Four Democratic candidates for State Assembly in the hotly-contested, Hudson County-based 32nd district will meet in a debate at 8:15 PM tonight sponsored by the New Jersey Globe, On New Jersey, and Rider University.
Ravi Bhalla, Katie Brennan, Jennie Pu, and Yousef Saleh will face off in a 50-minute discussion on issues that concern voters in Jersey City and Hoboken. Laura Jones will moderate the debate, along with New Jersey Globe reporter Joey Fox and Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University.
Two other candidates, Jessica Ramirez and Crystal Fonseca, are unable to attend the debate, which was arranged on short notice in recognition of the tight contest between the three slates of candidates.
Ramirez, an assemblywoman from Jersey City, is seeking re-election to a second term on a slate headed by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Fulop, the mayor of Jersey City. Saleh, a Jersey City councilman, is running with her.
The other incumbent, freshman John Allen (D-Hoboken), is not running again.
Bhalla, the two-term mayor of Hoboken, is running with Brennan, a former Murphy administration housing official. Pu, the director of the Hoboken Public Library and a Jersey City PTA leader, is running with Fonseca.
At 9:15 PM, Frank Pallotta, a candidate for the Republican nomination for Assembly in the 39th district, will appear alone; Assemblymen Robert Auth (R-Old Tappan) and John Azzariti (R-Saddle River) declined, citing prior commitments. This debate was also arranged on short notice.
