Welcome to the 2025 InsiderNJ Retrospective looking back at some of the key political contests and figures who shaped the year.

As we bid farewell to a remarkable year in New Jersey politics, please find in the following pages InsiderNJ’s recollection of the key currents of 2025, most of them naturally pertaining to the governor’s race.

As with any great American political contest, we experienced again the thrill of our democratic republic at its core, with nearly 3.6 million New Jerseyans (or 54% of registered NJ voters) participating in this year’s gubernatorial and legislative races. That’s the most participation in a non-presidential election year in this millennium, and a healthy sign amid – to put it mildly – systemic wear and tear.

In addition, the state Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) reported that New Jersey gubernatorial candidates and Independent Expenditure-Only Filers (IEFs) spent over $259 million on this year’s primary and general elections. “In nominal dollars, New Jersey’s spending total was the fourth largest amount of dollars ever spent during a gubernatorial election year nationally and ranked sixth when past totals were converted to 2025 dollars to reflect inflation’s impact,” according to ELEC.

New Jersey voters made a definite statement this year about the current trajectory of the country under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump, awarding a significant 57-43% victory to Democrat Mikie Sherrill over (Trump-backed) Republican Jack Ciattarelli.

Whatever the larger implications of their candidacies, we liked covering the contest between Sherrill and Ciattarelli, strong and transparent candidates, who brought substance and guts to the public square. We also enjoyed looking back on the year as we tried to identify what it all means for next year and beyond. Be sure to keep watch for our 2026 Year-in-Advance, another special issue, which will appear on InsiderNJ’s website in the coming days.

At the end of this edition unfortunately you will find a list of some of the people in New Jersey politics who died this year. Among them you will not see the name of Matthew Arco. We wish to make special mention of here, as he was a colleague and a friend, and highly prized in the New Jersey press corps for his integrity, professionalism, good humor, and public spirit.

Darryl Isherwood, former editor of PolitickerNJ, on May 1^st submitted an appreciation of Mr. Arco, reflecting on 2011, and the first time we met this bright young star when he arrived in Trenton.

“He was young – mid 20s – but damn he was hungry,” Isherwood wrote. “There was a delay in hiring him as we cleared some logjam or other and he reached out and firmly told me that he REALLY wanted the job. I told him be patient and I would get it through but he let me know he was ready to go. Immediately. I called my boss and had a tense conversation, but won out in the end. Matt was at work two weeks later.

“He worked hard and grew with the role and over time became an invaluable member of the small team that hung out in the tiny statehouse office we affectionately dubbed the clown car because of our penchant for jamming four reporters into a converted storage closet. Matt took quickly to our mission and we’d revel in beating our larger competitors to a story even if it was only by a few minutes. The camaraderie and pride in being the underdog that Matt, Max Pizarro, Tim Carroll and I developed in that tiny office were extremely rare and Matt’s competitive drive was a huge part of it.”

That is well said of this special man, this special professional and friend, who gave much to our beloved state, who left us too soon, who is dearly missed, but who is present wherever public servant Americans vitally and fearlessly pursue the truth.

Goodbye, Matt. Goodbye 2025.

Thanks for the memories.

Max Pizarro

Editor, InsiderNJ

Download the 2025 InsiderNJ Retrospective or view it below: