♪ >> By WRJ barnabus health.

MGM injuries group, serving the intervenes of New Jersey residents and businesses were more than 100 years.

Promotional support divided by the New Jersey business magazine.

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♪ >> The ballots are all set.

Are you ready for some primaries?

Hey, everybody.

It is Reporters Roundtable.

I am David Cruz.

Our panel today is ripe with curmudgeons.

Mr. Johnson is a reporter.

Charlie Stiles is a political reporter.

Terrance McDonald is the editor of New Jersey monitor.

We will get to the panel in just a few minutes, we begin today by celebrating filing day.

Hundreds of candidates filing to run this week.

All 80 assembly seats up, 40 seats in the Senate, plus County and local races.

Michael rasmussen is the founder of several filing date drinking games.

He joins us now.

Welcome.

>> Thanks, David.

>> Let's talk about the 800 pound Former President in the room.

Your thoughts on what the indictment of Donald Trump could mean?

>> No one has even seen the indictment yet, so that will be important in terms of figuring out what it means.

One thing that we do know is that in New Jersey, particularly voters have not had much use for Donald Trump ever.

This is not likely to give them any at this late stage in the game.

I think it could energize his supporters.

They are going to keep pressure on the rest of the Republican party its elected officials to defend Donald Trump every day, and I do not think that is a good thing for the party.

Host: Brett, do you want to jump in here?

>> What might this do to Republicans running in those races over Democrats?

>> We get legislative elections in New Jersey that often try to turn on other issues, send Washington a message.

What does the state legislature had do with that?

It does not stop there candidates from trying.

I am sure republican candidates will try to fire up their base with trump supporters with red meat about this witchhunt that Donald Trump calls it, but there is not a good, strong nexus between these charges or the Democratic Party or Joe Biden, for that matter.

Or certainly Democrats in New Jersey.

Host: Charlie, you had one?

>> Yes, how difficult -- are at the Republicans back into the same old a paradox here of firing of the base, as you said, and having that base vote with everything they said in the primary become an albatross in the general election?

It just seems like it will be a repeat of what we saw in 2018 and 2020?

>> I think you are right.

We have to remember Donald Trump has never been a general election draw.

He never won the popular vote.

Key lost congressional races for his party several times, so as a general election prospect, he is not a way to go.

But this is certainly strengthening his hand in the Democratic primary.

Early days, we have not seen the indictment, but it seems to be rallying around him in the party, and that is probably not good news for the party when it comes to the general election.

Host: We will pick this up with the panel in a few minutes.

Let's move on to filing day, the biggest turnover already in the legislature I can remember, right?

>> 16 years, and even that takes some remembering.

The year when Wayne Bryant retired, he took a bunch with them apparently.

We had a very large freshman class in 2008.

This will be the largest one since then.

Host: For some of these people, it was just time.

Rob Caputo is in his 80's.

But some of it is redistricting.

Top of that list is this kind of pending heavyweight matchup between former Governor and current Senator date Cody and Senator Gill.

Who is at edge?

>> They both have slayed the county line in the past.

They are both real powers in their own right.

The question is is Senator Gill in her prime?

She she at her peak in terms of popularity with the party and her constituents?

The reason that we say that is because date Cody -- Dick Cody will have the line.

He is probably one of the most well-known legislatures -- legislators in New Jersey.

Is there anything to suggest she will bring enough firepower to overcome that?

Host: Either the district is a little different in terms of favor of Cody because of redistricting, right?

>> It does, it brings in some towns where there is a little bit of -- and there, and it brings in towns that are not playing to the Democratic core of Essex County that Gill has represented in the past.

Host: What other primaries of interest.

You talked about the third and the fourth?

>> The only other show in town for Democrats is some progressives are running against Angela Knight and the 31st district, but other than those does -- those two races.

In the deep South will find out whether Senator Edgar -- Ed Gurr, lightning can strike for him.

Or will Sawyer be able to knock him out.

Next door to that in the fourth district, which Republican will win denomination to replace Senator Fred Madden.

We have also got some fun in northwest New Jersey in Morris and Sussex and parts of Warren County.

Host: That is to replace Steve Albert Ho -- oberho.

>> Exactly.

What that race is settled is a very hotly contested race for the two assembly seats.

We have got Sussex Commissioner versus a Warren Commission her.

Chester Mayor versus Board of Fed president Lafayette.

This will be two well-developed teams, and it will be hotly contested.

We will see what happens.

There is another one in Morris, a State Senator is running against the Morris County Commissioner, who has run against the line before and won.

This is nothing new to him.

He is running with Betty Da Croix.

This will be a hot race and hot district as well.

Host: We were talking yesterday.

He said that you had a race that we want to keep a look into in the fall with a senator.

>> Exactly, the question is can they mount a serious editor -- challenger Senator Gopau.

The Republicans in the state have come after him, and have said he is going to be the top target.

I do not think that hasn't let up, although he has really waged a very strong campaign to drive other side of the race.

He did not get the top tier challenge, but this is someone who is new to elected politics and will be running hard.

It will have a well-financed campaign, and we will see what he can make out of it.

Host: Real quick before I let you go, how much is this mess at the elections law enforcement commission.

How much does that potentially play into the primaries if at all?

>> Other than the fact that our campaign-finance is going to be the wild West, this bill is going to be a get out of jail free card for so many current complaints out there.

Other than that, I do not know that it is going to be a prominent public issue, though it probably should be.

These are retired, well respected judges who have resigned in protest en masse.

We ought to listen to what they have to say.

The fact is money will be looser in our campaigns, and that is the direct impact it will have on the races.

Host: It has been a week.

Thanks for coming on, good to see you again.

>> Thanks for having me.

Host: Brent, Charlie, Terrence, good to see you all.

Let's get the big news out of the way.

The indicted Donald Trump.

You just read about that this week, Charles.

What are your thoughts?

>> I think it is like the recurring Freddy Krueger horror story for the New Jersey Republicans who have been trying to step away and reassert a slightly more centrist positioning.

They see the suburbs being lost, even though there was some gaining back.

The long-term fear is that they are going to lose what was their traditional base in areas like Mars and Somerset and Union County, particularly among women voters.

And here comes Donald Trump, here comes Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen, David Becker into one molted ball of sleaze that is just going to roll over the Republican brand.

And it is -- you know, I would think this is a bad day for anybody who is carrying the aura on their back.

Host: Some of the names in there, stormy, pecker, this story is writing itself.

>> [LAUGHTER] >> I think things might be more unpredictable than Charlie thinks.

Or 2021 four months I was getting Donald centric mailers because of the Governor oppressiveness race, and did help the governor win reelection.

Some Republicans in parts of the state fell.

I do not know that it necessarily means disaster for Republicans everywhere in the state.

Host: The conservative wing of the New Jersey Republican party had been researching to this point.

Is this good or bad for them?

>> I do not know.

I think the name Trump will be on the present throughout the campaign season whether on the tongues of Democrats or Republicans.

Republicans came out in the last election, the Congressional midterm election, saying we have to get away from Donald Trump because it will hurt our brand and hurt us in legislative elections.

I do not think there will be a lot of rejoicing among moderate leaders, but there are parts of the state that are very red Trump areas.

It makes New Jersey a fascinating state in that respect, but Trump will weigh heavily over all of this.

Host: On to another episode of this week and outstanding lawmaking.

The election transparency act.

You cannot make this stuff up.

>> If you go back, it is really a watershed moment that is not permeating into the public consciousness as much as it should.

When you go back 50 years ago, the state felt this real pressure to put guardrails on what was called the wilderness of unregulated campaign-finance.

The state became a national laughingstock for all of the corruptions, indictments.

Herb Stern was the U.S. attorney at the time racking up a nonstop array of political corruption cases.

The Cahill administration at the time was a washing corruption, and you had Watergate.

There was a lot of public pressure to put this thing under control, and now we spin it 50 years forward, and it is a complete opening up of the gates without public pressure, without public scrutiny.

And they know it.

The legislators know it instinctively that this is not going to harm them, that this is not a kitchen table issue for people, and that they also note the press corps has diminished, and we can squawk all we want, but they really just do not care.

Host: The commissioners resigned, flipping the governor the bird.

It seems like a perfect time to take some dirty money.

Terrence, your dark money contributions from a few years back are raised for all time.

>> We have spent a lot of time on what will happen to the election law enforcement commission, which will be stacked with people that Murphy will hand select.

I am a little less worried about that, and I will be happy to come on here in a couple of lease when I am wrong my guess is that people he will pick will have resumes that are similar to the folks who just resigned.

I do not think he will pick people like his wife and his kids.

The biggest problem for me with this bill or one of them is the fact that it will flood the state with more campaign cash, because donation limits are going to be doubled, in some cases tripled.

And we do not need it.

The politicians who approved of this bill are already sitting on untold amounts of cash.

Some of them are in uncompetitive districts.

They do not spend the money.

They collect money from donors and they just sit on it, and we do not need anymore and they will be able to raise who knows how much from people who will want favors return.

Host: The bill is on the governor's desk.

Do you expect a big signing ceremony?

>> I do not.

I expect him to sign it next week.

I am curious what he will say, because he has hid behind there is litigation in this and it is not on my desk yet.

He will probably say something like we are opening up transparency, and we have done a lot to do so.

Talking about this going to the public, this is a difficult thing for some reporters.

I spent hours reading about this and wanted to make sure I get it right.

This is an unusual bill that is really controversial at that is a lot to wrap your head around and has many different tentacles.

It being a watershed moment is true.

This is a very weighty week, and this bill played a big part of that.

They are also saying that the ELI Commissioner had homophobic emails, and everything is being conflated.

It is time you want to go read our stories.

I urge the public to dig into this to see what is going on.

Host: It is interesting, because the threshold for what corruption is has been so lowered that folks are like, eh, this is what they do all the time.

That is what it feels like anyway.

Moving down the list of stories in our upside down state is the takeover of the Patterson Police Department.

The biggest thing Matt Plakin has done in his short term.

It is a big test for him.

>> Absolutely.

I was disabused of the idea that this was part of the redemption arc.

Matt Plakin and 2019 came under a lot of scrutiny for his role in the Katie Brennan fiasco.

People have told me in the first term he was the driving force behind some of the more prominent, regressive initiatives in the Murphy administration and that he has always carried the torch for this kind of reform.

Now he has got his opportunity, NT is not wasting it.

And he is not afraid to up and the Apple Card.

Chris Perino, is former Attorney General who was a lawyer and colleague, told me that whole Brennan case and neared -- en ured him to public outcry and backlash.

He can handle the heat.

He has got the scar tissue, and that suits him well for all of the certain blowback and ruffled feathers he will face in taking over this complicated and troubled department.

Host: Terrence, reforming Patterson Police Department.

That is a slog for any Attorney General, right?

>> Yes, I think probably what is good for the state -- the state government and Matt pPlakin is him taking over rather than the federal government taking over, which is what some activists want area he is taking it over, and it is day one charge.

One thing happens like the recent killing of Mr. Seabrooks, then you have people as mad if not better than they were before.

Host: Chris Christie making a trip to New Hampshire, mentioning Donald Trump 20 times.

Brent, you wrote about this.

He sure knows how to make those clinics -- clicks, huh?

>> He knows how to get a point across.

He lost seven years ago, then he became a big-time trump advisor.

He is doing a bit of revisionist history or at least trying to correct the record.

He is not pulling -- polling very highly, but he is setting himself up to be the trump attack dog.

We really cannot do this again.

Host: We pay a lot of attention to this.

He is at .5 of 1% in the polls.

>> I did not take much stock in the polls.

Not to sound like one of his advisors.

These polls can change on a dime.

John became -- That all can change quickly.

Chris Christie is one of the most talented vertical performers we have seen, but right now to base his campaign on I am the one who can get into a cage match with Donald Trump and survive really does not offer much of an alternative or rationale of a basis for candidacy.

He had, yes, he did maim Marco Rubio in a memorable fashion in 2016, but going against an asymmetric I like Donald Trump is another kettle of fish.

Just because he can get in there and fight, this is a different combatant who will use -- he does not necessarily throw punches above the bell.

He will kick, categorize -- gouge your eyes.

I would not take the Marco Rubio playbook is a winning one.

Host: All right, time for our only in Jersey moments headlines and notes that are quintessentially Jersey.

Brent, do you want to start us off?

>> Baseball is back, which makes my life better.

My daughter turns two years old on Monday, and she has gotten into the Mets spirit recently and has been saying let's go Mets.

My wife put up the banner.

I know Charlie is a Yankees fan.

Host: Look at this kid.

>> Let's go Mets.

Host: [LAUGHTER] >> Indoctrination.

Host: Terrence, it is going to be tough to beat that for cuteness.

Do you got one for us?

>> I cannot beat it for cuteness.

My Jersey moment is Governor Murphy is trying to oust someone for cringy emails he has been sending about gay people.

An attorney who works with us found a bunch of new emails, and in one of them he told a colleague that he never thought Bruce Springsteen was as good as Bob Dylan.

Which means he is toast.

Host: Charlie, do you got one for us?

>> I did not win phthisis -- witness to this.

Democratic Senator Sam Thompson had to be reminded yesterday that he was actually a Democrat and was goaded into voting for or had to be reminded to vote the party line on amendments to the transparency act.

He initially voted against it.

Someone had to walk over and remind him, wait a minute, you are with this team now.

I guess when he flipped to the party, I guess they did not do a total ideological loyalty test before they accepted him into the party.

Host: Old habits die hard.

Mine comes from Camden where a women's history month celebration it went off the rails.

At the mayor and the Council were honoring an activist for her work, but Ms. Neil wasn't having it, calling out officials for endorsing a former assemblyman.

He is a form assent women because you may remember Barclay resigned his assembly seat after it was revealed that he punched his girlfriend in the face and broke her nose.

City leaders seem to have forgotten that, but Neil did not.

>> [INDISCERNIBLE] Host: [LAUGHTER] and the moral of the story is either picked better candidates to endorse or rescreen your awards recipients better.

I don't know.

That is roundtable for the week.

Charles, Terrence, Brent, good to see you.

You can follow the show on Twitter and find all kinds of fresh content every day when you subscribe to the YouTube channel.

I am David Cruz.

We are off next week for Easter.

Thanks for watching.

We will see you in a couple of weeks.

>> Major funding for Reporters Roundtable is provided by WRJ barnabus health.

MJ M insurance group, serving the insurance needs of New Jersey residents and businesses were more than 100 years.

Emotional support provided by New Jersey business magazine, at the magazine of the New Jersey business and industry Association reporting to executive and legislative leaders in all 21 counties of the Garden State since 1954.

And by Politico's New Jersey playbook, a topical newsletter on gardens to politics online at Politico.com.

♪