Voters Deserve an Opportunity to Hear Directly From the Candidates

The incumbent Assembly representatives in Legislative District 21, Nancy Muñoz and Michele Matsikoudis, have declined to publicly debate challenger Andrew Macurdy, a former federal prosecutor and counsel to the Attorney General. Election Day is three weeks away.

A third-party civic organization offered to host a forum and provided the candidates with several dates, but Muñoz and Matsikoudis did not respond. The Macurdy campaign has reached out to the incumbents since the summer about joining in a neutral and public debate so that voters would have a fair comparison of ideas, with no response.

Macurdy gave the following statement about the incumbents’ declination:

The people of the 21st District deserve the opportunity to directly compare the candidates running for the Legislature. I remain willing to meet for a debate. We need representation that is available and transparent. I have knocked on thousands of doors over the last ten months to speak with residents across our towns and hear their concerns. Not only are our current representatives unwilling to show up for a debate, but they consistently abstain on tough votes. No more. Voters are tired of the status quo.

Macurdy also released a new campaign ad, advocating for the need to prioritize New Jersey Transit, address the root causes of rising costs in the State, and deliver effective public safety solutions. He has previously been critical of the incumbents, who have held office for a combined twenty years, for voting against vital resources for NJ Transit with no proposal for the agency otherwise and their unwillingness to take action against the federal government’s withholding of Gateway Tunnel funding.

Andrew Macurdy served as a federal prosecutor in Newark and a county prosecutor in Jersey City. At the Attorney General’s Office, he worked on public safety initiatives related to gun violence and auto theft, as well as designing and building the Arrive Together program, which pairs mental health workers with law enforcement officers to jointly respond to mental health crisis calls for service and currently operates in municipalities around the state. For more information, please visit andrewmacurdy.com.