Jacked Up: Jersey Mikie's Sub Par Debate

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Ah, New Jersey.

My auld home sod is in the middle of a gubernatorial contest right now between a former-Virginia carpetbagging progressive Democrat congresswoman named Mikie Sherrill, and a native New Jerseyan, businessman and politician, Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli.

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Six days ago, a Quinnipiac poll had Sherrill with a pretty decent lead, although those do tend to skew heavily on the D side.

NJ Governor's Race: Sherrill Leads Ciattarelli By 8 Points, Quinnipiac University New Jersey Poll Finds; Taxes & Ethics In Government Top List Of Most Important Issues

It's interesting that taxes and ethics are polling as the most important issues for voters, and Sherrill was still leading, as she has the biggest problems to overcome with both. The Naval Academy graduate, former Navy helicopter pilot, and assistant US Attorney for the District of New Jersey failed to properly disclose stock sales after being elected to Congress. 

Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat of New Jersey, failed to properly disclose up to $350,000 in stock sales, in violation of a federal conflict-of-interest law.

Federally required disclosure documents show that Sherrill's husband, Jason Hedberg, sold between $100,001 to $250,000 worth of stock in financial services company UBS in April. He then sold between $50,001 to $100,000 worth of USB stocks in June.

Sherrill reported the transactions on December 3, months beyond the 45 day-deadline for such trades. The documents in question are known as periodic transaction reports, or PTRs.

She's a lawyer, her husband is in the financial business, but 'oops,' and paid the fine. Must be nice.

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...Sherrill's office attributed the late filing to an oversight and said she proactively paid a late fee. Hedberg, her husband, is a managing director at UBS Investment Bank, where he is head of equity derivative sales. 

With a classic progressive lack of shame, she then bragged about going after Supreme Court justices, insisting they clean up their acts. Because you have to be able to 'trust the court' is on their personal best ethical behavior, you know.

Sherrill Steps Up to Hold Supreme Court Justices Accountable and Restore Trust in the High Court

This chick's a scream.

Sherrill's also tripled her net worth since arriving in the hallowed halls of Congress.

TRUST ME

...Sherrill, who makes an annual salary of $174,000 representing New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, reported assets totaling between $733,209 and $4,321,000 in her 2019 financial disclosure, according to the Washington Free Beacon. 

Her latest disclosure – which was filed in August and includes comments from Sherrill indicating the exact value of her and her husband’s assets – shows the gubernatorial candidate’s net worth grew to $11,321,863. 

That’s a $7 million increase from the upper bound value of her assets in 2019.

It's a great gig if you can get it, no?

Sherrill has been a cringe-inducing mushmouth even when asked by a very friendly interlocutor trying to explain herself.

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Awkward.

This was ill-considered as well.

All of these little dribs and drabs have been taking a toll on Sherrill's popularity. An 8-point lead for a Democrat in deep blue NJ isn't really a safe enough lead to coast on, and the proof of that came yesterday, with the release of an internal Ciattarelli poll taken over the course of 16-18 Sep that suddenly has the Republican ahead by one.

YOICKS

Republican Jack Ciattarelli held a single-point lead over Democratic Representative Mikie Sherrill in a new internal poll of the New Jersey gubernatorial race.

...The New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial elections in November are viewed as key bellwethers for the mood of the American electorate ahead of the midterm elections, when Democrats are hoping to flip control of the House of Representatives, Senate, and governor's offices across the country.

Democrats are optimistic about the chances of Sherrill, who has led independent polling. But Republicans believe polling has undercounted support for Ciattarelli, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump and garnered name recognition from his 2021 governor run—when he nearly unseated incumbent Democratic Governor Phil Murphy.

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Meanwhile, Ciattarelli has been making the rounds of the state, showing up at well-attended events large and small, and pulling in surprising endorsements in unexpected quarters. The Democrat mayor of Branchville, near where we used to live up in the Tri-State corner, came out loud and proud for the Republican on the ticket.

Everyone was gearing up for the big event in the race - Debate Night, Sunday 21 September.

What it turned into was a Mikie Sherrill roast. At almost every turn, the congresswoman seemed unprepared or unwilling to answer questions directly.

Jack Ciattarelli skewered her time and again with facts, figures, and, frankly, cold, hard common sense as she sputtered along.

What a show of contrasts.

When asked about skyrocketing state electricity rates (which I've documented here numerous times), Sherrill's answer was a stereotypical Democrat answer - she'd freeze them.

In answer to a hostile questioner, Ciattarelli gave a masterclass in how they got that way to begin with, and what he was going to do to reverse course.

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...When Phil Murphy took office, we were an electricity exporter. We produced more electricity than we needed. He shut down six different electricity generation plants. He put an unofficial moratorium on natural gas....What he did do, he bet it all on wind...What I've said all along is I'll reopen and repurpose the plants...'

About that ethics thing? Ciattarelli ate her alive on her net worth and stock trading issues.

The Republican seemed to score again and again with his direct, thoughtful, fully formed answers.

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Sherrill...not so much.

Besides his personal NJ story, Ciattarelli's closing statement also revealed something I did not know - while he's served at every level in NJ state elected government, from the municipal to legislative, he never took a salary.

Mikie Sherrill must have noticed the swing in room temperature, too, because she bugged out as fast as she could,

The auguries are not favorable at the moment.

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All Ciattarelli has to do is get New Jersey voters who are utterly disgusted with the way the state's been destroyed over the past years...to the polls.

VOTE

Because honestly?

It can get worse.

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