Jack Ciattarelli wants to see a lot of Mikie Sherrill this fall - on the debate stage.

Ciattarelli and Jim Gannon, his lieutenant governor candidate, asked the state's Election Law Enforcement Commission, to schedule more than the customary, two gubernatorial debates this campaign season.

The request sounded like a campaign ad. Here's part of it:

"The people of New Jersey are rightfully frustrated with the direction of our state after eight years of Governor Murphy and twenty-five years of one-party Democrat control of our state Legislature. They want and deserve change and would be best-served by seeing the candidates vying for our state’s two highest offices side-by-side on a debate stage as often as possible.

Voters deserve candidates who do not duck the public and the press, nor hide behind tens of millions of dollars in misleading attack ads by national organizations in Washington, D.C. or entrenched special interests in Trenton. These debates are critical to revealing those candidates."

When ELEC met Tuesday morning via Zoom, the request from the GOP team was not mentioned publicly. The commission approved - as is the norm - two gubernatorial debates and one LG debate.

But Thomas Prol, the commission chair, said more debates are possible, presumably ones organized by others.

He said state legislation requires three debates - two for the gubernatorial candidates and one for the lieutenant governor candidates. As he explained:

"We are creatures of statute here."

However, he said ELEC would consider partnering with other organizations to hold more debates.

Nine media outlets applied to host the debates, far more than usual. If you needed more signs the New Jersey governor's race is big news across the country this year, this was it.

In addition to written submissions, the commission gave each five minutes to make their case.

An official of New Jersey PBS reminded the commission these are tough times for public broadcasting and that awarding the outlet a pivotal political debate would make a statement in itself.

The national media was well represented.

CNN proposed a "town hall" format. MSNBC spoke of its "unparalleled legacy" of political journalism. News 12 said it wanted to "reimagine" what a political debate was all about.

After a closed door deliberation of about an hour, a decision was announced.

The gubernatorial debates will be sponsored by the NJ Globe on Sept. 21 and WABC (New York and Philadelphia affiliates) on Oct. 19

In the middle, as required, the commission said, would be the LG debate on Oct. 1. The lead sponsor would be WPIX.

The dates will now be run by the campaigns.

Commissioners gave the impression this was not an easy call; one, in fact, said no proposal was perfect.

Coming up with dates is not as cut and dry as it may seem. Voting patterns have changed with many voting far in advance of Election Day by mail. That reinforces a need for the first debate between Ciattarelli and Sherrill to be in September.

Even so, a problem popped up as soon as the dates were announced. It was pointed out that Oct.1 - the date of the LG debate - was the first night of Yom Kippur. So that may change.

There is also a less serious conflict for the first gubernatorial debate on Sept. 21.

That's a Sunday, which means Sunday night football. And locally, the Giants are hosting the Chiefs that evening, which may impact the potential debate audience.