♪ >> Major funding for Reporters Roundtable is provided by RWJ Barnabas health.

Let's be healthy together.

Rowan University, educating leaders, partnering with businesses, transforming the future.

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

And by Politico's New Jersey's playbook on Garden State politics online at Politico.com.

♪ David: The red wave crashes miles from shore.

Our Republicans now drowning in their own bile?

Hi, everybody.

I am David Cruise.

Our postmortem panel includes the health reporter for Politico NJ.

Joanna Gagis for NJ Spotlight News and the editor of New Jersey monitor.

We will hear from the panel in minutes but begin today with may be the one Republican who was smiling this week on election night.

Yeah, he won is election handily but also a Republican with the different message.

Senator John Bramlett joints now.

Welcome back.

>> Good to be back.

David: Your party took it on the chin this week and failing on what was a key election night.

What happened?

>> Well, you can't be crazy as a Republican and deny the judgment election and ignored January 6.

You have to be reasonable and make sense and in my district, I won by 10 points.

I am not anything special.

They don't love Joe Biden or Phil Murphy.

They don't trust us.

What happened, we put up trustworthy candidates who were not crazy.

Who were not election deniers, spewing hate at the other side, using soundbites where you are mad and hate the Democrats.

We sounded like normal people, and guess what?

That is all voters want, normalcy and the Republican party, so if you want to hate Democrats, you will lose.

I don't care about vote by mail.

That is just an excuse.

The concern is the image and brand of the Republican Party and if we do not change it we will always be in the minority.

David: What is the message?

What else does your party have to do to regain the trust?

Sen. Bramnick: Everybody knows we are a fiscally conservative party.

What they don't know is whether or not we will do crazy stuff the way Trump did.

David: Like what?

Sen. Bramnick: First of all, he comes across and yells at people and says he will suspend the Constitution, right?

He says that election was not real.

He says January 6 was nothing and he did not stop January 6.

That is pretty crazy.

And that is the image of the Republican Party in New Jersey.

If that is the image, we lose.

David: Has your party been hijacked?

This used to be the party of Tom Kane senior.

Sen. Bramnick: That's right.

David: Who hijacked it?

Sen. Bramnick: There is an image because our leader is still, and I don't like him, is Donald Trump, so swing voters go in, I am not crazy about the Democrat in that district, but you know what?

I don't trust the Republican.

Look at Washington, we could not find a speaker and then we found a speaker who is an election denier.

Do you think that helps us win swing districts in New Jersey was a fettle by Jordan gets a lot of votes down there?

Come on.

That is the image of the Republican Party.

We have to change it.

David: Who in New Jersey?

I see Republicans posting online that there needs to be consequences to this big loss this week.

Should there be some changes made at the state Republican committee?

Sen. Bramnick: Back like Vince, who won Atlantic City, a swing district.

He did it because he is not crazy and does not act crazy and people trust him.

We have candidates who can win statewide.

David: So, but does the Republican Party in the state need some changing?

Is there someone who should replace the current leadership who is more receptive to the message that you are putting out there?

Sen. Bramnick: First of all, the Republican Party is not one entity.

David: Yeah.

Sen. Bramnick: It is the combination of districts and in some districts, Trump plays well.

I don't criticizes people.

But statewide and swing districts, Republicans that are fair-minded, not spewing hate, not hating Democrats.

David: Yep, I get all that.

Sen. Bramnick: That get results.

David: I get all of that, but there is a committee, a Republican state committee that drove this message and drove it to most of the districts.

And that leadership of the party , some are saying that it needs to be changes.

This kind of a yes or no question, Senator.

Do there need to be changes at the state party committee?

Sen. Bramnick: I don't think they dictate what we say in each election or set the agenda.

Each Senator or assembly person sets the agenda.

They may get a suggestion from somebody but the bottom line is we decide as individual senators how to sell our brand.

I am going to tell you that our brand has to change.

If that means leadership wants to follow my lead in terms of a reasonable approach, you know I can't stand the sound bite-type thing the Republicans are mad at the Democrats, we hate the Democrats -- they don't care about that.

They want to know who argue argue authentic, are you going to respect the court decisions and institutions in our country like the FBI and the courts, or are you going to just sit back and criticize everything and people won't trust you?

I am plan a.

Plan a is authenticity, anti-Trump, pro-voter-citizen.

David: So here you are, 70 years old, you look great by the way.

Here we are again another cycle.

Are you going to run for governor, finally?

Time is of the essence, no?

Sen. Bramnick: He is going to tell you soon but this year I have a four-year term as a Senator.

In the past I had a two-year term.

I could run this year and lose a primary or general election and guess what, I will still be selling the same message of civility, honesty, fairness, and not spewing hate around the state comes that look forward to my potential announcement in the next few months.

How is that?

David: It is efficient for our purposes, Senator, but I understand what you are saying.

You say you will take your message across the state.

You are from district what is it, 21?

Sen. Bramnick: That's right.

David: You will go beyond district 21 way down south to what used to be that country down there that is now someone else's country, all the way up to the other parts of the state, saying, what?

Make me governor and I will bring civility back to my party?

Sen. Bramnick: No, first you have to win to stop the Democrats from moving far to the left.

If you don't win, you can't change anything, so who is the most electable person statewide?

If we get to the appointment where I make the announcement we need someone who is electable, not just someone throwing red meat to the Republicans around the state and then they lose.

We lose.

We lose.

We lose.

The bottom line is do you want to win or not?

That is my message.

David: This tour, not officially a tour, you say you are taking your message statewide, does the decision to run for governor come from what you hear on that statewide tour?

Sen. Bramnick: No, it will come from me and how important it is for me to get this message out across the state to Republicans.

Whatever I find out there will not be the ultimate decision-maker, it will be coming from inside of me, how important it is for me to get this message out about where the Republican Party should be, what our brand should be, and convince people to trust us.

That will motivate me.

David: John Brennan, State Senator, potential gubernatorial candidate, thank you for coming on.

Sen. Bramnick: Thank you.

David: All right, panel, welcome.

Let's get some reacts, takeaways from Tuesday's elections.

Terrance well, I think one of the main takeaways is Republicans need to convince voters to use mail in ballots, because Democrats are absolutely destroying them before the polls are open.

They are not going to win and some of these competitive districts unless they get some of their voters to do that.

And we talked to the guy who used to run the GOP very recently, and he is not a John Brennan act type, but said Democrats have found a way by using mail-in ballots of getting local voters to vote.

They are not cannibalizing the election day vote.

They are just increasing the number of people voting in Republicans are not because a lot of their voters think male and ballots are a scam.

David: Dave, your observations from Tuesday?

Dave: We know that New Jersey is generally bluer when it comes to federal elections.

They are able to get those voters who come out for Democrats and federal elections but get them to come out and these off elections with vote by mail.

Another general observation is a good night for South Jersey Democrats who held the floor.

It is a competitive district.

It became more red during redistricting and they were able to get it back.

And just an observation from that race, it looks like Senator Abdur who became something of a national celebrity for hosting him, he was really a drag on the ticket because if you look at the election results, his assembly running mates had a closer race than he did and I think that is in part because the Democrats really hit him on some of his distasteful prior comments on abortion and women in general quite frankly and that really hurt him on Tuesday.

David: Live by the trucker.

Died by the trucker.

What was your take away?

>> I think playing off what we heard from Senator Bramlett -- Bramnick, they tried to drive home these culture war issues they thought would turn out their base and I was in the 11th and that felt really flat for Republicans.

They did not get out the support they thought they would on the transgender policies in schools where we saw that playing out in those school districts, the 11th school district in particular, and it did not turn out the Republican base in the way that they bought and frankly I think the abortion issue Republicans thought would not be something that turned up Democrats, it is already statewide here come up but it looks like that is an issue motivating Democratic voters, so the culture wars did not play out the weight the Republicans had hoped and did benefit the Democrats.

David: Sweeney is dying to tell people he is running for governor.

Terrance: Sure.

Is there a question.

[Laughs] David: No, I just wanted that chuckle out of you.

Terrance: [Laughs] sure, he and another hundred Democrats.

David: How about him?

Terrance: Huge.

These attacks were not working on him or on a lot of other Democrats.

He is a popular guy.

It looks like voters see him as a reasonable person in the results reflected that.

>> You have to give him credit for this.

He said that he won by only a couple hundred votes in 2021 while his assembly running mates lost and he pounded the pavement and said he was on the phones all day before the election trying to turn out the vote in in the end he got 50% of the Asian population to turn out, so you have to give him credit for getting people out to vote because he had a 60% margin win.

Terrance: He also massively outspent his opponents.

It was like 7-1.

David: Say that again?

Terrance: He massively outspent his opponents.

It was like 7:1.

David: Again, a great example of vote by mail, early voting, how much that really you did not have to motivate, you were just putting the ballots into people's hands, no?

Daniel: yeah, as Terrance said, this was an election where you really saw Democrats use vote by mail to their advantage.

I think in the case of the 11th legislative district, he is a strong politician and he has coattails.

His assembly, Democratic assembly running mates also won by convincing margins, ousting Republican s viewed as moderates.

I think in the 11th, vote by mail was definitely part of the winning Asian, but that was not the sole determining factor.

When you win by 20 points, a lot of things go into that.

David: As he told us several times that night he is the first mammoth County Democrat to win a third term, so there is about.

Aftermath now.

Two senators and speakers in their leadership roles.

Daniel, there is a lame duck session ahead, no?

Sometimes things of consequence happened.

You covered the presser.

I imagine the lame-duck session came up?

Daniel: it did come up.

But what did not come up is anything they would verbally commit to posting.

A lot of reporters asked what is your agenda, would you commit to posting bills on these topics?

They said a lot of things were up for consideration.

Coughlin said expect more affordability messaging, and that is something you saw from the 2021 elections where Democrats thought they were needing to focus more on affordability after losing so many seeds.

But as to what we should see in the lame-duck session, Governor Murphy has been adamant his liquor license reform proposal will go through.

You have seen comments from Democrats in the state Senate that they are not too thrilled about it, but that is a big part of the Governor's agenda and said publicly he wants to see that get done.

One senator has told other senators he will post the casino smoking ban bill during the lame-duck session.

Another thing people looking out for is reformed to the open Public records act, how the public gets access to government records.

That is something speaker Coughlin and others have wanted to get done for a while and we have now seen legislation, up in the space.

[Crosstalk] David: You queued up my soundbite for me.

Someone asked about that yesterday.

Let's get to Coughlin talking about it now.

>> Craig Coughlin: were looking to preserve those rights and I firmly believe that people have the right to access government records unequivocally.

But, using that process for other things, as the Senate President pointed out, was a detriment to affective, efficient, and affordability of government.

David: Terrance, is that so?

Terrance: [Laughs] no, I don't know what they talk about when they talk about misuse.

Sometimes they use commercial entities that use it to get documents, but that is not necessarily misuse.

We had a New Jersey Supreme Court decision that said Jersey City was fighting a guy who sold invisible fences because he wanted dog license information.

There is legitimate public interest in that because if I live in a town I want people who have potentially dangerous dogs to have an invisible fence, or fence, so there is a public argument for commercial entities having the right to documents like you or I would.

I believe that is what I assume they mean by misuse.

I don't believe it is misuse but they are the lawmakers.

David: So, while yes, -- guess time, OK?

Will he or won't he?

Bramnick Run for governor?

Joanna: yes.

Daniel: Yep.

David: Yep.

Terrance?

Terrance: Yes.

David: Here is one more.

What will Phil Murphy wwar to Tammy Murphy Senate announcement, Terrance?

Terrance: I don't know.

Hopefully he is sober.

David: Ouch.

Daniel?

Daniel: I will definitely bet on that.

David: That is an easy one.

Joanna: I was going to say a hangover.

David: I guess that is the 800-pound gorilla in the room.

We have been talking all week about it, the governor's heavy tone on election know brought on by a few belts before or during the party.

I thought it was charming, frankly, to see an elected official who despite having had a glass of wine or two held his own and actually made sense.

You were there.

He, despite his sometimes slurred speech, he made sense.

He was not like talking out the side of his neck.

Joanna: no, he wasn't.

A couple of questions and we realize the governor had a drink or two, but he was able to communicate and graciously gave us an interview in the middle of greeting all of his supporters.

Yeah, look, if Democrats had had a tougher night, you can bet the governor would not have had that glass of wine or two.

It was clear early on they had cause to celebrate and he did.

I don't know if I would call it charming, but entertaining.

[LAUGHTER] Terrance: I love this guy.

I love this guy.

David: I love this guy.

What about this, the run for mayor, love it?

Terrance: I don't love it or hate it but what I think will be interesting is, he is leaning into the fact that he resigned because of a sex scandal, right, because he had an affair in 2004.

He is not meaning into the fact that the guy was someone he hired and put on the state payroll for six figures as his Homeland security advisor and I know he told you that is not what he did, but he definitely did that because I have 1000 articles from that time were he was interviewed talking about the security smarts of this guy and it was his secret boyfriend, so I am curious how much that part of the scandal will make an appearance on the campaign trail in Jersey City.

David: It is a good point.

Time for our only in Jersey moments of the headlines and notes.

Terrance?

Terrance: A democratic state senator who just won reelection.

A couple of months ago his campaign team put out an advertisement where they are making Sunday sauce and they talked about how you have to work together and it ended with him putting this gigantic bowl of spaghetti on the table.

On election night in his victory speech he said, if anybody wants to know, the cost of making spaghetti and putting it on the table is $2 million, so only in New Jersey does a spaghetti dinner because $2 million.

David: It was a 40-pound bowl, after all.

Joanna: only in Jersey do you go to interview the governor and he has a little buzz, but only in Jersey does a union boss try to muscle up on a reporter to tell a good story about his candidate and check on you later in the night to make sure you did what he asked you to do.

David: [Laughs] Joanna: so don't think for a second that that sways said reporter.

David: He picked the wrong reporter.

Mine comes from South Jersey where Republicans took a beating this week.

I hope you will allow me a moment to pile on.

While we know election night victory parties are still evolving post-COVID, it is a tradition for losers to concede in public before volunteers and others who backed them.

You did not see that much this year.

It's also tradition for candidates to face the press so that voters who are not already in the corner and learn more about what they are about.

The GOP by and large tried to sidestep that responsibility does selection and I hope they realize that it cost them.

Guess what?

Even if you think voters hate us most is to recognize the importance of journalists and journalism to the process.

A party that Tom Kane Senior understood that and apparently the party of Tom Kane Junior does not.

Lastly, as student viewers that roundtable will know, we had Mayor Steve Phillips scheduled for our election night addition and the mayor had to cancel because his wife went into labor.

It turns out that was a false alarm, but two days later this charming young child arrived.

Her name is Sage Montana and the family is doing fine in the mayor's office hook for stiffing us on Tuesday.

And that is "Reporters Roundtable" for this week.

Always good to see you guys.

Thank you.

Thank you to John Bramnick For joining us.

You can follow us on x and get extra content including full episodes when you scan the QR code on the screen.

I am David Cruz.

I am here in downtown Newark.

Thank you for watching.

We will see next week.

>> Major funding for Reporters Roundtable with David Cruz is provided by RWJ Barnabas health, let's be healthy together.

Rowan University educating New Jersey leaders and partnering with New Jersey businesses and transforming New Jersey's future.

Promotional support provided by New Jersey business magazine, the magazine of the New Jersey as an industry association reporting to executive and legislative readers and all 21 counties of the Garden State since 1954.

And by Politico's New Jersey playbook a topical newsletter on Garden State politics online at Politico.com.

♪