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From NJ PBS 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 Reporter's Roundtable with David Cruz, who has a roundup of the top political stories of the week with the help of a panel of local journalists.

But first, the headlines.

Former President Barack Obama is jumping into the state's high-stakes governor's race, endorsing Democrat Mikey Sherrill in a new campaign video released with just three weeks to go before election day.

In the 32nd spot, Obama praises Sherrill as a mom who will drive down costs and keep communities safe.

Mikey's integrity, grit, and commitment to service are what we need right now in our leaders.

Mikey Sherrill is the right choice for your next governor.

So go vote by November 4th.

The high profile backing comes after her challenger, Republican Jack Ciatarelli, received endorsements from major players in the GOP, including President Trump.

And as new polling shows Sheryl maintaining a single digit lead in what's been a tightening race.

The latest Fairleigh Dickinson University survey puts Sheryl ahead 52 to 45 percent, with just 3 percent of voters saying they're still undecided in a race that's being closely watched across the country as an early referendum on President Trump's second term, and it could signal political mood heading into next year's midterm elections.

Meanwhile, a new Fox News poll shows a narrower edge for the Democrat, 50 to 45 percent.

Both, though, are consistent with past surveys, but suggest Sheryl's advantage is shrinking as Election Day approaches.

Also, Congressman Frank Pallone is blasting a plan he says will move most key services from Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch to a new hospital being built in Tinton Falls.

Pallone argues the move by RWJBarnabas Health, an underwriter of NJ Spotlight News, will strip Long Branch of key operations including labor and delivery along with acute care inpatient beds and the hospital license.

He blamed both Governor Murphy and his acting health commissioner for rejecting his proposal to keep the Long Branch site fully operational, mainly because it serves thousands of low-income and minority residents in the area.

According to information from RWJ, the new Titton Falls facility is being built to expand and modernize health care for more patients with options for new services that weren't available before.

A spokesperson for the governor's office told NJ Spotlight News in a statement, "Congressman Pallone is entitled to his own views, but not his own facts," pointing out that the emergency department and certain services will remain in long branch.

Public hearings are required before a final decision.

And state leaders are adding an extra incentive in the effort to ban cell phones in K-12 schools, offering money to local districts that comply through the New Jersey Department of Education's Phone Free Schools grant program.

Now, it launched this month to award funding to districts that adopt the bell-to-bell cell phone policy, which requires student devices to be stored from the start of the day until dismissal.

The minimum grant will hit around 500 bucks to be used for things like lock pouches, bins and cabinets, plus training for staff.

Any schools that have adopted plans allowing cell phones during lunch or recess won't qualify.

The push follows a recent state commission report warning social media and constant phone uses harming students.

Districts have until October 31st to apply.

And those are our top headlines.

Reporter's roundtable with David Cruz begins now.

How many haymakers can one election cycle take?

Hey, everybody.

It's Reporters Roundtable.

I'm David Cruz.

Final rounds of what turned into a slugfest of a governor's race.

Our panel of ringside judges includes Sofinietta Munoz.

She's a reporter with New Jersey Monitor.

Brent Johnson covers politics for NJ Advanced Media, and he's the editor of the What Makes Jersey Run newsletter.

>> And I'm a big fan of the WNYC radio show.

>> And I'm a big fan of the WNYC radio show.

>> And I'm a big fan of the WNYC radio show.

>> And I'm a big fan of the WNYC radio show.

>> And I'm a big fan of the WNYC radio show.

>> And I'm a big fan of the WNYC radio show.

>> And I'm a big fan of the WNYC radio show.

>> And I'm a big fan of the WNYC radio show.

>> I'm a big fan of the WNYC radio show.

>> I'm a big fan of the WNYC radio show.

>> I'm a big fan of the WNYC radio show.

>> I'm a big fan of the WNYC radio show.

>> I'm a big fan of the WNYC radio show.

>> Yeah, this is pretty low.

I've seen some Donnie Brooks in my day as far as politics, but I've never seen a defamation suit even being floated as a possibility in all of the races I've covered between two states.

>> Also, Ken, nobody says Donnie Brooke anymore.

>> Sophie, you got the governors, you got the assembly races now, you got municipal elections, seven candidates in Jersey City, six in Hoboken.

You cannot escape the ads.

When will it end, and have you seen things worse ever?

>> In my few years of covering this, I have not seen it get this ramped up in the end, I would say.

I have seen all the ads, and I mean, the ads are, they're up in the ante, too.

We've seen Mikey Sherrill double down on the connecting Jack to the opioid crisis.

And the Opioid Jack website, we've seen Jack really commit to these naval disciplinary records that he wants the congresswoman to release.

So I think that, you know, three weeks left, who's to say what ads are going to come out, what else is going to come across.

But I expect it to keep going.

Yeah.

Brent, all the things, military service, sales tax, opioids publications, pharmaceutical investments.

If these campaigns don't watch out, nobody's going to end up voting.

Yeah, I mean, and that's the biggest thing.

We're now less than three weeks to Election Day, and the focus will be narrowing on the final stretch.

Now you have national Democrats or Republicans coming in to campaign for these people.

Barack Obama just formally endorsed Mikey Sherrill.

Donald Trump is supposed to hold telephone town halls for Chittarelli.

So you know you will see more punches being thrown.

But what I keep hearing behind the scenes is that Democrats or Republicans want these candidates to stop fighting and just talk about the biggest issues in the race and poll show.

That's taxes energy rates affordability.

So a lot of insiders are saying this is all just noise.

Just say what you're going to do to lower people's bills.

Let me stick with you here Brent.

We're waiting for the lawsuits from Chittarelli over Cheryl's comments about his medical publishing company.

She said he killed 10000 Is there going to be a suit and what's the holdup?

Well, he has said there's going to be a suit and there's a slight holdup because they did campaign, the Strada Rally campaign, wants to make sure that this lawsuit doesn't count against the public money they can receive in matching funds and what they're allowed to spend.

So they want to make sure that there's nothing that could hurt them from spending money in the final weeks of the race.

So he hasn't formally filed a lawsuit yet.

And as we've learned from these campaigns sometimes we might not even be talking about this in a few days.

There's so much going on and so much heat that you know do you remember the whole thing about her military records and the Navy cheating scandal.

I do but I don't know if anybody else does.

And that may be a case of this being this here.

Yeah.

Sophie Terrence McDonald wrote that maybe Cheryl went a little bit too far with with this line of attack.

Even our totally scientific X poll agreed.

But she's doubling down.

Any sense that this hurts her with voters.

I think the fact that she's doubling down means that she has some idea of the fact that this could be helpful to her.

I mean some polling somewhere.

Yeah I mean even just yesterday in the Inquirer she talked about it again and she called Jack a big baby and like Brent said insiders they're saying that they want them to focus on policy again.

You know this opioid issue it is she's making it a really important issue but it doesn't address what's on the top of voters minds.

affordability, property taxes, utility prices, grocery costs.

I mean none of that is addressed with talking about a company that Jack had you know nine ten years ago.

yeah and now of course the gateway tunnels project terminated says the president.

the Sheryl campaign was all over that this week.

Chitorelli put out a post that says this shows how important it is to have close ties to the White House along those lines.

New Jersey needs a governor who has the standing to work with and when necessary disagree with the president, etc.

etc.

Cheryl responded to that at a press conference in Secaucus this week and said this.

I think if you are going to work with this president you have to come of a strong stance of advocating for your state and what you want to see and then you can negotiate.

I mean my opponent gives up before the negotiations start.

He starts from a position of whatever you want we'll do.

That's not leverage.

That's not negotiation.

I don't think there's anything that's a little more telling about the kind of power Jack Chitorelli would have with the president than the fact that 19 days until his election the president's punched him in the face like this.

That's pretty telling.

I would punch him in the face.

Brent tough to gain ground when the president is cutting you off at the knees like that.

I mean he could have waited a couple of weeks.

Yeah it's funny.

I literally just wrote this week's newsletter about what kind of effect Trump is having on the race.

How are we shaping the race.

And this happened in the middle of me getting set to publish.

And it shows Trump is very active in the race.

He cares a lot about New Jersey.

And sometimes that might not necessarily help the candidate as he's in the middle of a shutdown intense negotiations.

So what Trump give it can also take it away in Chatterley's case.

And he's already walking a fine line on the president.

So we'll see how this plays out in a few weeks.

Yeah Kenny I mean you guys in South Jersey may not have this top of mind but do voters care about the gateway shutdown or the gateway termination.

Thank you for pointing out the irony that you ask the guy to cover South Jersey mostly.

They care.

I care as a central Jersey resident because you still have that relationship between Philadelphia at the very least in New York.

You have some people that live in Philly and live in South Jersey who takes trains to New York and comes back and come back home the same day.

So it might not affect the whole lot.

But I'm sure that there's some care especially even outside of work.

You go to New York weekend sporting games and other events.

Let's move over to you Brent.

How big an issue is that the gateway.

Yeah it's it's it's it's obviously a lot of people especially in North Jersey commute into New York every day and it is going to be an issue with them.

But it's more symbolic of is Donald Trump going to take away things from New Jersey.

And what if Chitarelli was governor would he be able to fight and stop that.

And what would he do.

And that's the point Cheryl is making.

And Chitarelli is saying I'm going to be a lot better positioned to deal with Trump because I have his support.

Sophie Trump is supposed to call into some of these Chitarelli rallies through November.

Should Chitarelli take the phone off the hook or hit DND in his settings?

I think maybe he should do a little bit of both depending on where he wants to make the inroads.

Because you have super MAGA voters who want somebody who is going to reflect Trump's policies in New Jersey.

But he's also got to make he also has to work at picking up some of those moderate, more independent voters who maybe they don't resonate with Trump's policies so much.

And especially in the backtrack of the government shutdown, it probably would not be as good of a move as this keeps going on, keeps getting worse and starts to affect people's daily lives like we just saw with the gateway funnel tunnel funding.

Will he will he walk with him some on down some Main Street, you think shaking hands?

I'm not sure we're gonna see Donald Trump walking around Main Street in New Jersey Anytime soon if I had to put my money on it Brent what do you think?

What will there be a joint appearance somewhere other than in the deep in the south of Jersey?

I Doubted although I was talking to a Republican this week with not direct ties to Trump but close enough ties to Trump and they were saying that it's really a matter of logistics that Trump doesn't like really appearing outdoors anymore since his assassination attempt in the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

But I don't know if they'll find an indoor venue or whether they want him to find an indoor venue.

It's a very delicate balance, as I wrote about this week, that Cettarelli has to walk.

And Trump can help him with MAGA voters because the question is, will they turn out in a non-presidential election year?

But he also has to worry about those undecideds, independents