NJ GOP governor hopefuls clash over housing, immigration and 'heart'

Three Republican candidates vying to be the Garden State’s next governor say they will lower property taxes to make New Jersey more affordable for residents — while reversing a law meant to streamline affordable housing development across the state.

State Sen. Jon Bramnick, former Assemblymember Jack Ciattarelli and former radio host Bill Spadea laid out their plans Wednesday night during an often contentious conversation in Newark — peppered by arguments over housing, immigration policy and whether Republicans can project enough empathy to win over independents and liberals in the Democrat-dominated state. The discussion was hosted by New York Public Radio and NJ Spotlight News.

New Jersey’s primary elections are June 10.

Housing

All three candidates said they oppose the state’s current affordable housing requirements — most recently being administered through a 2024 law that several municipalities say unfairly burdens them with development — and would take a more regional, or even a city-based approach. New Jersey is grappling with a housing crisis amid rising rents, soaring home sale prices, the nation’s highest property tax rates and what experts estimate to be a 200,000-unit shortage of affordable homes.

Spadea said he would take affordable housing “out of the suburbs and shove them into the cities.”

“We should not be building one piece of affordable housing when we do not have energy, the jobs or the infrastructure,” he added.

Bramnick said he supports the concept of mandates, but not on a town-by-town basis.

“I don’t want to get rid of mandates,” Bramnick said. “Democrats pass laws that say each town has to have a certain number of affordable units instead of doing it by region.”

And Ciattarelli said he would “reverse” the state’s affordable housing laws — if the Republicans can gain control of the legislature. He also said he would change the makeup of the state Supreme Court to add more conservative members, in order to strike down the ruling that enacted the affordable housing mandates.

New Jersey’s last Republican governor, Chris Christie, effectively dismantled the former Council on Affordable Housing that had overseen mandates. In January, a judge denied a request to block the law setting up a newer system, and multiple towns have attempted to block or delay construction.

‘Heart and warmth’ — and sniping

The three candidates have all called on state lawmakers to slash spending and to reform New Jersey’s property tax system, though the conversation Wednesday often veered into sniping between Ciattarelli and Spadea. Ciattarelli leads recent polls of Republicans and conservative independents, but Spadea is considered his closest rival.

Spadea later refused to say if he would support the GOP nominee if he did not win the primary.

Bramnick implored the other two candidates to show “heart.”

“If you guys don't show some heart and show some warmth to other human beings, we’re going to lose again,” Bramnick said. “If the Republican Party doesn't show empathy, we’re going to get beat.”

In looking to succeed term-limited Democrat Phil Murphy, the three candidates are trying to build on the momentum of an ascendant Republican Party in New Jersey, where the GOP has made significant gains over the past four years.

President Donald Trump lost to Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris by about 6% in the November 2024 general election, narrowing the gap from 16% in 2020. Ciattarelli lost by just 3 percentage points to incumbent Murphy in 2021.

New Jersey is still a blue state in terms of voter registration: There are about 2.5 million registered Democrats in the state versus about 1.6 million registered Republicans, according to state records. But the GOP is gaining ground. The party has added nearly 100,000 registered voters since May 2021, while Democrats have lost about 60,000.

And voters haven’t sent a single party to the governor’s office for three terms in a row since the early 1960s.

New Jersey’s DOGE?

President Donald Trump looms large over the contest, with both Ciattarelli and Spadea jockeying for his endorsement.

Both said they would follow Trump’s lead to cut waste from government programs, including the Medicaid system.

Spadea went a step further, declaring he would “implement New Jersey DOGE on day one” — a reference to the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency that has slashed federal agency staff and spending.

“We are going to look at a model that President Trump has laid out for the federal government and do the same thing in New Jersey,” he said.

Bramnick, however, said he would take a more nuanced approach.

“If you're going to do cutting, you do it in a way where you have hearings, you actually speak to people in those entities. None of that's taking place,” he said, adding that he would tap New Jersey’s surplus funds to replace lost federal spending.

Immigration and the Trump factor

The early exchange captured the candidates’ approaches to Trump and his policies.

Spadea repeatedly praised the president and positioned himself as a footsoldier in Trump’s proposed deportation machine. He said he would deploy “the state police and the National Guard if necessary” to aid in the deportation effort.

He also said he supported ignoring the U.S. Constitution when it comes to court hearings for undocumented immigrants.

“As a Supreme Court Justice said back in the 1940s, the Constitution is not a suicide pact,” he said. “And if we have criminal aliens coming over the border, and many are connected to MS-13, many are cartels. That is an invasion.”

Ciattarelli said mass deportations would have a “significant” economic impact on the state, but “based on the president’s rhetoric, I do not believe he’s going to deport X million number of people across the country.”

Bramnick, in contrast, has opposed Trump, a stance that could appeal to moderate voters in a general election but puts him on the fringes of the modern Republican Party. He said he supported a path to citizenship for immigrants who do not have legal authorization.

Trump's endorsement could tip the scales in the primary, but the president’s approval rating has plummeted in the months since he took office. The majority of New Jersey residents have a negative view of the economy, according to a poll released May 1 by Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute of Politics.

Former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac is also running for the GOP nomination, but did not raise the $580,000 needed to qualify for public matching funds and to take part in Wednesday night’s conversation.

This year’s Democratic primary is also crowded. NJ Spotlight News and WNYC will co-host a conversation among five Democrats seeking their party’s nomination on Monday.