Daily Targum 11.07.17 Election Day Wrap

Election day in NJ will decide next governor KIRA HERZOG & RYAN STIESI STAFF WRITERS

Until polls close at 8 p.m. tonight, New Jersey residents will have a chance to cast their vote to determine which candidate will assume the most highly ranked office in the state.

As it stands now, Democrat Phil Murphy maintains a 14-point lead over Republican candidate Lt. Gov Kim Guadagno. Trailing behind the two front-runners are independent candidates from the Green Party, the Constitution Party, the Libertarian Party See GOVERNOR on NJ elections PAGE 2

November 7, 2017

NJ Elections Page 2

GOVERNOR This year’s gubernatorial race is expected to have historically low voter turnout continued from front and the Independent Party — none of whom have breached 2 percent in the polls.

From hosting debate parties to providing transportation and registering new voters, representatives from different facets of the University are working hard to bolster civic engagement on campus for the state elections.

Fifty-four percent of Rutgers students turned out to vote in the 2016 presidential election, a 7 percent improvement from the previous presidential election said Elizabeth Matto, director of the Center for Youth Political Participation (CYPP).

With New Jersey’s gubernatorial race coming to a close today, Matto said she is hopeful that students have been paying attention to the candidates and know how local elections can affect them.

The recent increase in advocacy from millennials and attention to the political process is promising, she said.

“I’ve really noticed on campus, although the millennial generation

is sometimes characterized as apathetic, that’s not what I see on our campus. I have really noticed an uptick in caring, (millennials are) a generation that has always been interested in improving communities and volunteering,” Matto said.

The challenge, she said, is not always getting students to care

“As students, we have unique perspectives and voices that deserve to be heard. I encourage you to make your voice heard by voting in this election.” evan covello RUSA President

but also getting them to prepare.

Registering to vote and getting to the correct polling location can be difficult for many students, alongside realizing the importance of local elections.

Rutgers students are directly affected by local politics, Matto

said. In New Jersey especially, the governor wields a lot of power. For example, the governor appoints some of the voting members on the Rutgers Board of Governors and has a line-item veto over the state budget.

Tuition rates, quality of buildings and infrastructure on campus are also determined by the state legislature or the governor, Matto said. Beyond implications for Rutgers itself, whoever takes Gov. Chris Christie’s (R-N.J.) place will help determine the quality of the state’s transportation and healthcare policies.

Today’s gubernatorial election also impacts the national political arena, Matto said.

“These sorts of races are seen as opportunities to get a sense of what voters are thinking and which way they are leaning politically as we look ahead to midterm elections. They reflect ahead to the national political mood,” she said.

Turnout rates are always lower in non-presidential elections, Matto said, and students are not always as inclined to follow state and local politics. CYPP and RU Voting will be challenging that today through a variety of get-outto-vote efforts she said.

To help students vote, CYPP’s RU Voting program has information on their website regarding

how to find polling locations for anyone who lives on campus, Matto said.

Matto said they will be on campus in full force today handing out buttons, key chains and providing polling information.

They are also running a campaign on their Facebook and Twitter feeds today, she added, asking students to write out why they are voting and featuring them on their social media in an attempt to spread the word to more students.

A free shuttle running from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. today will also be available for students registered to vote at Parsons School in North Brunswick, Matto said. The shuttle will run from the Biel Road bus

stop on Cook campus to the Parsons School.

Yesterday, Evan Covello, the president of the Rutgers University Student Assembly (RUSA) sent an email to the Rutgers community reminding students to take part in Election Day. “As a student at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, you have a very powerful voice.

Every vote cast tomorrow in both statewide and local races will play a role in determining the leaders of our government, and the direction of policy,” Covello said.

“As students, we have unique perspectives and voices that deserve to be heard. I encourage you to make your voice heard by voting in this election.”

ANA COUTO

Issue by issue ­— where do the frontrunners stand?

Environmental Issues Guadagno

Murphy • Plans to transition New Jersey to 100 percent renewable and clean energy by 2050.

• Would rejoin Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) that Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) exited.

• Called a champion for clean energy by Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters (LCV).

• Says New Jersey would abide by Paris climate accord regulations.

•Is endorsed by the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA).

•Wants the state, rather than the taxpayer, to shoulder more of the burden related to funding public education, including higher education.

•Will eliminate PARCC and the requirement of standardized tests for graduation.

• Supports legalization for recreational use.

• Thinks New Jersey should be a leader in renewable energy, which she says will create jobs.

• Favors taxing the drug to yield state revenue.

• Favors rejoining Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

• As a Jersey Shore resident, she is against windmills on the coast.

Guadagno • Proposed property tax plan would limit the percentage of the tax that goes toward school funding.

• Would eliminate “unnecessary” standardized testing • Campaign advocates for making higher education more flexible and affordable.

Student Seat on Board of Governors Murphy • Supports a student seat on the Board

Guadagno

Murphy

• Does not deny climate change.

Education Murphy

Marijuana

Guadagno • Has not taken a position on the issue.

• Seeks to eliminate low-level drug charges like marijuanarelated arrests.

• Favors decriminalization, which she believes will help to reduce prison populations.

• Opposed to recreational use.

• Supports expanding medical marijuana in New Jersey.

Gun Laws Murphy

Guadagno

• Has an “F” rating with the National Rifle Association (NRA).

• Has an “A” rating with the NRA.

• Supports common sense gun laws, but aims to maintain rights of lawful gun owners.

• Will not add additional gun legislation.

• Would sign gun control bills vetoed by Christie into action.

• Says he would immediately sign into action legislation to ban .50 caliber ammunition and bump stocks.

• Supports more thorough background checks to obtain a firearm.

• Advocates for higher penalties for crimes committed involving a gun, including the death penalty for serious shootings.

Minimum Wage Murphy • Would phase in a $15 minimum wage over several years to lighten the burden on small businesses.

Guadagno • Opposes $15 minimum wage, saying it would be bad for small businesses.

November 7, 2017

NJ Elections Page 3

Guadagno struggles to secure support from female voting block Christina Gaudino Correspondent

In her mission to become New Jersey’s second woman governor, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno (R-N.J.) does not seem to be garnering the necessary support from her fellow Jersey women to keep her in Trenton.

The latest polls indicate that female voters in New Jersey are more likely to support her opponent, the Democratic candidate for governor Phil Murphy, a critical factor which likely accounts for Murphy’s current 14-point lead.

A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed that “65 percent of likely women voters” support Murphy, while Guadagno has only secured the support of 29 percent of the women polled.

Although Guadagno reportedly rejected the poll, polling centers at Monmouth University and

Fairleigh Dickinson University depict a similar trend.

The reason behind this trend of women supporting the Democratic candidate likely has less to do with Guadagno’s gender and more to do with overall historic tendencies of women voters, according to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Rutgers Eagleton Institute of Politics.

“The situation with Murphy and Guadagno is very similar to other races in that the women’s vote usually goes more heavily to the Democrat, regardless of the genders of the candidates,” Kathy Kleeman, the senior communications officer at CAWP, said in an email.

Even in races where both women and men prefer the Republican, the women usually do so by a smaller margin, she said.

There has been a gender gap of between 4 and 11 percentage

FLICKR

CAMILO MONTOYA-GALVEZ

Chloe Dopico Associate News Editor

With voter turnout in today’s gubernatorial election expected to be low, Republican candidate Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno (R-N.J.) might be hoping her opponent, Democrat Phil Murphy’s stance on immigration will result in closing the double-digit gap in polling that currently favors Murphy.

Murphy said during a debate earlier this month that if elected, he would make New Jersey a “sanctuar y state.” Across the countr y, “sanctuar y cities” have seen a surge. According to The New York Times, they are described as cities that limit how local law enforcement can cooperate with federal immigration agents.

As The Daily Targum previously reported, New Brunswick is not a “sanctuary city.”

If New Jersey was a “sanctuary state,” it would expand on this idea to limit the cooperation between federal immigration agents and law enforcement statewide.

Currently, New Jersey has several “sanctuary cities,” including New-

ark and Camden, said President of American Association of University Professors -American Federation of Teachers (AAUP-AFT) David Hughes.

“So Phil Murphy obviously supports not only ‘sanctuary cities’ but ‘sanctuary states.’ So effectively the entire state of New Jersey would cease to respond to and cooperate with the executive branch when it comes to deporting people. When it comes to apprehending and deporting people. That does not mean that the entire state becomes some sort of renegade, it means that the state responds to court orders from a judge,” Hughes said.

“And the principle there is that the executive branch of government is misruling and we look to the judiciary ... ” In response to Murphy’s stance on “sanctuary cities,” Guadagno ran campaign ads saying Murphy’s stance would protect “dangerous criminals and murderers.”

In response to the terrorist attack that took place in Lower Manhattan, Guadagno said, “I do know this: I am going to double down on our efforts to

points in every presidential election since 1980, said Dr. Kelly Dittmar, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Rutgers—Camden and a scholar at CAWP. In her research, Dittmar defines the term “gender gap” in voting as “the difference between the percentages of women and men who support a given candidate.”

This phenomenon is not limited to presidential elections.

Another trend in American politics since 1980 Dittmar’s research indicates is a gender gap in party identification, whereby “larger proportions of women than men self-identify as Democrats.”

At the time her research was completed, women were 9 percentage points more likely than men to identify as Democrats.

Ashley Koning, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling (ECPIP), told The Daily Targum that it should not come as a surprise that there is not necessarily an automatic shift among women to support Guadagno simply because she is a woman.

“Partisanship typically trumps gender,” she said.“It really comes down to issues, and it comes down to partisanship.”

Women are more likely to take issues and stances espoused by the Democratic Party, she said Regardless of gender, Koning said both male and female New Jersey voters typically prioritize “pocketbook issues and property taxes,” adding that women are also more likely to support education issues and women’s health issues — topics which have been prioritized more heavily by the Murphy campaign, she said.

“Women also have greater senses of social justice and political tolerance,” Koning added, citing Guadagno’s harsher stances on

immigration in recent weeks as a potential detriment in the eyes of women voters.

“It’s more about the substance and less about the descriptive representation of the candidate,” she said.

“The women’s vote usually goes more heavily to the Democrat, regardless of the genders of the candidates.” kathy kleeman Senior Communications Officer at CAWP

Alexandra Anderson, a School of Environmental and Biological Sciences sophomore, weighed in on why Guadagno is not polling well among women, noting that “she forms her role as a conservative over that of a woman.”

Anderson, who had the opportunity to meet Guadagno over the summer, said that she did not mention the difficulties of being a woman when discussing the challenges of being the first person in the state to hold the position of Lt. Governor.

“As we saw in the 2016 election, women aren’t willing to vote for a woman just because she is a woman,” Anderson said. “Of course women want to see women in positions of power, but like all people, they want to see someone who reflects their values in office.”

Rutgers College Republicans endorsed Guadagno as the Republican candidate for governor in mid-June, according to their Facebook page.

When asked for comment regarding Guadagno’s apparent lack of women supporters, the

organization responded that “a very recent and famous election proved that polls don’t tell the whole story.”

Indeed, a recent poll conducted

by Monmouth University discovered that “a majority of voters still don’t have a clear idea of either candidate’s political views.”

What’s more, the poll also indicates that voter turnout for this race is estimated to be the lowest ever for a New Jersey governor’s race.

During a surprise appearance at a campaign event for Guadagno over the weekend in Burlington County, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman characterized this race as similar to the one from which she emerged victorious in 1993 against incumbent Gov. James Florio.

“It’s gonna come down to getting out the vote,” she said, according to NJ Advance Media.

Koning echoed this sentiment.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to turnout, so it becomes a numbers game,” she said. “Republicans are outnumbered in the state by Democrats right now by a large margin, so it really comes depends on who turns out their base more.”

Koning also noted that while Guadagno has been making a strong effort to mobilize voters, Murphy has not been as active in recent days.

She said that Guadagno has the burden of being associated with both President Donald J. Trump and Christie, two highly unpopular figures in the state.

The public polls are merely snapshots in time, Koning said, and do not necessarily predict what will happen on election day.

“It could be anybody’s game based on turnout, and even if it’s low turnout, it depends on exactly who turns out tomorrow,” she said.

Murphy’s proposal to turn NJ into ‘sanctuary state’ prompts backlash condemn ‘sanctuar y states.’ I just think that type of behavior, that lack of vetting and that lack of research and lack of detaining immigrants who’ve committed violent crimes in New Jersey makes New Jersey less safe and possibly even the region.”

Daniel Bryan, a spokesperson

“What we’re looking for is some reprieve here in New Jersey.” david hughes President of the AAUP-AFT

for Murphy’s camp, said Guadagno should be ashamed of herself for politicizing the death and injuries of terrorism victims and said her approach to vetting immigrants would make New Jersey citizens less safe.

“I think there is pretty widespread agreement with the Rutgers community that we do not want ICE coming in and yanking

students from classrooms and in any way from preventing them from getting their degrees. So to answer your more specific question, yeah the choice is quite clear that Phil Murphy wants to protect and enlarge our student body and Guadagno does not want to … I’ve been seeing her ads on Youtube and I’m shocked on two levels,” Hughes said.

Hughes said the AAUP-AFT has supported Murphy since May 2017 and has spoken with him on issues pertaining to students such as increasing the Education Opportunity Fund (EOF) program at Rutgers.

He said they did not discuss his stance on “sanctuary cities” and states since he is the candidate that has come out the strongest in favor of protecting undocumented students.

Hughes said that Guadagno has little compassion for undocumented students and has misrepresented Murphy’s view on undocumented people and “sanctuar y cities.”

“What he says is that he has the back … of just about ever y group of disadvantaged people,

vulnerable people in New Jersey. He does not say he has the back of criminals and there is absolutely no proposal regarding ‘sanctuar y cities’ or ‘sanctuar y states,’ which protects people who have committed or been convicted of violent crimes,” he said.

But Hughes said that a Guadagno election would not have more serious implications than what is already in place and, if she was elected, state police might start to work more with ICE to deport more individuals. If anything, Hughes said, Guadagno would perpetuate Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.)’s already in-place policies, which means not protecting students from deportation. “(The students) I know that are undocumented have been in a low-level panic ever since Trump was elected so I think that Phil Murphy’s election will alleviate some of that panic. But I don’t think Kim Guadagno will make things worse than they are now.

What we’re looking for is some reprieve here in New Jersey,” Hughes said.