For more than a week now, an explosive exchange at the final New Jersey governor’s race debate has rocked the campaign. It came as Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill tried to tie her opponent, Republican Jack Ciattarelli, to the opioid crisis.
“You went on to kill tens of thousands of people in New Jersey,” Sherrill said during the Oct. 8 debate.
During the debate, Sherrill claimed a company Ciattarelli used to own, Galen Publishing, was paid by opioid companies to produce educational material that downplayed the dangers of opioids. She also accused the company of developing an app “so that people could more easily get the opioids once they were addicted.”
Ciattarelli denied the allegation from the debate stage.
“With regard to everything she just said about my professional career, which provided for my family, it’s a lie,” the Republican nominee said. “I’m proud of my career.”
And since shortly after the debate, Ciattarelli has been threatening to file a defamation lawsuit against his opponent.
“She crossed a line in that debate,” Ciattarelli told Fox News on Tuesday. “I’ll be filing my defamation suit.”
As of Thursday, no suit had been filed. However, the Ciattarelli campaign did take what one official described to CBS News Philadelphia as a first step in that process. On Wednesday, lawyers for the campaign sent a letter to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, asking for an opinion on whether the costs of filing the lawsuit would impact campaign spending limitations.
In the filing, a campaign lawyer wrote Ciattarelli “is not going to allow Sherrill to defame him and gain an advantage from her defamatory statements by requiring him to spend inside the cap funds to vindicate his reputation.”
Lawsuit or not, Sherrill has not backed off her allegations.
“Jack made millions, the opioid companies made billions, and thousands of New Jerseyans were dying,” said Sherrill at a Monday event specifically discussing the opioid crisis.
Sherrill’s campaign also launched a webpage this week that it says provides evidence to back up the Democratic nominee’s claims.
Latest New Jersey governor’s race polling
While the contentious back-and-forth has made headlines, some experts are questioning how much impact it could have on the race itself.
“Maybe it sort of helps at the margins, and this is a close enough race that the margins could matter,” said Kristoffer Shields, director for the Center on the American Governor at Rutgers University. “But I think that probably when push comes to shove, we’re probably back to affordability and national politics.”
The latest polling from Quinnipiac University this week shows Sherrill with a 50-44 edge over Ciattarelli. That six-point lead is down from the eight-point advantage she held in the university’s September poll.
But, Shields said, looking at the numbers, both campaigns have reason to be optimistic heading into this home stretch.
He pointed to the 91% of respondents who said they were “enthusiastic” about supporting Ciattarelli, compared to 86% who responded the same for Sherrill. In an off-year election, enthusiasm could prove to be pivotal.
“The test in New Jersey for a Republican right now is whether they can drive turnout without Donald Trump at the top of the ticket,” Shields said. “And if he has the enthusiasm to do that, then that’s really good news for him.”
Gender gap emerges
Shields also noted the differences in who men and women supported in the polling, specifically that Sherrill’s support from women (57-36) outpaced Ciattarelli’s support from men (53-42).
“The gender gap is really high in this race, and that could be a decisive factor for Mikie Sherrill. Probably something we haven’t talked about enough over the course of this race,” Shields said.
With two-and-a-half weeks left in this campaign, Shields anticipates a very tight race that will come down to the wire. He says many things could play into the final totals, and how each candidate approaches this homestretch will be key.
“I want to see how much of their last statements over the last couple weeks have to do with New Jersey specific issues and how much has to do with national politics,” Shields said. “And then of course what happens in national politics over the last two and a half weeks.”
A representative from the ELEC tells CBS News Philadelphia that a formal decision on the Ciattarelli campaign’s letter likely would not come before next week.
