>> Good evening and thanks for joining us on this Wednesday.

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

Republican Jack Cittarelli and Democrat Mikey Sherrill are hammering their message to voters.

We'll give you the latest on their ground game in these final days of the gubernatorial race.

Then we'll hear from strategists about how they see Election Day playing out.

And later, we look at an alarming investigation into New Jersey's health care system that exposes potentially life-threatening barriers to people with disabilities.

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

State leaders are commemorating the 13th anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, which devastated the coastline, causing billions of dollars worth of damage.

The record-breaking storm surge swallowed boardwalks, beaches and homes, and devastated entire communities with widespread flooding.

Thousands were displaced.

38 New Jersey residents lost their lives.

The state is marking the anniversary just after Hurricane Melissa slammed into Jamaica, leaving dozens dead and missing in its path through Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

A reminder of just how vulnerable coastal communities are to powerful storms that are striking more often and with greater intensity.

Sandy survivors, though, continue their calls for stronger climate resilience and a more responsive FEMA.

Senator Andy Kim is urging continued investment into disaster recovery, and there are still plenty of homeowners in need.

According to Congressman Frank Pallone's office, more than 900 households in New Jersey are owed some 31 million in clawbacks from the federal government.

Also tonight, state health officials are investigating a new measles case linked to a passenger who traveled through Newark Airport earlier this month.

Authorities say the passenger is not from New Jersey, but spent more than three hours in Terminal B on October 19th from about 2.15 to 5.30 p.m., potentially exposing others to the highly contagious virus.

The incident marks the latest string of similar alerts at Newark Airport this year, reported in March, May and July.

There's no declared outbreak in the state, but the health department has confirmed 10 measles cases in 2025.

That's up from seven the year prior.

Nationally, measles infections have surged to their highest levels in three decades due to falling vaccination rates with over 1600 cases and three deaths reported across the US this year.

Health officials are urging anyone who may have been at Terminal B during that window to monitor for symptoms including fever and rash and if you suspect you're ill don't just walk into an urgent care or an ER unannounced.

Call ahead so the staff can take the proper precautions.

And another Hollywood heavyweight is setting up shop in New Jersey.

Paramount Skydance has signed a minimum 10-year lease for a major piece of Bayonne's upcoming 1888 Studios, which is set to be a 58-acre production campus being called one of the largest in the Northeast.

Paramount will take over about six acres of that massive complex to hold 23 sound stages, post-production suites, offices, and even a waterfront backlot.

Governor Murphy says the deal cements New Jersey's place as a global powerhouse for film and TV, thanks to generous tax credits the state is offering.

Studios are eligible to receive a tax incentive up to 40 percent for productions filmed here.

That program has helped drive a record 833 million in production spending across the state last year.

1888 Studios, by the way, takes its name from the year Thomas Edison patented one of the first motion picture cameras.

The studio is expected to be up and running by 2028.

And coming up, big money and big stakes.

How are the candidates for governor spending their final days of the race as they fight for every vote?

That's next.

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It is the final sprint to Election Day and the race for governor has kicked into overdrive.

Both Democrat Mikey Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli are barnstorming the state, rallying crowds and rolling out endorsements.

The national interest in the contest, one of just two gubernatorial races on the ballot nationwide, has brought in big spending.

The Republican and Democratic Governors Associations have poured in close to 30 million far outpacing contributions to the 2021 governor's race.

As of Friday, more than 90 million had been spent by both the campaigns and independent committees.

But will it get more voters to the polls?

Senior correspondent Joanna Gaggis has the story from the campaign trail.

6 days and a wake up!

We are there!

It's time to vote, it's time to win, it's time to change the direction of New Jersey.

Let's get this done.

In this final week of the governor's race, both campaigns have rolled out their buses for a tour of the state, trying to reach as many voters as possible.

Democrat Mikey Sherrill and Republican Jack Cittarelli driving home the messages that will fire up their respective crowds.

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

We've got to get rid of cashless bail.

We're getting rid of policy 57-56.

This notion of school districts keeping secrets from parents is immoral, it's indecent, it's wrong, it's dangerous.

It ends on day one of my administration.

Also on day one, you'll get a new energy master plan.

I will lower your electricity bills on day one.

We know what's at stake.

Everything we care about from driving down electricity costs, housing costs, health care costs, to making sure we're protecting rights and freedoms for all of our communities.

I am looking around this crowd and I am seeing what New Jersey looks like.

It's all of us.

It's everybody having a seat at the table.

It's everybody having a great education regardless of zip code.

Both Cheryl and Chittarelli are hosting multiple rallies every day this week.

They're also relying on a massive ground game that includes canvassers on the streets and on the phones.

Eric Arpert is Chittarelli's campaign manager.

We've got teams in every county, frankly in every town, out knocking on doors, making phone calls, texting.

It's so important that people get out there and text their friends and neighbors, call their friends and neighbors, knock on their doors and tell them why this election is so important.

We cannot afford more of the same here in New Jersey.

Sherrill's campaign says they've made history with the reach of their ground game, knocking on 1.1 million doors and sending more than 6.7 million texts and more than 3.8 million phone calls.

About half of that happening in just the last week with more to come, says campaign manager Sean Higgins.

"We're also seeing that energy and enthusiasm translate into the early voting numbers where we've seen that Democrats have built up a really strong firewall outperforming what Democrats saw in 2021 and 2024.

While there might still be some undecided voters out there, you won't find too many at these rallies.

They tend to turn out the party faithful.

I'm voting for Mikey Sherrill.

The reason I'm doing that is because she believes in the environment and the environment is very important to me.

She also brings to the table diversity inclusion equity all the things that make democracy great.

Everything that we need care for that makes us a country that's decent and humane is being threatened by Chitorelli and cronies who are only out to enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else.

I wanted Jack Chitorelli.

I voted for him the last time.

I'm a Trump supporter.

I believe in the Republican issues and I'm a conservative person.

The state is going in the wrong direction.

We're looking forward to somebody like Jack Chitorelli being our governor, making the quality of life, law enforcement.

The cost of living is way too high.

How do you feel the momentum is for you right now?

It's great right now.

I mean the energy has been electric all across the state and minority communities.

Our reception has been overwhelmingly positive and when Democrats are endorsing you up and down the state, that's usually a really good sign.

We picked up another big endorsement yesterday.

Do you think you have this?

I do.

But we're not going to take anything for granted.

We'll work hard over the last six days and we'll get it done.

Jack Torelli says that he has the momentum in this last week.

What do you see?

What do you feel?

You know, I don't think any of the voting shows that, whether it's vote by mail or the early in-person voting.

We're feeling the energy on the ground.

Obviously today, well, a Tuesday morning, to see the excitement has been great.

And I also think that, you know, getting so many young people out has been wonderful to see in this election.

-Cheryl's campaign is pulling in several heavy hitters later this week, starting with former U.S.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tomorrow and former President Barack Obama on Saturday.

Chittarelli's campaign says he'll be out every day, just like he's been all election season.

Both candidates say they're pushing through the finish line.

What we say in the military, you can sleep when you're dead.

We need to do what championship teams do.

What do championship teams do?

They finish strong and they win championships.

Both confident, but in the end, there will only be one winner.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Joanna Gagas.

Yeah, and both parties say they see a path to victory, but the messaging and the margins matter more than ever.

Here to break down who has the upper hand heading into Tuesday is Republican strategist Jeanette Hoffman and Democratic strategist Dan Bryant.

Jeanette and Dan, great to see you both.

I know you are both in the final sprint, so happy to have you on.

Obviously, when we talk about the state at a statewide level, it's pretty reliably blue.

Why is this race then at the top of the ticket so darn competitive?

How did we get here, Dan?

Listen, New Jersey, as blue a state as we are, we've always had competitive statewide elections, especially at the top of the ticket for governor.

And listen, we'll see on Tuesday how competitive this really is.

The race feels like it's widening a little bit.

I think what you see is certainly an experienced candidate in Jack Ciarilli, who's been running for governor for about a decade now.

But he's up against a candidate that cleared the field in the Democratic primary, an exceptional candidate with a strong GOTV operations.

Early vote numbers look very good.

So as competitive as it has felt, I wouldn't be surprised if you saw a big election night for Jack, for Mike, Mikey, Cheryl, Jenna, I'm going to guess that you disagree with that.

What's your take on, on how this race has become so tight.

Well, you guessed right.

I mean, listen, this race is tight because people know Jack Cittarelli is the real deal.

He is connecting with voters up and down the state.

He's built a big broad coalition of people, Republicans, independents, Democrats who are ready to support him because he will bring change to New Jersey after eight years of Governor Murphy raising property taxes to the highest rates in the country, escalating our energy bills, just not delivering for New Jerseyans.

Mikey Sherrill, she hasn't said how she will do anything different from what Phil Murphy has done.

Her only campaign platform is Donald Trump is bad.

And that's just not enough to deliver when you're running for the most powerful governorship in the entire country.

All right Dan let me ask you about what a lot of the pollsters have talked about in terms of enthusiasm with the base.

Some comparisons even across the river with the mayoral race in New York City and how that has really generated a lot of enthusiasm among the progressives.

Is the camp at all concerned about the enthusiasm level and whether or not Mikey Sherrill has been able to rev up the base in that way?

So I think there's been a pretty big gap between where the pundits are on the enthusiasm gap and where it actually is on the ground.

We just saw this this past weekend.

Both candidates are out on a bus tour.

Mikey Sherrill drew big crowds everywhere she went.

Jack Chiarelli's was was not so much pretty sparse crowds.

We're seeing it also in the early votes.

Right.

So if we stop talking about vibes which we tend to do a lot in punditry and we're really talking about the numbers what we're seeing is a bigger early vote plurality at this point that Mikey Sherrill has than Phil Murphy had four years ago.

It looks like she's at around plus 225,000 votes plurality right now with still a week to go and we know this last week is when the most votes come in so that's only going to grow.

Governor Murphy went into election night in 2021 with only 240, 250,000 vote plurality.

Mikey Sherrill is going to surpass that easily and that was enough as you remember to help bring him over in a worst case scenario election day.

So Mikey Sherrill is where she needs to be right now in terms of the actual numbers.

I really can't speak to the vibes.

All I can speak to is the enthusiasm on the ground has been there for her.

Jeanette, have Democrats built this firewall in the early voting as Dan suggests?

I mean, it's something like 183,000 for the margin that it's grown to for these early votes with the mail-in ballots anyway for Democrats.

Do they have the firewall here when it comes to that early voting?

Well, Republicans are used to this, and we're right where we need to be.

I actually think Mikey Sherrill is underperforming what Phil Murphy did in 2021.

If you look at the in-person voting, Phil Murphy was up 12 percent going into Election Day on just early in-person voting.

Mikey Sherrill is only like 1.6 percent right now on day four.

So, I don't think she's where she needs to be.

She's turning out three or four voters, Democratic voters.

This is what the machine does.

But, eventually, she's going to have to -- she's going to run out of road here.

Jack Ciattarelli, he is breaking well with undecided, independent voters who are going to decide this race.

Now, remember, Jack Ciattarelli, he only lost by 84,000 votes.

He won Election Day by 12%.

If you look at the numbers right now, he'd only have to come into Election Day and win it by 11% to win this race.

And don't forget, we registered 166,000 Republicans since 2021.

So that's a huge difference in the numbers.

Republicans feel really confident that Jack Ciattarelli is surging right now, and momentum is where it needs to be.

Yeah, how should we interpret, Jeanette, those new voter registration numbers, that trend?

Is it a warning sign?

Well, I think it is a warning sign for Democrats.

Republicans are tired of Democrats not addressing their concerns of New Jersey being the most unaffordable state in the country, with the worst business taxes, highest property taxes, and now skyrocketing energy bills.

It's no surprise that New Jersey is turning redder.

If you just look at last year, 2024, President Trump turned counties red that hadn't gone red for a president since the Reagan administration.

And just this year, 30,000 new voters registered Republican while Democrats lost 10,000 voters.

So I think you're gonna see a lot of these new voters show up on election day and vote for Jack Ciuttarelli.

- By most accounts, in most polls, voters have said, more than half of voters have said that the president is a major factor in their vote for this race.

Who then stands to gain the most and lose the most?

Dan, I'll start with you.

- Listen, President Trump is more and more unpopular by the day.

I think his unpopularity is highest it's ever been at any point in either of his two terms.

Dissatisfaction with the economy is there.

The priorities are all over the place.

He's building a ballroom in the East Wing when he should be focusing on bringing down health care prices and trying to bring real employment to this economy.

So listen, that is going to drag on Jack Ciattarelli.

I don't think that is the reason Mikey Sherrill is going to win, but it is certainly going to be a deciding factor as people are going to the polls.

They're going to send a message to Republicans not only in the state but in Washington as to their dissatisfaction.

And I would also say this.

I mean, listen, Mikey Sherrill has led in every single poll that we've seen over these past few months.

Her early vote share is higher than it was for Democrats four years ago when they did win by three and a half points.

So it's very hard to see a path for Jack Ciatarelli to get in slimmer by the day.

Janette, Dan says the president will not be the reason Mikey Sherrill wins this race.

You say?

No, she won't because she's not going to win this race because she's trying to federalize this election.

And that's just Dan knows this doesn't work in New Jersey.

You have to give people a reason to vote for you.

And if she wants to talk about federal issues, I'll talk about how she hasn't voted to open the government.

And people are going to lose SNAP benefits on November 1st.

The ACA is going to increase.

And even Josh Gottheimer, her Democratic colleague, just said the other day, said Democrats should open the government and negotiate the ACA later.

John Thune has said that we can get legislation passed to negotiate on that.

So, she's wrong on shutting down the government.

But it's not going to be about federal issues.

It's going to be about New Jersey issues, how Democrats have failed to address property taxes, the cost of living, and our schools for the past eight years.

Dan, let me come to you.

And what are you looking for as far as any down-ballot implications?

Sure.

I think if you look at the legislative races, you know, Democrats have a close to historic margins in both houses of the legislature.

Certain looking for Democrats to hold districts like 3, 8, 16, 11, 38, which all feel pretty good right now.

I think there's also a pretty good chance that Democrats can flip districts like 21, maybe even 25, depending on how the night goes.

So, you know, the 23 was a really good opportunity for Republicans to pick up seats in the legislature.

They fumbled that they weren't able to do it.

I think what we're going to see in this year is pretty big Democratic plurality at the top of the ticket.

And it's not only going to help Democrats hold seats.

I think they're going to be able to pick up a few as well.

Jeanette, what are you watching for?

Well, I'm looking at some of the South Jersey seats that Democrats are trying to defend in Districts 3 and 4.

That flipped when Jack Ciattarelli had a really good showing in 2021.

I'm also looking at the split district of District 8 in South Jersey.

Andrea Katz is a Democrat there that I think might be vulnerable.

And also in Monmouth County, in my home district, in District 11, that's a split district -- that's not a split district.

It was a split district.

And Vingo Powell's running mates, I think, are a little bit nervous because Monmouth County is going to have very high turnout for Jack Cittarelli.

So, while I don't think the legislature could flip for Republicans, I think it could be a tough night for Democrats, as Republican turnout will be very high for Jack Cittarelli.

Janette Hoffman, Dan Bryan, great to talk to you both, as always.

Thanks so much.

Thanks for having us.

Thanks, Brianna.

Well, new reporting is exposing major failures within New Jersey's health care system.

Failures that advocates say are costing lives.

A NorthJersey.com investigative series finds that despite decades of disability rights laws, barriers remain everywhere.

People with disabilities describe routine care as a battleground of rushed appointments, inaccessible exam rooms and missed diagnoses.

Gene Myers worked on the investigation.

He's a reporter covering disability and mental health at the record and NorthJersey.com.

And he joins me now to share more about what he and his team uncovered.

Gene, welcome.

Thanks so much for sharing this reporting.

It was emotional and eye-opening.

What stood out to you when you gathered these personal experiences from folks across the state?

There are many different kinds of bias and how many barriers there are.

There is rushed care, inaccessible doctors' offices, doctors who are untrained.

There is just so much in every aspect of health care.

You open the piece with a bit about a woman named Kelly Boyd from Mercer County, who's lived most of her life with rheumatoid arthritis.

Can you share a little bit about the experiences that she told you about and what it's been like for her just to go to visit a doctor?

She had a number of terrible experiences.

She had an experience at one doctor's office where she called ahead to ask if they were accessible.

When she got there, there was a curb outside.

She was trying to manage the curb.

People saw her.

Employees, the receptionist saw her struggling to get in.

Nobody got up to help.

When she got into the office, the things like the exam table were not accessible.

They couldn't weigh her.

And then to top it all off, the doctor had no clue about her medical condition, rheumatoid arthritis, as you said, and asked her a couple of times if she was a dwarf because of her size, which was clearly the doctor hadn't done the homework.

The doctor didn't understand the condition, and she was insulted.

- How common were stories like Kelly's?

Was that the norm as opposed to the exception?

- It is the norm.

There's a ton of stories like hers.

Every ask, because disability, 25% of people have disabilities.

So it's a huge, it's a huge population.

have the silver tsunami coming.

And these are stories that won't just benefit people who maybe like Kelly, we think are kind of more typical of disability, that they'll, they'll be useful for everybody, accessibility, and understanding people's needs.

What are the consequences, Jean?

I mean, we talk about missed diagnoses.

What type of consequences, what are the outcomes when this is the type of care that these patients are getting?

The World Health Organization found that people with disabilities die up to 20 years earlier than people without disabilities.

And this wasn't because of their conditions.

This was because of inaccessibility.

When you have this much trouble going to the doctor, you don't go for your screenings.

It's harder to find doctors you can go to.

I found about five accessible clinics in the state.

Everybody else, it's a coin toss whether you're going to be able to get in, whether they will have the training to understand your condition, whether the exam equipment will work for you.

So what ends up happening is a lot of people don't do their routine maintenance, and that's even outside of things like Medicaid and other problems when it comes to paying for the visit.

Right.

I mean, so there's the training component for physicians, there's the accessibility, but also, as you say, as your reporting pointed to, is Medicaid and fewer New Jersey doctors who accept Medicaid.

What type of outcome does that lead to?

And what does it mean, especially for families whose children, adult children with disabilities, then age out of some options?

There's a couple of problems there.

I mean, New Jersey is the state with some of the few.

It's one of the worst states when it comes to accepting Medicaid payments.

That's number one.

As an adult, there's a lot less care available to you.

And again, the training, we find that pediatricians are often more flexible.

They're more likely to understand that appointments might take more time, that people might have different needs, might have to have things explained to them differently.

And so pediatricians are better at that.

And so when you have people with special cases, people who need more time, people, let's say, on the autism spectrum, typically, according to Autism New Jersey, they'll try to stay with their pediatricians as long as they can, because there's more understanding there.

- Very quickly, Jean, in the couple seconds we have left, what will your series look at next?

We're looking at a number of things.

We're looking at how care is managed in the state.

Often people with disabilities might find that their care is being managed not by their own doctors or nurses but by the people at these health insurance companies who, you know, maybe the real motive there is budget more than care.

Sure.

We'll find people who have lost nursing hours, therapy hours, things that they really need.

We'll be looking at Medicaid.

We'll be looking at a number of things.

Jean Myers, thank you so much for sharing this report and good to talk to you.

Thank you.

Support for The Medical Report is provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

That's going to do it for us tonight.

I'm Brianna Vannozzi.

For the entire team at NJ Spotlight News, thanks for being with us.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

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We work hand in hand with you, our neighbors, to educate young people, support research, environmental sustainability and equitable opportunities, provide training and other services all over New Jersey and Long Island.

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