U.S. Sen. Cory Booker and Republican challenger Rik Mehta will meet virtually for the first and only debate in the in the 2020 race for United States Senate in New Jersey at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
The debate, moderated by New Jersey Globe editor David Wildstein, presents Mehta with his one chance to make his case before a broad audience in a contest that race raters and other observers have already dismissed as a Democratic hold.
Mehta, a health care lawyer who served as a deputy division director at the Food and Drug Administration, faces a staggering cash disadvantage in his bid to oust a popular Democratic incumbent just months off of an unsuccessful presidential campaign.
In pre-general election campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission on Oct. 15, Booker reported having $5.4 million in cash reserves. Mehta had just $2,907.
He’s spent nothing directly on digital ads in the last week, while Booker has put $14,388 behind Facebook spots urging voters in New Jersey’s cities to return their mail-in ballots.
Mehta’s campaign said he’d put about $14,500 of digital ads up on Facebook through a select group of vendors, with the spending total closer to $25,000.
The challenger has rooted his campaign in criticism of Gov. Phil Murphy and his handling of the COVID-19 crisis.
He’s tied himself to the owners of Atilis Gym, which gained notoriety for flouting the governor’s shutdown orders early into the pandemic, and has claimed the governor tried to hamstring his campaign and its fundraising through condemnations of a Bedminster fundraiser President Donald Trump attended after being exposed through the virus.
Mehta attended the event and did not quarantine after Trump tested positive, saying he was more than 40 feet away from Trump at all times.
He later tested negative, but the saga still drew a rebuke from Murphy, who claimed to not know who the challenger was.
Booker, meanwhile, has kept a low campaign profile buoyed by his name recognition, national presence and institutional advantage.
Polls have marked the incumbent a clear favorite despite his relatively muted campaign. A Stockton University poll released earlier this month, one of only three this cycle that pitted Booker against Mehta, found the Democrat led by 25 points. Polls in April and September had him up 23 and 24 points, respectively.
The bad news for Mehta: Even a meltdown from Booker won’t do much to improve his chances, said Micah Rasmussen, director of Rider University’s Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics.
“I think the best case scenario is for Mehta to come out, articulate his vision, his agenda, his priorities and make his case as to why he’s the best candidate, and that’s the best he can do,” Rasmussen said. “But the idea that lightning is going to strike or that he’s going to make a dent is just probably not a realistic hope.”
The debate will air live on The New Jersey Globe and its Facebook, YouTube and Twitter pages. Two television networks — my9 in North Jersey at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct, 31, and Fox29 in South Jersey at 7 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1 — will rebroadcast the debate after it airs.
As of Tuesday morning, more than 2.6 million New Jerseyans had already returned their mail-in ballots.
Links to watch:
New Jersey Globe: newjerseyglobe.com
Facebook Live: facebook.com/newjerseyglobe
YouTube:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thenjglobe
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