As the 2025 campaign season starts to heat up, a Republican in the New Jersey governor’s race says he could take the fight against New York City congestion pricing to another level. 

Republican Jack Ciattarelli, the former assemblyman who narrowly lost the 2021 race to Gov. Phil Murphy, says New Yorkers should pay to enter the Garden State while congestion pricing is in effect. 

“Why should New Jerseyans pay for the MTA?”

“If President Trump is not successful in getting rid of congestion pricing, I’m sorry but every New York plate that comes through the tunnels or over the bridges in the morning to New Jersey, we’re going to hit them with a congestion pricing fee,” he said. “Why should New Jerseyans pay for the MTA? I’ll get New Yorkers to pay for New Jersey Transit.”   

Ciattarelli, appearing Sunday on CBS News New York’s “The Point with Marcia Kramer,” said another one of his priorities would be overhauling the state’s transportation agencies.

“I do want to form the Garden State Transportation Authority. Put every one of our mass transit systems under one roof, with one overseeing board,” he said. “That means the Turnpike, the Parkway, New Jersey Transit, the Atlantic City Expressway, gas tax revenues. Let’s put it all under one roof. Let’s get a new management structure there and let’s see what we can do.”

Click here to watch Ciattarelli’s full interview.

Mamdani running for NYC mayor

Democratic New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, from Queens, surged into second place in some New York City mayor’s race polls before former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams entered the race. 

Mamdani told CBS News New York he does not believe Cuomo’s entry was a major shake-up on the Democratic side. 

“I think Andrew Cuomo’s arrival has long been rumored and I’m frankly happy that he’s in the race, because it’s an opportunity to say that New Yorkers already have one person in power who has cut Medicaid and stolen money from the MTA, who has hounded women that have credibly accused them of sexual harassment, who has claimed to be fighting for working class New Yorkers, while showering rich donors with tax breaks. And that’s Donald Trump. But Andrew Cuomo has the same record as the disgraced former governor of this state, and him being in the race means he has to finally answer as to why that’s his record and why we should believe anything would be different this time around,” Mamdani said.

Other candidates include Curtis Sliwa, City Comptroller Brad Lander, state Sen. Jessica Ramos, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, former City Comptroller Scott Stringer and, presumably, Mayor Eric Adams.

Click here to watch Mamdani’s full interview.

Mark Prussin

contributed to this report.