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Race to watch: New Jersey’s U.S. Senate contest between Democrat Andy Kim and Republican Curtis Bashaw

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Race to watch: New Jersey’s U.S. Senate contest between Democrat Andy Kim and Republican Curtis Bashaw


Curtis Bashaw is a candidate for N.J.’s U.S. Senate seat. (Campaign photo)

Republican Curtis Bashaw

Curtis Bashaw, the Republican candidate, is a Camden County native, who grew up in Cherry Hill and Haddonfield. A graduate of Wheaton College and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, he is a hotelier. He purchased his first hotel with his father in 1986.

For the last 35 years, he built his business, Cape Resorts. His company includes several hotels in Cape May along with a couple of properties on Long Island, New York.

Bashaw served as the head of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority under Gov. Jim McGreevy for two years.

“I got a taste for what it was like to work inside a political process,” he said. “I felt when I finished that two-yeartwo year term that maybe one day I would go back and get involved.”

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Bashaw’s platform includes securing the southern U.S. border, which he said has been conflated with immigration policy.

“Border security shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” he said. “Immigration policy, on the other hand, we need to have a bipartisan consensus.”

His other campaign issues include cutting taxes and creating an energy plan that isn’t heavily reliant on foreign oil. Bashaw said New Jersey is losing college grads and younger professionals to other states because of the state’s affordability issues.

Bashaw is in contrast to the top of the GOP ticket. He is an openly gay man with a husband who said he is pro-choice, though he supported the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned constitutional access to abortion. But, he considers himself “a change agent.”

“I’m being a protagonist in this moment to try to do some good,” he said. “I think voters are exhausted by the dysfunction of our politics, and that’s one of the reasons I stepped into it.”

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Christina Khalil
Christina Khalil is a candidate for N.J.’s U.S. Senate seat. (Campaign photo)

Green Party Candidate Christina Khalil

Christina Khalil was born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and grew up in foster care. After moving to New Jersey, she graduated from Saddle Brook High School then earned a B.A. in psychology and a Master’s degree in Social Work from Ramapo College.

She worked in the co-occurring addiction and mental health field, starting as an intern and then moving to be a liaison between Drug Court and treatment.

During the COVID pandemic, she worked on the front lines at a medical detox facility while volunteering at Hackensack High School.

One major focus of her campaign is fighting inflation. Another is immigration reform. She said improving the immigration policy requires a complete redesign, including funneling money from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to investments in immigration lawyers, community support, mental health support for asylum seekers, and immediate pathways to citizenship.

Khalil also supports universal healthcare. She wants to establish a no-cost national healthcare system that provides coverage starting from birth. If elected to the Senate, she said she would work to address the housing crisis, police brutality, climate change, animal welfare, campaign finance reform, unemployment and reconfiguring the national tax system.

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Khalil has volunteered for multiple community organizations, including the Bergen County LGBTQ+ Alliance.

She said the true keys to freedom lie in education.

Kenneth Kaplan
Kenneth Kaplan (campaign)

Libertarian Kenneth Kaplan

Kenneth Kaplan was born in Newark, and grew up in West Orange. He graduated from West Orange Mountain High School. Kaplan then attended Franklin & Marshall College, earning a B.A from Brandeis University and a law degree from New York University Law School. He has worked as a real estate broker, lawyer, and is the president of KenKap Realty Corp.

A major focal point of his campaign is following the Constitution, which he believes means small government, lower taxes and more individual liberty.

On his website,he said the best way to stimulate the economy and create jobs ‘is for government to get out of the way.”

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He supports eliminating federal income taxes. He said this is doable “if we strip the federal government back to the functions that the Constitution directly mandates, such as providing for the national defense and maintaining a federal court system.”

He favors a foreign policy that does not interfere with the internal affairs of other countries, encourages solar, wind, hydro and other fossil fuel alternatives and reduces the national deficit by shrinking the size of government.

He is a past president of the Livingston Lions Club, and a member of the Men’s Club of Temple Beth Shalom in Livingston, where he is a board member.



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New Jersey

Man Shot, Killed In Cape May County: Prosecutor

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Man Shot, Killed In Cape May County: Prosecutor


WOODBINE, NJ — An investigation has been launched into the shooting death of a 22-year-old Whitesboro resident, the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office said.

Daquann Smith was fatally shot around 11 p.m. on Oct. 25 in Woodbine, authorities said. The shooting happened on the 300 block of Madison Avenue, according to officials.

After receiving reports of gunshots that night, New Jersey State Police went to the scene and found Smith fatally injured. The eight square mile borough does not have its own police department, they are served by state police, who have a station in Woodbine.

Find out what’s happening in Ocean Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

There were no further details shared about the shooting.

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“We extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Daquann Smith,” said Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffrey Sutherland. “Our office along with the New Jersey State Police is committed to conducting a thorough investigation to ensure that those responsible for this senseless act are brought to justice.”

Find out what’s happening in Ocean Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The investigation is ongoing and the New Jersey State Police and the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office are urging anyone with information related to the incident to come forward.

“The community’s cooperation is vital in helping law enforcement build a complete understanding of the events that led to this tragedy,” authorities said.

Anyone with information about the shooting is encouraged to contact the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office at 609-465-1135, the New Jersey State Police-Woodbine Barracks at 609-861-5698, or anonymously on the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office website at cmcpros.net/tips.


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To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.

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State Senate passes bill intended to halt book bans, protect librarians • New Jersey Monitor

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State Senate passes bill intended to halt book bans, protect librarians • New Jersey Monitor


bill aimed at limiting book bans in public schools and libraries and protecting librarians from lawsuits is now on the governor’s desk. 

Titled the “Freedom to Read Act,” the legislation would require the state’s education commissioner to develop policies on how library materials are selected and how challenges to books on library shelves should be evaluated. Local school boards and library boards would then adopt their own policies using this model.

“You and all New Jerseyans have the freedom to choose what you want to read, and parents have and will continue to have the freedom to choose what their children will read. But no one gets to decide that for you — not now, and not ever,” said bill sponsor Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D-Middlesex).

The Senate advanced the controversial bill with a vote of 24-15, with heavy opposition from Republicans. GOP lawmakers said they feared the law would allow children to access obscene materials and protect librarians who share obscene books with children.

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“Putting our children at risk and potentially exposing them to material that they are not prepared for flies in the face of our protective duty,” said Sen. Joe Pennacchio (R-Morris). “Couching such material under the guise of the First Amendment is a very distortion of who we are and what we strive to be as Americans.” 

Sen. Andrew Zwicker (Hal Brown for New Jersey Monitor)

The bill comes as the American Library Association says the number of books targeted for censorship has skyrocketed, many of them because they include LGBTQ or sexually explicit content. The number of unique titles targeted for removal from library shelves surged 65% from 2022 to 2023, the organization says. Parents in towns like Glen Ridge, Roxbury, and Bernards have lobbied to have certain books removed from libraries.

Meanwhile, librarians say they have faced harassment from parents demanding certain books be removed.

States across the country are weighing similar legislation. The governors of California and Maryland recently signed similar bills into law, while lawmakers in New York and Rhode Island are still voting on those measures. 

Under the New Jersey bill, school and library boards would be barred from removing books because of the “origin, background, or views” of the material or those contributing to its creation.

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The bill would also provide librarians and library staff with immunity from civil and criminal liability for “good faith actions.” 

Sen. Mike Testa (R-Cumberland) said he interprets the immunity the bill would provide to librarians as an “intentional blanket exemption from New Jersey’s obscenity law or, for that matter, any other law intended to protect our children.” 

Testa claimed there is already “obscene material” available in New Jersey schools, and he questioned why Democrats are pushing for an exemption if there isn’t sexually explicit content in schools. 

“How exactly does a person distribute obscene materials to a child in good faith? I also think it’s incredibly telling that if some of these very same sexually explicit materials were shown to a child by a neighbor, that individual would be charged with a Megan’s Law offense, and rightfully so,” he said. 

Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Union), co-sponsor of the measure, said the bill would create new standards for libraries that don’t currently exist. 

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“Right now, in the wild, wild west, no board of education is setting the standard, and now we are saying it is time,” he said. 

Bramnick also defended librarians, stressing that none of them intend to provide sexually explicit material. But if a questionable book does end up on library shelves, there must be consistent guidelines and policies to ensure “we have a standard in this society,” he added. 

The bill passed the Assembly in June by a 52-20 vote.

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Two arrested after shooting death of mother of 5 in Millville, New Jersey, officials say

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Two arrested after shooting death of mother of 5 in Millville, New Jersey, officials say


Family and friends gather to remember South Jersey mom killed by gunfire, two arrested

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Family and friends gather to remember South Jersey mom killed by gunfire, two arrested

01:36

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Two people have been arrested in connection with the shooting death of a 41-year-old mother of five in South Jersey over the weekend.  

A sea of blue and silver balloons filled the sky in Bridgeton, New Jersey, Monday night to honor 41-year-old Bonnie Hitchens. 

Hitchens was found Saturday morning unresponsive with several gunshot wounds in the passenger seat of a vehicle parked at this convenience store on East Greene Street in Millville, according to the Cumberland County prosecutor. 

She was taken to Inspira Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. A 31-year-old man was also shot multiple times but survived. 

Eric Bundy-Johnson and Francessca Delvalle, both 34 years old, are facing murder charges. Officials have not given a motive. 

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James Hitchens, Bonnie’s brother, says “Bon Bon,” as she was nicknamed, was a devoted mother, sister, aunt and friend and that this loss is immense. 

“Her smile, her laugh. Sometimes I think I hear her laugh out here,” James Hitchens said. “I just want everybody to know she was loved.” 

For now, he says his family is focused on Bonnie’s children as they all grieve. 

“We’re sticking together,” James Hitchens said. “We’re doing what we got to do as a family.” 

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