Steve Fulop threw a forceful punch at two potential opponents in next year’s Democratic gubernatorial primary this week, accusing Mikie Sherrill and Josh Gottheimer of being deceptive as they campaign for re-election to a two-year term in Congress while planning almost immediately to run for another office in 2025.
“During these important times in a surely close Congress, you outright lie to your constituents about wanting to represent them in Washington when, in reality, you have no intention to do so,” Fulop said. “It begs the question about what else a person lies about and what their goals truly are.”
This is the fiercest shot yet in the fledging Democratic contest to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy and the latest in a series of unambiguously clear signals by Fulop that he’s unafraid to call out his opponents.
“I’m excited for Sherrill and Gottheimer to enter the race for governor as clearly they intend on doing,” stated Fulop. “I think there is lots to discuss around New Jersey and records overall, but as a starting point, just imagine being so insincere and disingenuous with your constituents that you outright mislead them on your intentions to serve in Congress.”
The partisan distribution in the next Congress won’t be clear until after the November 5 election. If Democrats win a 218-217 majority, a Sherrill or Gottheimer victory in the governor’s race could jeopardize control of the House; even moving quickly, it takes New Jersey five months to fill a congressional vacancy. But if one seat isn’t critical, it might temper the impact of the attack.
That doesn’t mean Fulop won’t continue to use the issue, or highlight votes his two likely opponents may miss as they mount a statewide campaign.
Sherrill and Gottheimer have deftly avoided an overt campaign for governor while running for Congress. This keeps them out of harm’s way if they want to participate in New Jersey’s gubernatorial public financing program next year. But both have been on the statewide circuit for more than a year. On Thursday, Sherrill was in Union County with Senate President Nicholas Scutari at an event that highlighted her bill to expand access to high-impact tutoring; at the same time, Gottheimer was in Monmouth County to announce legislation that would make family caregiving more affordable.
Both have accumulated significant – and public — pledges of support once they enter the race. Gottheimer has the backing of the Operating Engineers Local 825, and Sherrill will be the Laborers’ candidate; both are politically influential unions that will come with money and votes.
While it’s likely that office block ballots will replace the county lines, this year’s primary showed that organization support remains impactful. Sherrill appears to be the preferred candidate for Democratic county chairs in Middlesex, Essex, and Passaic, while Gottheimer has locked in significant endorsements in Hudson County.
While Sherrill and Gottheimer wait for one election to end – both are safe bets to win another term- and another to begin. Fulop has been an announced candidate for eighteen months and raised enough to qualify for the maximum matching funds last year. He’s been focusing on building and training a grassroots statewide organization in a post-line era and recruiting some Assembly candidates to take on incumbents in Democratic primaries.
Three other announced candidates are also raising money and actively seeking votes: former Senate President Steve Sweeney has several key unions with him, including the Carpenters, the Longshoremen, and the Ironworkers, and has the backing of South Jersey Democratic legislators and county chairs; Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has been organizing block parties across the state; and Sean Spiller, the president of the New Jersey Education Association, has seen an independent expenditure group backed by his union spend more than $600,000 to boost his candidacy as they backed other Democrats running for office this year.
Spiller did not seek re-election as mayor of Montclair this year. Fulop announced in early 2023 that he would not seek a third term as mayor of Jersey City in 2025.
“I never signed up for a job … that I didn’t finish my term,” he said.
In Virginia, Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger is walking away from her House seat after three terms to campaign full-time for governor. Spanberger, a Red Bank native, is Sherrill’s Capitol Hill roommate.
New Jersey and Virginia are the only states that elect governors in the year following a presidential campaign. New Jersey made a deliberate decision to keep gubernatorial and federal elections separate. That gives a Member of Congress a free shot at running for governor without risking their seat in Congress.
Since 1969, seven sitting House members have run for governor; two of them – Republican William Cahill and Democrat Jim Florio – won. Their congressional seats remained vacant for nearly a year.