.

Any customer already eligible for that program will now be included in this new summer program as well.

The law comes The law comes at a time when customers are seeing their monthly bills rise by an average of 20% since June.

To help defray those costs, the State Board of Public Utilities deferred $60 from electricity bills this summer that customers can pay off over the next six months.

And ratepayers will also get a $50 credit on their electricity bills for both September and October.

And a former Middlesex County probation chief is suing the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office.

In the lawsuit, probation officer Leroy Peterson accused first assistant prosecutor Chris Kuberite of creating a "race-based hostile environment."

Now, Peterson alleges that Kuberite sought harsher penalties for Black teens on probation than for white teens and that his "unfair treatment of Black youth was hurtful and deeply troubling to him as a Black man."

Peterson also accuses Kuberite of using "racist slaver" terminology in court, allegedly telling Peterson to call him "Master" or "Mister."

Peterson's suit also alleges that the prosecutor's office and Superior Court took no action when he filed complaints against Kuberite.

He is seeking damages and demanding Kuberite be fired.

A spokesperson for the prosecutor's office declined to comment.

Kuberite has until October 15th to respond.

Coming up with about six weeks to go in the gubernatorial race, we'll tell you where the candidates stand on the issue of free speech in this current political climate.

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The latest poll in the governor's race shows the two candidates, Republican Jack Cittarelli and Democrat Mikey Sherrill, in a virtual dead heat with just about six weeks to go until Election Day.

The poll, conducted by Emerson College Polling, PIX11, and The Hill, has each of the candidates tied at 43%, with 11% of those polled saying they're undecided voters.

The poll of 900 people was taken immediately following the first debate, and it erases the single-digit lead that Sherrill's had in previous polls.

The top issue in the race has been taxes and affordability, but the issue of free speech has taken center stage after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Senior political correspondent David Cruz is here now with a deeper look into the issue.

David, good to have you here.

Good to see you, Joanna.

Charlie Kirk, like many of the most visible and controversial personalities of our day, is largely a creation of the media.

His life and then his death boiled down to click bait for doom scrawlers.

But in death, Charlie Kirk has become more of a flash point than he ever was in life.

This week around the state and around the country, more vigils as conservatives rally around the fact that Democrats are having a hard time balancing outrage over Kirk's assassination with disgust at what Kirk stood for.

James G. from Stono Public Affairs, he's a Democratic strategist, captured, I thought, what a lot of progressives and people of color are feeling about reaction to the Charlie Kirk story.

I think that the sad story that I learned this week is that while people are really afraid to offend people, other people in the country, nobody's afraid of offending black people.

So a person that literally spent a great deal of his time insulting and demeaning black people and black culture, separating the accomplishments of black Americans from the history of America.

People are actually shocked and offended that black people are not properly celebrating or, or, or I shouldn't say celebrate, but aren't acknowledging his death.

People are having difficulty with responsible black people who are saying how he died was awful and shouldn't happen, but he was no friend.

Incredibly, it's really not that simple when you're running for office in New Jersey, even in 2025.

Mikey Sherrill, she's the Democrat in this race, is, as you know, a member of Congress.

She had the opportunity last week to vote on a resolution condemning the Kirk killing and rejecting political violence.

Progressive members of the New Jersey delegation voted against that resolution.

Sheryl voted yes, but later she posted this.

Charlie Kirk was advocating for a Christian, nationalist government and to roll back the rights of women and black people.

This flies in the face of every value I hold dear and that I fight for.

But the Constitution protects free speech even for those I vehemently oppose.

And that's where this story gets injected into the governor's race.

Republicans called Cheryl out for trying to have it both ways.

Here's from the debate a few days ago.

Republican Jack Chiarelli after saying his campaign is inclusive and unifying.

I think we all have a responsibility to engage in rhetoric that doesn't divide us and doesn't promote hate.

My opponent on Friday went down to Washington voted yes on a resolution to celebrate Charlie Kirk's life, but then within minutes sent out a statement that basically condemned him.

I think that was wrong.

You can have 30 seconds to respond.

That's a neat trick to say you don't want to divide people.

And then in your answer, bring up something that's very divisive.

First, they said she's trying to be governor, right?

Which means she's trying to have the widest possible net to catch votes.

So, you know, if you're Bonnie Watson Coleman or others in a particular district, you have a lot more leeway because you're really trying to get votes from your district and your district alone.

You're not worried about someone in Hunterdon County, let's say.

We saw this on the national level with Harris, and we see this all the time with politicians of late, is that when you don't present yourself authentically in terms of what you really believe, and maybe Mikey Sherrill is, this is really where she is, maybe she's some down the road middle person on this particular issue.

But when you come across as inauthentic or partial, like you're not really revealing your full self, then I think you run into problems with voters on the left and the right.

- She is trying to thread the needle, and I guess we'll see whether or not that works.

I think you're right about Republicans in that his death, almost, if they have their way, becomes a rallying cry, becomes a get-out-the-vote effort.

I don't mean to sound crass about it, but get out there and win just one more for the Gipper.

You know, win this for Charlie is what it becomes.

And we'll see whether or not that's effective.

But that is what some Republicans are trying to make this into a rallying cry to get out there and vote for Charlie's sake.

We reached out to several prominent Republicans in the state who were either unavailable or said no thanks to our interview request.

But in GOP circles, Kirk is very much a topic of conversation and motivation.

There have been several vigils around the nation honoring him, some here in New Jersey as well, attended by elected officials and candidates.

Here's a voter recruitment video followed by some of Charlie Kirk's own words for context.

Charlie Kirk will not die in vain.

You can get involved, whether it's running for something local, whether it's being at events, whether it's going out and helping us register voters, guess what we do at Early Vote Action?

Charlie!

Charlie!

Charlie!

Charlie!

Charlie!

Charlie!

Of course we've pandered to blacks.

They're in every TV commercial.

They get more privileges to come into society.

They come into every college on preferential with lower test scores.

You can't ever say anything negative.

You could lose your job.

You have your entire life obliterated if you say something racist.

And yet we have to hear about how racist we are.

How about you take responsibility for your own actions instead of blaming the white man.

With just over a month to go, it's tough to say how much Charlie Kirk will still be a part of the state conversation come November.

Most everyone we talked to for this story agreed that bottom line issues, my taxes, my utility bills, my rent, will still be uppermost in voter minds.

Leaving the tougher question of how we all see and treat one another unresolved and ripe for exploitation.

Joanna.

David while the politics play out here in New Jersey obviously we know there are also politics playing out in Washington.

Earlier today for chat box you had a chance to speak with U.S.

Senator Andy Kim about that looming budget deadline and other things.

What did you hear from the Senate?

Yeah.

We talked about this Charlie Kirk story.

We talked about our role on the national stage the president's U.N.

speech and of course about the looming shutdown which was uppermost on his mind.

We can take a listen.

We are in a constitutional crisis moment.

We as a government right now do not have three equally functioning branches of government and that should be alarming to everybody.

This is the founding fathers setting forth how our government should be run as we are approaching the 250th anniversary of our nation to know and see it break down like this is just abysmal.

And I say that not just as a senator, but I say this as someone who worked in the federal government as a civil servant.

I worked through multiple shutdowns before, not getting paid for the work that I was doing.

I worked under both Democrats and Republicans.

And what we're seeing right now is an absolute failure by Donald Trump, that also and the Republicans that are controlling both the House and the Senate.

Can you explain why there's another shutdown looming in as bipartisan a way as you can?

What money are we talking about now that's holding all of this up?

Yeah, well look, what we're seeing right now again is the Trump administration trying to dominate and just completely control a separate branch of government.

We're seeing the Article 2 branch executives literally just trying to derail Article 1 and our legislative process.

There's a reason why our founding fathers gave Congress the ability to set the budget.

It was to act as a check to be able to foster the type of dialogue necessary for a democracy.

And Trump has no interest in this.

He says that he doesn't want the Republicans in Congress to deal with the Democrats.

He canceled negotiations.

He just literally canceled meetings that were going to help negotiate this ahead of the deadline.

And look, you know, if you even take Donald Trump's word at this, you know, a couple of years back before he was president, he said that, you know, a shutdown should be blamed on the president because the president is the one that should be bringing people together.

And I agree with that.

I think a president should be able to bring people together.

And Donald Trump is doing the opposite of that.

And he will be responsible for this if it turns into a shutdown.

So but what what is it that's on the table right now that is pointing everything to a shutdown?

Because I think, you know, most folks at home, they're like, didn't we just deal with a shutdown two months ago?

Yeah, it seems like we're always on the precipice.

And like, look, a couple of things here.

One is that Donald Trump has shown absolute disregard for our laws, has not moved forward to be able to spend the money that Congress has authorized in the past.

We see these rescissions happening.

We have no assurances, and we've been seeking, but we have no assurances that if we pass a budget out of Congress that Trump will abide by this.

In fact, his OMB director, Russell Vought, someone who I think is exceedingly dangerous, he's somebody that continues to flaunt, saying that what Congress passes doesn't have to be followed by the executive.

So it's just one of those situations of why are we going to push forward on this unless we can get those assurances.

Right now, we're about to see- I'm sorry, what's the impact on New Jersey?

What's it going to mean if there's a shutdown?

Well, look, what I will say right now, first and foremost, is that many New Jerseyans are going to have and see an unbelievable increase in their health care costs starting.

You're going to see those numbers starting October 1st.

You know, we have huge premium increases.

on the Affordable Care Act in the marketplace.

These are going to go multiple fold for many others, including those in private insurance.

We're going to continue to see that that's something we know is looming.

This is a catastrophe that we know is about to hit.

What we're trying to do is be able to get and continue some of the support that we've been providing to be able to help manage costs for so many families.

And this is so these are families that are already struggling from the increased cost due to the tariffs and other disasters.

And we're going to continue to see that.

So that's what we've been trying to address.

If we end up going into a shutdown, you know, what we're going to continue to see is just decreased services for the American people.

We're going to hopefully be able to try to avoid, but we could see challenges and difficulties when it comes to our air traffic controls.

Other types of issues that are going to be really meaningful to people.

So, you know, we should do everything we can to avoid the shutdown.

You can catch David's interview with Senator Andy Kim on the possible government shutdown and more, along with a conversation on Chatbox with state senators John Bramnick and Joe Kryan about their bipartisan college civility tour streaming tonight on our NJ Spotlight News YouTube channel and on NJPBS Saturday at 6.30 p.m.

and Sunday at 10.30 a.m.

>> Let's talk more now about the possible government shutdown and other news coming out of D.C.

this week with Ben Hulak, our Washington, D.C., correspondent.

Ben, great to have you with us tonight as we just heard David talking to Senator Andy Kim about obviously we are once again staring down another possible government shutdown.

What can you tell us about the real sticking points in the negotiations.

What are they right now.

The point of contention really here is in the Senate.

The Senate has Democrats have leveraged there.

They essentially have no leverage in the House.

So in the Senate Democrats are pushing for an extension of ACA or Obamacare tax credits.

These were tax credits Congress created during it by the administration to prop up these federally backed health insurance exchanges.

Democrats want at a minimum a year likely more.

And Republicans are balking at that saying they should just do a short term continuing resolution or C.R.

here in Washington speak to kick the can the funding can down the road a few more months.

So that comes at a price tag of about a trillion dollars.

Is that correct.

Well we haven't seen final text.

In theory yes.

Let me caveat a big caveat here is that the Republicans hold majorities of both chambers and any sort of Democratic bill would still have to clear the House where Republicans hold a majority and there is no filibuster So things pass in the house on a straight-line vote simple plain majority so functionally there isn't a lot of Negotiating room Democrats have in the house and Again it has to clear both chambers and be signed by President Trump, which is a tall order at this point But we're looking at right now just a real impasse in terms of some budget numbers that both sides are looking for.

Democrats as you said looking for I guess it's about a trillion dollars in those health care tax credits.

And then Republicans are looking for spending for security.

Can you explain what that is.

Right.

This is this comes in the wake of the killing of Charlie Kirk and to back back a little bit farther up Congress.

This is a perennial issue.

Members of both parties in both chambers all have horror stories that I've written about and talk to our members about of death threats and violence against them, violence against their offices, their spouses, their children.

What Republicans want is a small portion of funding for member security and also to spend some money on executive branch protection as well.

And it's it's these are all just negotiating chips at this point.

That's why I'm sort of hesitant to put a dollar figure out there.

Perhaps I would.

At this point maybe there is a deal to be had if Democrats in the Senate in particular do not give the seven votes that Republicans need to pass their legislation.

Reminder for viewers at home to clear the Senate.

A bill needs 60 votes to get over that that filibuster threshold.

And Republicans only have 53 seats.

So where does that where does the party get those seven Democratic votes.

That's really that that is still a huge question.

That is the question at this point.

And Senator Kim has said and Cory Booker has also said elsewhere they're likely not going to get at this point.

They are knows they are on paper knows maybe there's a deal to be had.

Is there.

Ben is there anyone who you know they are courting on the Democratic side to try to get support.

Well one potential vote at this point could be John Fetterman of Pennsylvania just next door.

He has been a little more flirtatious I should say in his votes recently and has been voting with Republicans on a handful of issues.

But you're still if you're the Republicans are still six votes short and you're certainly not coming from New Jersey's members.

So what happens if a deal is not reached by end of day on September 30th.

What happens if there is a government shutdown.

What are the ramifications.

Right.

So the first thing people would see it likely won't affect your life for the average American citizen.

Social Security checks will still go out to the mail will still be delivered.

Amtrak for example will still run.

Those agencies I just listed have funding through other ways rather other financial pathways.

What will happen eventually is sort of a grinding down of the day to day operations of the government.

So things like parks could be closed national parks.

It might be harder to get people on the phone.

There's just sort of a general diminution in day to day operation.

Things that still will be working are TSA military national security.

Those are considered essential.

And so those those jobs remain staffed.

So Ben the last time we saw a real shutdown was in 2018 going into 2019.

That was 34 days.

It is common during a shutdown for employees to be furloughed.

But we're seeing reports that the president is calling for employees to be dismissed to be let go if there is a shutdown.

Can you add any color there.

Well it's sort of harkens back to the early days of the second Trump administration when the Doge the so-called Doge Department of Government Efficiency Program was instituted by Elon Musk billionaire an ally of the president's.

And ultimately what ended up happening is Doge ended up calling back a lot of people it had laid off to do jobs that it in hindsight realized needed to be done.

Government shutdowns in general are just very ineffective.

They actually cost more for the taxpayer than keeping the government open because furloughed employees by law have to be paid.

It's just a very clunky way to operate and run the run the federal government.

We just have a little bit of time left less than a minute.

What can you tell us about what's happening with the Jeffrey Epstein files and whether this will be a key issue for Congress when they return next week.

It will be a key issue.

There was a really interesting people on the hill and Arizona actually had their eyes on one house race in Arizona.

A woman named Alita Grijalva won a house seat filling the shoes of her deceased father who held that seat for years.

She's a Democrat and she has said she will sign a petition on the floor.

It's a literal book that members sign a discharge petition to force a vote on a bipartisan bill to release Epstein files.

At this point right now there are 217 votes.

Greeholzer will be the 218th.

And that is the magic number needed to force a vote.

So politically that likely come to a floor vote in the House.

We still need to get to the Senate.

But it's going to be a headache for Republicans when they come back to town.

All right.

To read more of Ben Hulak's reporting you can visit our Web site and Jay spotlight news dot org.

Ben thank you for the insight as always.

While two Jersey greats were honored at an event held by the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank today, legendary Jersey rocker Jon Bon Jovi and the late William Count Basie, the center's namesake, were recognized for their contribution to the arts at the inaugural Walk of Fame ceremony this morning, the kickoff event to a 16-month-long centennial celebration.

Now the Sayreville native has not only had massive musical success, selling more than 130 million albums worldwide, but Bon Jovi's had a tremendous impact on his community, including serving hot meals to the hungry with his JBJ Soul Kitchen.

Adding him to the Walk of Fame was just one of several events planned over the next 16 months, all leading up to the 100-year anniversary of the center in November of next year.

That's going to do it for us tonight, but a reminder, you can download our podcast wherever you listen and watch us anytime by subscribing to the NJ Spotlight News YouTube channel, plus follow us on Instagram and Blue Sky to stay up to date on all the state's big headlines.

And with Election Day just around the corner, check out our voter guide to get up to speed on the candidates and the races on the ballot this year.

Head to the NJ Decides 2025 tab on our homepage.

I'm Joanna Gaggis for the entire team here at NJ Spotlight News.

Thanks for being with us.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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