New Jersey

Primary day in New Jersey governor's race could offer hints on how voters feel about Trump

Published

6 months ago

June 10, 2025

Primary day in New Jersey governor's race could offer hints on how voters feel about Trump

TRENTON, N..J. (AP) — New Jersey voters on Tuesday will settle the Democratic and Republican primaries for governor in a contest that could send signals about how the public is responding to President Donald Trump’s agenda and how Democratic voters think their leaders should push back.

New Jersey is one of just two states with a race for governor this year — the other is Virginia — and the fact two-term Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy is term-limited has created fresh drama for the open seat.

There’s a six-way race on the Democratic side that features several seasoned political figures. Trump’s endorsement of former state lawmaker Jack Ciattarelli may have given him a boost on the Republican side, where he faces four primary challengers.

Polls are open from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. Tuesday, but it’s not the only day of voting. Early in-person voting was held from June 3-8. Mail-in ballots were sent to voters beginning in April.

The contest hinges in part on New Jersey issues, including high property taxes and the soaring cost of living, but national politics are sure to figure in. Trump, who has long had a strong presence in New Jersey, waded into the race with his endorsement, attacking Democratic control of state government. Democrats are looking for a winning message and leadership after the sting of bitter losses in 2024.

“Because these are the first major elections since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, there’s a tremendous amount at stake simply through public perception,” said Ben Dworkin, director of the Rowan Institute for Public Policy & Citizenship.

For Democrats? “They’ll just get further in a hole if they don’t hold this seat,” he said.

For Republicans? They could win because New Jersey tends to be purple during gubernatorial years, Dworkin said, but that would be viewed as a tremendous victory for Trump.

The Democrats running are Mayors Ras Baraka of Newark and Steven Fulop of Jersey City; U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill; teachers union President Sean Spiller and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney. The Democratic campaign has been hard fought and pricey, with tens of millions spent in one of the country’s most expensive media markets.

On the Republican side, most of the candidates declared their support for the president’s agenda, pressing for a state-level version of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. They’ve also said they would end so-called sanctuary policies and, in a New Jersey-specific pitch, called for the end of the state’s 2020 law banning single-use plastic bags.

Ciattarelli has said he would sign an order on his first day in office ending New Jersey’s Immigrant Trust Directive, which bars local police from cooperating with federal officials on civil immigration matters. He has also said he would direct whomever he names attorney general to end lawsuits against the Trump administration, including a case aimed at stopping the president’s order ending birthright citizenship for people whose parents were in the country illegally.

Murphy, who became the first Democrat to be reelected in more than four decades in 2021, is barred from running again by term limits and hasn’t endorsed a successor in the primary.

Both parties will look to build their general election campaigns on widespread voter frustration. For Democrats, that means focusing on the parts of Trump’s aggressive second-term agenda that are unpopular. Republicans, meanwhile, are casting blame for economic hardships on Democrats who’ve run state government for the last eight years.

New Jersey has been reliably Democratic in Senate and presidential contests for decades. But the odd-year races for governor have tended to swing back and forth, and each of the last three GOP governors has won a second term.

Democrats have the largest share of registered voters in the state, followed closely by independent voters and then Republicans, who have roughly 800,000 fewer registrations than the Democratic Party. But the GOP has made gains in recent years, shaving the Democrats’ lead of more than 1 million more registrations to the current level.

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New Jersey

63 mph wind was clocked during Friday’s storms. See top gusts in each N.J. county.

Published

36 minutes ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

63 mph wind was clocked during Friday’s storms. See top gusts in each N.J. county.

Trees were blown down. Electrical poles were snapped. And Christmas decorations went flying off lawns.

All thanks to Friday’s intense storms, which generated wind gusts as strong as 63 mph at the High Point Monument in Sussex County, 60 mph at Teterboro Airport in Bergen County and 60 mph in Belleville in Essex County.

Those were among the highest gusts clocked across the Garden State, according to the National Weather Service and the Rutgers NJ Weather Network.

Fierce gusts also were whipping down in South Jersey and along the Jersey Shore, and triggered more than 40,000 power outages across the state Friday afternoon and Friday evening.

Here’s a look at the highest wind gusts reported in each of New Jersey’s 21 counties on Friday:

Atlantic County

52 mph at Atlantic City International Airport
51 mph in Forsythe
48 mph at Atlantic City Marina
47 mph in Brigantine
45 mph in Pleasantville
44 mph in Pleasantville Point

Bergen County

56 mph at Teterboro Airport
47 mph in Lyndhurst

Burlington County

52 mph at McGuire AFB
48 mph at Coyle Field
47 mph at South Jersey Regional Airport
46 mph in Moorestown
41 mph in Tabernacle
40 mph in Silas Little
40 mph in Medford Village

Camden County

52 mph in Pennsauken
41 mph in Blue Anchor

Cape May County

50 mph in Avalon
49 mph in Cape May
49 mph in Cape May Harbor
46 mph in Wildwood
46 mph in Ocean City
42 mph in Woodbine
41 mph at Woodbine Municipal Airport
40 mph in North Wildwood

Cumberland County

48 mph in Fortescue
47 mph in Upper Deerfield
45 mph in Millville
44 mph in Greenwich
39 mph in Vineland

Essex County

60 mph in Belleville
59 mph at Newark Liberty Airport
45 mph in Caldwell

Gloucester County

60 mph in Logan Twp.
45 mph at Kingsway Regional H.S.
42 mph in West Deptford
41 mph in South Harrison

Hudson County

41 mph in Bayonne
40 mph in Jersey City

Hunterdon County

47 mph in Pittstown
44 mph in Teetertown
40 mph in Milford

Mercer County

52 mph at Trenton Mercer Airport
48 mph in Hopewell Twp.
44 mph in Woodsville
43 mph in Ewing

Middlesex County

51 mph in Perth Amboy
47 mph in Carteret
47 mph in Deans (South Brunswick)
42 mph in East Brunswick
40 mph in New Brunswick

Monmouth County

56 mph in Sea Bright
56 mph in Keansburg
54 mph in Sea Girt
51 mph in Monmouth
46 mph in Cream Ridge
43 mph in Millstone Twp.
43 mph in Oceanport

Morris County

49 mph in Pompton Plains
46 mph in Morristown
41 mph at Pequannock Twp. High School
40 mph in Randolph

Ocean County

57 mph in Mantoloking
55 mph in Surf City
54 mph in Harvey Cedars
53 mph in Beach Haven
52 mph in Toms River
50 mph in North Beach Haven
49 mph in Berkeley Twp.
49 mph in Seaside Heights
49 mph at Rutgers
48 mph in Seaside Park
47 mph at Trixies Landing
46 mph in Tuckerton
46 mph in North Beach
43 mph in South Seaside Park

Passaic County

44 mph in Charlotteburg
30 mph in Little Falls

Salem County

52 mph in Lower Alloways Creek
44 mph in Mannington Twp.

Somerset County

47 mph in Franklin Twp.
44 mph in Somerville
41 mph in Hillsborough
41 mph in Manville

Sussex County

63 mph at High Point Monument
50 mph in Hardyston Twp.
41 mph in Sussex

Union County

59 mph at Newark Liberty Airport
49 mph in Linden

Warren County

47 mph in Stewartsville
40 mph in Blairstown
39 mph in Hackettstown

Current weather radar

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New Jersey

Noesen’s Power Play Goal Pushes Devils Past Mammoth | GAME STORY | New Jersey Devils

Published

13 hours ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

Noesen’s Power Play Goal Pushes Devils Past Mammoth | GAME STORY | New Jersey Devils

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – The Devils spent much of the night against the Utah Mammoth searching for answers on the power play, watching chances come and go, starting the game 0-for-4 with the man-advantage. That frustration finally broke when Stefan Noesen planted himself in the crease and finished in tight on Karel Vejmelka to give New Jersey the breakthrough they desperately needed.

“Great road win,” Brett Pesce said. “Didn’t have our best, myself included, felt like I hadn’t played in two months,” Brett Pesce said. “You know what, we got a win, we grinded it out, good teams find ways to get to two points.”

Noesen’s conversion provided a much-needed release on an ailing power play, and the timing made it even more significant. Not only did it snap the drought, but it also handed the Devils their first lead of the night against the Mammoth, one they would hang on to win 2-1 in Utah.

Not to be outdone, Jacob Markstrom was rock solid, allowing just a single goal to Utah, in the first period. As the Devils tried to find their footing in the game, with failed power play opportunities, and Utah pressing hard, Markstrom held the fort.

“This one is on him tonight,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We don’t get the opportunity to hang around in the game and have big moments like we did in the third with the penalty kill and power play, if not for Marky and how held us in. We were outplayed for long stretches of the game, but it’s going to happen from time to time.”

The Devils had a gut-check moment at the end of the third period, when Dawson Mercer took a penalty in the dying minutes of the game and the Mammoth pulled their goalie for a 6-on-4. New Jersey came up with the clears and the blocks to hang on for the victory.

The Devils weren’t going to be denied the opportunity for a win, as Connor Brown explained:

“Marky deserved the win at that point, it was a bit scrambly, maybe a bit more scrambly than we would have liked but they got two extra guys on the ice, so it was nice to gut one out.”

Utah opened the game scoring with a first-period power-play goal by Daniil But, before Connor Brown tied the game in the second period, his second goal in as many games and his third in four.

“I’m playing my brand of hockey,” Brown said. “I’m being empowered a little more, playing a little more minutes than typically have over the last couple of years and it’s leading into a little bit more confidence, little bit more plays, so just kind of running with it.”

The Devils have started to find some more stride in their game and are winning four of their last six, including two straight on the two-game road trip through Vegas and Utah.

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New Jersey

NJ corrections officer charged with sexually assaulting prison inmates

Published

1 day ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

NJ corrections officer charged with sexually assaulting prison inmates

Staff report
| MyCentralJersey.com

A Piscataway man who works as a New Jersey Department of Corrections officer in the state’s prison for sex offenders has been charged with sexually assaulting two inmates.

Anthony Nelson, 37, was charged with sexually assaulting the inmates at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in the Avenel section of Woodbridge, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone announced.

Nelson was arrested without incident on Dec. 15 and charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault and two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual contact, Ciccone said.

The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office was alerted by New Jersey Department of Corrections Special Investigations Division on Dec. 1 that two inmates reported they were sexually assaulted by a correctional police officer over that past weekend, the prosecutor said.

An investigation led by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit along with the New Jersey Department of Corrections Special Investigations Division determined that Nelson allegedly sexually assaulted two inmates under his supervision, the prosecutor said.

Nelson was lodged at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center awaiting a preliminary hearing before a Superior Court judge.

The investigation is active and ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detectives Christopher Van Eerde or Tammy Colonna at 732-745-3300 or Investigator Sean Smith at 856-812-3310.

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