Murphy Holds Narrow Lead in N.J. Governor Race: Election Update
(Bloomberg) -- New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is holding a narrow lead by around 7,000 votes in the governor’s race after support surged for Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli overnight, according to the Associated Press. Votes are still being counted, particularly among mail-in ballots in strongly Democratic counties.
The close fight comes as Virginia elected Republican Glenn Youngkin to be its governor -- a stunning blow to Democrats in a state President Joe Biden won by 10 percentage points just a year ago.
New York City elected Democrat Eric Adams as its next mayor, dealing a defeat to his Republican challenger, Curtis Sliwa. Adams promised Wednesday to revisit some of his predecessor’s positions, including a controversial vaccine mandate for all city workers.
History was made on a number of fronts, with Boston electing as mayor Michelle Wu, the first woman and person of color to run the city. The same first was set for the Virginia lieutenant-governor position. Meantime, Minneapolis rejected a ballot initiative to overhaul the city’s approach to policing, and New York state adopted a clean water and air measure while rejecting a measure to ease voting requirements. Detroit voters approved a ballot initiative compelling the city council to investigate ways to compensate Black residents for decades of discrimination.
Key stories and developments:
All times are Eastern Daylight:
N.J. Governor’s Race Seesaws, Cook Political Projects Murphy Win (10:07 a.m.)
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is locked in a tight race with Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli in his bid for a second term, with a slow-in-coming ballot count leaving the rivals seesawing long after the polls closed.
Shortly after 10 a.m., Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman made a projection that Murphy will be re-elected. Murphy’s campaign manager Mollie Binotto said internal polling showed the same result: “Our internal numbers are crystal clear: When all the votes are counted, we will win,” she said in a tweet.
The closeness of the race -- thousands of votes out of more than 2.3 million counted so far -- surprised some Democrats already reeling from a loss in Virginia. In pre-election polls, Murphy had led Ciattarelli by as many as 11 percentage points. As of mid Wednesday morning, Murphy was ahead in the vote count by less than a percentage point, according to the Associated Press.
New Jersey leans Democratic, but voters frustrated by the state’s high taxes have kept governors from that party to single terms for more than four decades. Murphy also had to contend with President Joe Biden’s declining approval ratings in New Jersey. -- Skylar Woodhouse and Sri Taylor
Summary of State, Local Ballot Initiative Votes (9:51 a.m.)
Many referenda on local ballots this year reflected policy ideas coming out of a year of loss and setbacks, protests and racial justice reckoning. They floated new ideas, and build on movements that gained traction during the pandemic.
Click here for the latest summary.
U.S. Voters Approve at Least $7.8 Billion of Muni Bond Sales (9:30 a.m.)
Voters across the U.S. are slated to approve at least $7.8 billion of local-government debt sales on ballots this election, according to preliminary results after Tuesday’s polling.
All in all, voters were asked to decide on about $27 billion of municipal bonds, the lowest tally since 2017, according to data compiled by IHS Markit. The largest measures up for a vote were set to fund work ranging from school construction to flood-prevention measures in Virginia Beach. -- Nic Querolo
Adams Pledges to Talk With Unions on Vaccine Mandate (7:30 a.m.)
Adams said he would sit down with police and firefighter unions who are resisting the city’s vaccine mandate if the issue remains unresolved when he takes office in January.
“When I inherit this situation, I am going to bring about a solution,” he told CNN on Wednesday.
But he said he hoped his predecessor -- Mayor Bill de Blasio -- could negotiate a solution before he leaves office.
About 92% of city employees had gotten at least one vaccine dose by Monday, but only 81% of firefighters, 85% of the NYPD and 83% of sanitation workers had complied, leading to trash piling up on city streets and worker “sick-outs.” -- Kathleen Hunter
New York Voters Reject Voting Access, Redistricting Proposals (6:42 a.m.)
New York state voters Tuesday rejected ballot propositions that would have allowed same-day voter registration and no-excuse absentee ballots, as well as changes to the state’s redistricting process, according to unofficial results from the state Board of Elections. Voters approved an amendment adding the right to clean air and water to the state’s constitution.
Voters rejected a measure to ease voting restrictions by amending the state’s constitution to eliminate a 10-day advance voter registration requirement. -- Keshia Clukey
Detroit to Study Black Reparations Under Voter-Passed Initiative (6:37 a.m.)
Political leaders of the nation’s largest majority-Black city will form a reparations task force after voters in Detroit approved a ballot initiative compelling the city council to investigate ways to compensate Black residents for decades of discrimination.
Proposal R, overwhelmingly passed Tuesday, doesn’t set any substantive terms for what reparations will look like. Instead, it merely establishes a committee to “make recommendations for housing and economic development programs that address historical discrimination against the Black community in Detroit.” -- Alex Ebert
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.