Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill and businessman Jack Ciattarelli sparred on issues that would affect Cape May County during the first debate of the gubernatorial election.
The debate was dominated by differing solutions to New Jersey’s ever-increasing cost of living, but the back-and-forth was sweeping in scope: Topics ranged from offshore wind farms to electricity rates, affordable housing to municipal consolidation.
The debate was raucous. Cheers or boos followed almost every statement given by the candidates. Some topics were spicier than others in this regard, but the candidates generally stuck to local and state-level topics without veering into national discord.
Affordable housing was a topic that brought intense disagreement. A lack of affordable housing has long plagued Cape May County. A Herald Review & Opinion article in 2024 said: “The surge in demand for second homes by the beach has reshaped our housing landscape, leaving both year-round residents and seasonal workers struggling to find affordable accommodation.”
The issue came up early in the debate. Ciattarelli advocates for a freeze on property taxes for those 70 and older, for a lower property tax rate for first-time homebuyers, and for lower property taxes across the board. He said that these tax cuts would help property owners and renters alike. He said that he will work with the private sector to build housing and would encourage lease-to-own house financing plans for younger buyers.
However, he does not support the construction of dense affordable housing, like apartment buildings, in rural portions of New Jersey. Instead, he said that people who can’t afford to live in places like Cape May County should move to urban centers. He wants to improve these urban centers, using Atlantic City, Newark and Trenton as examples, so they become more attractive places to live.
“I want to stop with us developing high-density housing in every one of our 564 towns,” he said. “I want to use the shortage of affordable housing to get people living in our urban centers again.”
Every municipality in New Jersey is currently grappling with new state requirements for more affordable housing units. The number of units varies by town, but based on a formula from the state’s Department of Community Affairs, Cape May County is responsible for 992 units.
Ciattarelli came out firmly against these affordable housing obligations and generally positioned himself as an anti-development candidate, going so far as to partially blame New Jersey’s coastal flooding issues on “overdevelopment.”
He emphasized New Jersey’s overdevelopment in his opening remarks: “There’s an overdevelopment crisis in the state, and we’re taking the garden right out of the Garden State. With all the overdevelopment, we’re the worst place in the country in which to do business.”
Sherrill, on the other hand, supports the current administration’s push for affordable housing and postured as a pro-development candidate. Part of her plans to make building housing easier includes a web portal where builders can see the status of their permit requests.
Sherrill said that there needs to be a “culture change” in Trenton so small businesses can get permits faster, and can better understand why permits were denied or approved.
“I’m going to support small businesses and cut through red tape and bureaucracy and change the culture of Trenton – that’s why I talk about having a dashboard, so you can see exactly where your permitting and regulations are; having a fast-track center that you can go to to have help back and forth on your permit,” she said. “But a lot of this is going to be a culture change in Trenton, as we have a “get to yes” culture, instead of a ‘gotcha’ culture.”
On offshore wind power generation, Ciattarelli said that he would enshrine on a state level the Trump administration’s ban on new permits.
“He’s put a temporary halt on wind farms off the Jersey Shore. I’ll make that permanent,” he said. “The Jersey Shore is sacrosanct – sacrosanct here in the state. Nobody wants wind farms off our Jersey Shore – male, female, young and old, Republican, liberal, conservatives, for different reasons.”
Sherrill did not speak on the topic of wind farms but generally advocated for diversified power generation across New Jersey.
Sherrill said that she would sue the Trump administration to “claw back” the nearly $5 billion in federal funding that was cut. Ciattarelli offered a more hand-in-hand approach with the Trump administration, saying that funding would never come back by suing and arguing.
Electricity was another topic that dominated the debate. Sherrill said that she would declare a state of emergency on her first day in office to freeze rate hikes. She said that the state needs to focus intensely on generating power for use within New Jersey because regional demand has skyrocketed.
“The market has been screwed up by PJM and because Virginia has a million data centers which are sucking all the power out of our market,” she said. “So we need to produce here, lower cost here, and stop putting the cost on the ratepayers of New Jersey.”
Ciattarelli agreed that the state needs to diversify the sources from which it draws power, but did not include wind in that plan. He pushed for a reliance on natural gas and solar power, and for the creation of nuclear power plants in South Jersey, although no specific plans for their construction or location were given.
The consolidation of municipalities and school districts was discussed in the context of both saving money for the state and improving local school districts. Sherrill said that countywide school systems generally produce stronger results than hyper-local districts. She said that some school districts are underfunded, underperforming and generally drain resources from the state for poor results.
She would force poor-performing districts to merge, she said, but first would offer incentives to districts and municipalities to smooth the transition.
“Right now we have more municipalities than California, and we have more school districts than municipalities, and it’s raising costs on everybody, some school districts who have the whole administrative cost all of the buildings, and yet they’re not even running a K through 12 school system. So we do need to merge some of these school districts,” she said.
Ciattarelli said he would not force districts to consolidate but would offer incentives for them to do so.
He wants to overhaul New Jersey’s school curriculum with a focus on practical skills. He claimed that the state has slid to 12th place nationwide in education, although he did not give a source, and most sources still rank New Jersey as the best-performing in the nation.
Ciattarelli said that school choice, in the form of vouchers that allow kids to attend other districts, and the formation of charter schools will help the state get its mojo back. Sherrill said that she also supports both school vouchers and charter schools.
The next, and final, debate between the two candidates will take place on Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. in New Brunswick.
Contact the author, Collin Hall, at 609-886-8600, ext. 156
