♪♪ >> From NJ PBS Studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Brianna Vannozzi.

>> Hello, and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gagas, in for Brianna Vannozzi.

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

It's the final countdown as Republican Jack Cittarelli and Democrat Mikey Sherrill make their last push out on the campaign trail.

What are their strategies to win over undecided voters before they head to the polls.

Then as the government shutdown continues we look at the impact of snap cuts on New Jersey residents.

And later we get an update from Washington if lawmakers are any closer to a deal before election day.

But first it's election eve.

And as you can imagine the candidates and their campaigns are in the final push to get out every voter they can to the polls.

And so far the turnout has been significant.

Early voting numbers are in and it looks like they've hit record numbers for a governor's race in the state.

A total of 1.3 million voters have already cast their ballots either by early in-person voting or by mail-in ballot.

And the turnout follows trends we've seen in recent elections where more Democrats are choosing these early options.

Six hundred seventy five thousand compared to nearly three hundred eighty six thousand Republicans.

Of course these numbers don't reflect the voting results.

It only takes into account how each voter is registered.

About 20 percent of the early votes came from unaffiliated voters.

But in this last leg of the race the candidates are bringing out the heavy hitters to help make their case.

On Saturday night former President Barack Obama hit the campaign trail in support of Mikey Sherrill riling up an energetic crowd at a rally in Newark.

It brought out a who's who of Democrats up and down the state including U.S.

Senator Cory Booker and several of New Jersey's Democratic congressional delegation as well as Governor Murphy who's largely been left out of Cheryl's campaign efforts.

Obama asked the crowd whether the Republican policies under President Trump have made their lives any better in the last nine months.

"Costs have not gone down, they've gone up.

They haven't put forward serious proposals to lower housing costs or make groceries more affordable.

They haven't improved our schools or made health care more accessible or shortened your commute.

But the good news, the good news, good news.

Is there something you can do about it, New Jersey?

Right here.

Right now.

Because you've got a candidate for governor.

Who's a proven fighter.

Who's got a track record of getting stuff done.

Obama's appearance this weekend was part of a concerted effort by Cheryl to shore up the black vote, a constituency she'll need in order to win.

Meanwhile, Republican candidate Jack Chiattarelli says he's made significant inroads with minority communities, including black and Latino voters.

He spent a lot of time campaigning in Passaic County over the weekend, a majority Latino county that went for Trump last year.

Chiattarelli also joined conservative talk show host Sean Hannity for a town hall on Thursday, where he doubled down on his day one priorities that will change the direction of New Jersey away from many of the Murphy administration policies.

Let me tell you how we're going to provide for law and order here in New Jersey.

Executive Order Number One on day one.

No town in this state will be a sanctuary city and will not be a sanctuary state.

I said from the very beginning, that policy... Here's the good news.

Many of the things that Murphy has done are by executive order.

They weren't codified by the legislature, which means I can reverse them on day one.

But having sanctuary cities and us being a sanctuary state encourages illegal immigration and it handcuffs our local police in certain ways.

Later today President Trump and Republican Congressman Jeff Vandrieu will host a tele-rally in support of Chittarelli where participants can phone in to listen.

Now these final stretch efforts could be the difference maker in a race that's considered a dead heat by the most recent polling.

A Friday poll poll from Atlas Intel has Mikey Cheryl ahead with likely voters by one percentage point.

50.2% to Chittarelli's 49.3%.

And according to that poll, less than 1% of voters are still undecided by this point.

Now both candidates have been courting minority voters and this poll shows Chittarelli leading with black voters 60% to Cheryl's 40%.

The first early indication that he has in fact made significant inroads with black voters as he's claimed throughout the campaign.

Sheryl on the other hand shows a major lead with Latino voters 62% to Chittarelli's 28%.

But it could all change by end of day tomorrow.

And if you haven't voted yet, here's what you need to know.

Early in-person voting ended yesterday, but if you have a mail-in ballot, you can still send it in.

It has to be postmarked by 8 p.m.

And of course you can head to your polling location anytime tomorrow between 6 a.m.

And 8 p.m.

When the polls close and travelers at Newark Airport this weekend were feeling the effects of the government shutdown The International Airport was hit with multiple ground stops on Sunday due to air traffic control staffing shortages according to flight aware there were 449 delays and 123 cancellations and officials with the NYC Emergency Management say the average delays for departing flights were about two hours with some flights more than three hours late.

Travelers have experienced similar delays out of LaGuardia and JFK airports in New York and airports around the country have seen ground stops including Boston, Dallas, Austin and Las Vegas.

All of these delays coming as more workers call out after going about a month without receiving a paycheck.

Coming up what strategists say Jack Chiarelli and Mikey Sherrill are doing and where they need to be in these final hours to shore up a victory on election night.

That's next.

Major funding for NJ Spotlight News is provided in part by NJM Insurance Group serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and by the PSCG Foundation.

So as the campaigns try to target those areas and voters that they need to secure the win.

Where are they seeing the greatest returns and what do they still need to do.

We have two strategists here to talk about what's happened so far and what the polling indicates in terms of who's having the greatest success.

First up we have Republican strategist Jeanette Hoffman and Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky.

Welcome to both of you.

Thanks so much for taking the time.

The latest polls really have this race in a virtual dead heat.

They're both pulling in both campaigns are pulling in people who they hope will be the difference makers the change makers.

Julie I want to start with you.

How impactful do you think it was this weekend to see former President Barack Obama out at a rally with Mikey Cheryl.

Look I think anything to rally the base is helpful.

Mikey Cheryl needs to ensure that the Democratic base comes out and comes out for her this year.

I think the biggest concern that Democrats should have this year because of our huge Democratic advantage in registration is just to make sure that those voters get to the polls and specifically voters in the cities get to the polls to the extent that former President Obama is able to motivate people to go out and vote.

And I'm not sure that he can.

But to the extent that he can it's all a good thing.

So I don't begrudge Congresswoman Cheryl for doing this and bringing in Barack Obama and others to help with that base driven vote.

Because again if voters of color specifically stay home this year or don't come out for her in droves if they do come out, that's not a great sign for her.

So she needs to do all she can to get those voters out.

Yeah, to that point we saw this Atlas Intel poll come out on Friday that really was surprising to me.

It says that Jack Cittarelli is leading with black voters right now 60% to 40%.

Jeanette, did that surprise you or do you feel that that's consistent with where Jack has said, Cittarelli said he's been all along?

Well, I know Jack is making inroads in the black community and the Hispanic community, but listen, the polls are all over the place with this race.

I do feel like it is a dead heat though, and both candidates right now need to work on getting their voters to the polls.

Jack Cittarelli has been up and down the state on his Road to Change bus tour, talking about New Jersey-specific issues, how to fix our state, talking about eight years of Governor Murphy that's given us the highest property tax in the country, escalating energy bills, schools that just aren't performing where they should be.

And that's what he's focused on.

He's focused on talking to New Jersey voters where they're at.

He's not trying to federalize this campaign, like Mikey Sherrill is.

And I think that's the thing about Mikey Sherrill.

She's not giving people a reason to vote for her.

She's just focusing on getting her base out to vote against President Trump.

And I think there's so much more that Jack Ciatarelli is doing to appeal to independents and crossover voters, and that's what's going to win the day with this race.

You raised a couple points that I want to get to in a minute, but Julia, I just want to start with something you touched on, which is the early in-person and the mail-in ballots that have been counted already.

Sheryl's team says that they've built up a firewall with all of the early voting numbers.

Right now they have, as of today, they have 289,000 more votes, registered Democrats, I should say, have voted than registered Republicans.

Is that the firewall that they need to really pull this thing through and to win?

Or do you think that we could see a big push, bigger than we expect, on Election Day for Republicans?

I mean, look, it's a huge firewall.

It's almost over a quarter million voters.

That's nothing to - you know, nothing to discount.

On the other hand, I would say that we saw this kind of firewall built up by the Murphy campaign four years ago, and then Jack Tuterelli got a huge same-day vote and almost beat Governor Murphy on Election Day.

And so on Election Day, he actually was winning, I believe, and it's only after those votes were counted, the vote by mail, that Governor Murphy pulled ahead.

So, Jack Tuterelli is going to need a huge -- and I mean huge -- turnout tomorrow at the polls.

Now, I think Jeanette raised some interesting points, which is that, of course, Tuterelli has a much easier road here in order to accomplish what he needs to from a messaging perspective.

He just has to run against the last eight years.

And, of course, people always want change.

And you see that consistently every eight years.

In a governor's election, sometimes you see it every four years.

But I would say that that almost 300,000-vote firewall is quite a large number to make up.

And, look, if Tuterelli can pull it off tomorrow, all the credit in the world to his ground game and all the credit in the world to his field operation but that is just a huge number that he's going to have to overcome.

Jeanette we we saw President Trump really call out a very specific voting bloc the Orthodox Jewish community that we know recently endorsed Jack Chitorelli.

How important is that voting bloc.

Do you think that in New Jersey especially central especially central New Jersey that we see a big turnout that could really swing this on election day for him.

Well it's huge.

And I'll just say this.

If you look at what's happened in Ocean County over the last couple of days.

So the VOD which is this Council of Orthodox Rabbis and the surrounding councils in other towns such as Tom's River, Manchester, Jackson and others, they unanimously voted to endorse Jack Cittarelli.

That's historic.

It's never happened in New Jersey.

The push for early in-person voting in Lakewood is almost up to 20,000 voters.

That eclipsed all of the voters in 2021 in Lakewood, entirely in person, vote by mail and early in person.

So already they're off to a great start.

Now, this is a community that voted 95% to support President Trump in 2024.

So we're seeing them come out in record numbers.

They're matching 2024 turnout numbers so far.

And Ocean County in general is going to be a huge county for Jack Tuterelli.

They need to turn out really big, to Julie's point, to offset some of the bigger numbers in some of the urban communities and the more densely populated communities in New Jersey.

And we should note that that VOD did endorse Governor Murphy in the last election.

Julie, Jeanette talks about federalizing this election, and obviously Mikey Sherrill has made a big push to make this a referendum on President Trump.

But when we look at a lot of the latest polling, it shows that Governor Murphy has a lower favorability rating than President Trump does here in New Jersey.

Has she miscalculated?

Has she made a misstep in trying to really make this about President Trump and stopping him?

Look, I mean, Democrats, especially Mikey Sherrill, are in a tough bind this year.

Jeanette actually hit the nail on the head.

You have eight years of uniparty rule in New Jersey, so it's very easy for Jack Torelli to come out and say, if you're not happy and voters are not happy, you should vote for me.

Having said that, the question is, what are voters not happy about?

We know that they're unhappy.

We know that affordability is a problem that they're concerned about.

Who are they blaming for that problem?

Are they blaming the Democrats, who have been in power for the last eight years, as Jack Ciattarelli hopes?

Or are they blaming Donald Trump and all of the massive draconian cuts to the budget and to the tariffs and everything else that he's been accomplishing over the last nine months that have really, really hit people in the pocketbook?

That's what Mikey Sherrill hopes.

And so she has really no choice because as I said, voters are deeply unhappy.

They're deeply unhappy about their pocketbooks.

She has to make sure that he blamed Donald Trump and not Jack Giannulli.

Jeanette final thoughts.

Has Jack been smart in his keeping this really focused on New Jersey.

Just a couple of seconds left.

Yeah, I mean, he's been so strategic in talking directly to voters, going to places where Republicans usually don't go.

I mean, I have never seen a higher energy campaign from a Republican or from any candidate.

He's been all over the state.

So, you know, he's just really run a commendable campaign focused on New Jersey, laser focused on property taxes, lowering taxes, lowering costs, lowering energy rates, you name it.

Whereas, Mikey Sherrill, I just still don't think she's made the case to New Jersey voters that she even knows what the issues are to lead the state going forward.

Well, we will see which one ends up pulling out in the end.

We'll be covering this all day tomorrow.

Thank you both for your insight.

Look forward to talking to you both after this is all done.

Thanks very much.

Thanks for having us.

Tune in tomorrow night for our NJ Decides 2025 election coverage live on NJPBS and streaming on NJSpotlightNews.org and on our YouTube channel.

NJ Spotlight News anchor Brianna Vannozzi will bring you live updates starting at 8 p.m.

on the hour and then full coverage at 10 p.m.

with reporters including myself live at Republican Jack Ciuttarelli and Democrat Mikey Sherrill's campaign headquarters along with key race updates from around the state and analysis from our panel of experts.

We'll bring you all the results you need all night long right here on NJPBS.

42 million Americans are facing hunger and food insecurity this week as the funding for SNAP, a federal nutrition assistance program, officially ran out this weekend.

800,000 people in New Jersey are at risk.

Now, two federal judges ruled that the Trump administration must continue to fund the program, but the White House announced today it'll only send partial payments out this month, tapping emergency funding to cover about half the amount that people normally get.

It's still unclear when those funds will actually be released, though, to get food to those in need.

As of today, they're still waiting and looking for alternatives to feed themselves and their families.

Raven Santana has more.

I'm really scared.

I am.

I don't know what I'm gonna do.

I have chronic pain.

Um, yeah, I really, I don't know.

I'm just trying, I just know I'm trying to stay calm all the time.

New Jersey is under a state of emergency as SNAP funding ran out this weekend amid the ongoing government shutdown.

Today the Trump administration said it would use emergency funds to pay for about half of SNAP recipients' usual monthly benefits.

But it's still unclear when those funds will become available, leaving more than 800,000 New Jersey residents, including Pensauk and mom Sharon Barton, uncertain about how they'll afford food.

To go out and pick out my own food, you have to take that from me too.

State agencies and food banks are urging SNAP recipients to check their balances and reach out to local food assistance programs.

And the Murphy administration has released $42.5 million in state food and hunger grants ahead of schedule to help food banks meet the surge in demand.

Fast as it comes in is as fast as it's going out, going out prior to this.

So when we think about the need and how we're going to meet it, that's really what keeps us up at night.

Jessica Padilla Gonzalez is the CEO of Kumac in Patterson, one of New Jersey's busiest food pantries.

She says they're already nearing a breaking point.

We wanted to give people the dignity of being able to pick and choose the foods that they want and that they need for their families.

But we've had conversations of limiting choice, maybe going back to prepack boxes if we get into that danger zone.

Padilla Gonzalez warns the impact could be devastating as Passaic County currently has the highest rate of families who rely on SNAP in the state, some of which come here.

So we are beyond ourselves, right?

200 people a day that need food, that need access to our services.

They're not missing their appointments.

They're coming more consistent.

We used to see 30 percent of people not showing up.

Now it's below 20.

Governor Murphy also signed a separate executive order establishing a task force on the federal suspension of SNAP benefits.

The task force will lead efforts across state agencies to protect food access for vulnerable residents.

Nearly half of New Jersey's SNAP recipients are children.

One in three have disability, and one in five are over 60.

We were already struggling with concerns about how we were going to serve our record numbers and now it's the same.

Padilla Gonzalez says they are now expanding resources in case federal help doesn't arrive before Thanksgiving.

We're hoping to organize and set up distribution sites for people who will no longer have their EBT.

It's still unclear when partial SNAP benefits will be loaded onto EBT cards for November.

In the meantime, pantries, community kitchens and food drives are stepping in to ensure they can feed as many families as possible.

For NG Spotlight News, I'm Raven Santana.

Between the SNAP benefits uncertainty and the FAA shortages, it feels like the shutdown is reaching a boiling point.

With us now to give us the latest is our Washington, D.C.

correspondent, Ben Hulak.

Ben, great to have you with us.

We are on the precipice of this being the longest shutdown in government history.

Can you just help us understand the context for that?

Yes, we almost certainly will get there unless there's really an unforeseen political breakthrough.

The next week or so, it says day 34 of the shutdown.

The longest shutdown was a few more days beyond that.

That happened during Donald Trump's first term as president.

And I just, before we started chatting, checked the last time the House voted here in Washington was September 19th.

So they have been gone ever since.

And this is the person who sets the agenda.

And again for viewers back at home I've said this many times over the past weeks.

That's a man named Mike Johnson the speaker.

And he again has kept his members out of Washington as a way to pressure Democrats into reaching some sort of deal.

But Democrats are not buckling.

And we are in a sort of perpetual cycle here where there is no breakthrough.

And in the meantime people are suffering financially.

Federal workers are feeling the pinch and folks are going hungry.

Snap benefits I know we'll get to in a minute here.

But there is no breakthrough in the foreseeable future.

Yeah.

You mentioned people going hungry and it feels like that is one of the key pain points here is these SNAP benefits that are due to run out.

Now the judge ordered today that there at least needs to be a partial payment made by the federal government to keep that program funded.

What do we know right now in terms of how much how long that can extend the funding for snap or where states need to step in and help.

It's it's not clear.

Snap is a pretty complicated program as it's administered.

It is carried out by the states.

So state carries out this level program in its own manner.

And it's sort of a moving target about how many how much demand there will be pressure points within the system.

Who's hungry.

It's not.

And of course the economy plays a factor if the economy is really booming and maybe people aren't as hungry as they as they are in in periods of economic crisis.

Demand is less on the system.

But this is a temporary patch.

This is not something that can last very long.

And ultimately it will turn back to Congress to find funding for spam.

We know that in the last federal shutdown the FAA shortages that really caused a whole lot of problems with flights coming in and out of airports was the tipping point to get the government reopened.

We obviously see as we talked about earlier in the show that is another pain point especially here in New Jersey with Newark Airport.

What can you say in regards to how that really did push us over.

Are we close to seeing the types of FAA shortages now that we saw in the last lengthy government shutdown which we know was late 2018 into early 2019.

Certainly seems like things are getting more dire right now in the second month of the shutdown.

And Thanksgiving I would point out is is pretty darn close.

It's November.

The calendar has we flip the page into a new month and sort of emotionally it feels different even though it's just a few extra days into this new month.

I spoke with actually someone who works within DHS and they did not want to speak publicly for fear they'd be punished by the Trump administration for talking to a reporter but they basically said every day is sort of this lottery and we keep losing we keep waiting for our number to hit and us to get paid and we don't and yeah as I said a few moments ago there is no legislation there is no political window here for both chambers of congress and the president to reach a funding deal so yeah there is a massive point of leverage that really could be brought to bear very soon especially if holiday flights are delayed and cancelled if there's a widespread outage or something.

These are people who work at keeping our skies safe and passengers safe in a really brutal job.

And to go without pay for now building two months is extremely stressful.

For sure.

You talked about the fact that Speaker Mike Johnson has not called the Congress back into session.

It's been more than a month.

Both sides here are really it seems playing politics with the moment.

And there are three critical elections obviously one here in New Jersey tomorrow one in Virginia.

They're also going to elect another governor.

And there is a New York mayoral mayoral race happening.

Do you think that both sides here are using this to their advantage as we go into Election Day.

The shutdown I would say neither side has really come off their marks.

They're pretty dug in and entrenched.

Democrats through the whole process here have been focused on the rising health care costs in particular from these new Obamacare premiums that will spike in the new year.

And Republicans have stuck to a pretty simple playbook which is hey we passed a clean bill out of the House and why don't five Democrats vote for this in the Senate and we can confront their lives.

And I think we get into a bit of dangerous territory if we're extrapolating sort of the broader like a mayoral race and connecting that with the shutdown.

I would say though there are certainly national implications for whatever happens in the governor's race in New Jersey and Virginia.

Folks should be looking for all sorts of political signs of how both parties will learn and build upon those elections.

And of course Mikey Sherrill if she wins the New Jersey governor's race who fills her seat.

Right.

She leaves her seat open.

Yeah.

Big questions.

We'll be following it.

Ben Hewlock Washington D.C.

correspondent.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's going to do it for us tonight.

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

Thanks for being with us.

Have a great night.

And we'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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