Essex VBMs in particular will put some separation on Ciattarelli, insist Murphy allies, hopeful of squeezing a digit or two out of the race in time for certification next week.

The New Jersey’s Governor’s race is hanging by a thread. And that thread is blue collar, where working class towns like Bloomfield, Bayonne, and Carteret are making it a real contest, and sending shivers up the spines of Democrats.

Republican Jack Ciattarelli is threatening incumbent Democratic Governor Phil Murphy tonight.

The Bergen County suburbs are watching the returns and seeing Ciattarelli keeping pace with or beating Murphy.

BRIDGEWATER – You would think Phil Murphy is bound to take an early lead when the polls close.
After all, the estimated 730,000 early and vote-by-mail ballots are tilting Democrat in a rather big way.
So, you have to figure the earliest returns will show Murphy with a nice lead.
Jack Ciattarelli, like the governor, is a baseball fan.
So in baseball-speak, this may be the equivalent of a team having an 8-game lead at the All-Star break.
We say “may be,” because this assumption is based on county election officials tabulating and reporting the early vote soon after the polls closed.
Here at the Bridgeqater Marriott, the crowd is arriving and as usual, optimism is in the air.

Bob Hugin just emerged from the GOP war room bearing some good, albeit maybe inconsequential, news.
Republicans, he said, flipped the town governmental bodies in Paramus and Springfield.
It’s early, but from the vantage point of winning from the ground up, the state chair was delighted to share the news.

Blue collars towns are swinging toward Jack Ciattarelli tonight in the governor’s race.

Hawthorne went Republican.

Little Falls.

Bergen towns were leaning Ciattarelli.

In Parsippany, Republican Jamie Barberio turned out the Democratic incumbent.

Former Bergen County GOP Chairman has launched a write-in campaign for the Wyckoff committee seat, according to the Bergen Record.