In final debate, Democratic candidates for governor spar over education, energy

In the final debate of the Democratic gubernatorial primary, five candidates positioned themselves for the final stretch of the election in a mostly calm affair.

The marathon two-and-a-half-hour debate focused on affordability and taxes, education, and transportation and development. Five Democratic candidates — Reps. Mikie Sherrill and Josh Gottheimer, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, and former State Senate President Steve Sweeney — qualified for the debate.

The sixth Democratic candidate, New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller, did not raise enough money to qualify for debates.

The candidates sparred over congestion pricing, especially Fulop, who has criticized Gov. Phil Murphy’s legal attempts to block congestion pricing, and Gottheimer, who has long opposed the policy.

Fulop said Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli began using his “reverse congestion pricing” idea, a plan to implement congestion pricing to people entering certain areas of New Jersey, but exempting the state’s residents. On Ciattarelli, Baraka responded, “I wouldn’t brag about that.”

Sweeney and Gottheimer said the state wouldn’t be allowed to exempt its residents under the Constitution, a claim Fulop rejected.

At times, Sherrill seemed happy to stand back and allow the others to bicker around her. The congresswoman, who many consider the frontrunner, did not get into a significant spat.

“I wanted to discuss the issues,” Sherrill told reporters after the debate. “If some bickering was going on — I’ve got four kids, I don’t really engage in bickering.”

On education, the candidates expressed frustration with the number of school districts across the state, which they said contributes to inconsistencies with school funding. Sherrill said she would consider reorganizing public education by county rather than municipality. The congresswoman pointed specifically to the Essex County Donald M. Payne Sr. School of Technology, which hosted the debate on Sunday.

“This is the kind of school that can really draw students from all over the county and defray a lot of the costs of our municipalities,” she said.

Baraka, when asked if schools in the state should back down on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues due to President Donald Trump’s threats to cut funding to programs that embrace DEI, said the state should not back down.

“We’re already at risk,” Baraka said. “We’re already in the crosshairs. And the idea that we should moderate ourselves in this moral moment is wrong.”

Gottheimer said the state should focus on consolidating its educational system and cutting down on administrative costs for schools. The congressman focused on his Lower Costs, Lower Taxes platform throughout the debate.

“We’ve got to get the administrative costs down,” Gottheimer said. “We’ve got more superintendents than we have mayors. We’ve got to get more educators in the classroom to teach our kids.”

On energy, Sweeney said he helped support nuclear while in the legislature, but said he believed natural gas was still needed as clean energy grows, especially to increase the amount of energy production in the state.

“No one up here on the stage might say it, but I’m going to say it, we still need gas,” Sweeney said. “We can’t afford all this clean energy. We need more power. New Jersey used to export power to other states, we were the envy.”

Fulop said he didn’t believe the state should commit to natural gas and said increasing clean energy production should be the focus.

“We’re basically making a commitment for five years to construct it and for 50-plus years for it to exist,” Fulop said. “And you need to be realistic about climate change, and we need to lean in hard, even if it’s a tough conversation.”

Tuesday night’s debate was the second of a pair of debates sanctioned by the Election Law Enforcement Commission. NJ Spotlight News, NJ PBS, and WNYC sponsored the first debate last week. The New Jersey Globe hosted a non-ELEC-sponsored debate in February.

The New Jersey Globe, On New Jersey, and Rider University sponsored the debate, hosted at the Essex County Donald M. Payne Sr. School of Technology in Newark. Laura Jones of On New Jersey moderated the debate; David Wildstein and Joey Fox of the New Jersey Globe and Micah Rasmussen of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University served as panelists.

The complementary Republican debate will be held Tuesday at 7 p.m.

You can watch the full debate here.