While two states are holding gubernatorial elections on Nov. 2, only the tight battle in Virginia, between Republican Glenn Youngkin and former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, has attracted intense national media coverage.
The face-off in New Jersey, between incumbent Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli, has received scant coverage.
While liberal media outlets are claiming that Murphy's first term, which began on Jan. 1, 2018, has been a rousing success, an examination of his record during the COVID-19 epidemic reveals several monumental failures.
On Oct. 15, Michael Aron, the 75-year-old dean of New Jersey's political reporters, interviewed Bob Hugin, chairman of the state Republican Party, on the state's public broadcasting station,
Aron hypocritically asked: ''The pandemic is still bedeviling the world; a lot of people seem to think that Phil Murphy has done a pretty good job managing the pandemic in New Jersey. How do you counter that?''
Similarly, on Oct. 15, CNN covered first lady Jill Biden's campaign visits to Virginia and New Jersey. The CNN article emphasized that the campaign's ''main sticking point is the state's response to Covid-19. Murphy supporters feel he handled it well; Ciattarelli's camp think New Jersey's lockdowns and mask mandates are overly restrictive.''
In reality, both liberal news outlets are egregiously erasing that New Jersey has suffered 26,000 COVID deaths, or a rate of 312 per 100,000 residents. This is the worst rate among the nation's 12 most-populous states.
The national average is 217 deaths per 100,000 people.
New Jersey's death rate is an abominable 44% higher.
The second worst COVID death rate among America's mega-states is New York's at 288 per 100,000. New York has suffered 57,000 deaths.
Furthermore, as in New York, which was autocratically mismanaged, during the first 20 months of the COVID epidemic by the deposed and grossly incompetent Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, approximately 8,500 of New Jersey's 26,000 COVID deaths — or 33% — occurred in nursing homes among residents and staff members.
One reason for Cuomo's forced resignation in August was his heinous cover-up of the number of New Yorkers who were residents of senior-living facilities who died from COVID.
In June 2019, Gov. Murphy appointed Judith Persichilli as commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health Public Health. Tragically, the 72-year-old Persichilli, a registered nurse and hospital administrator, lacks the medical, leadership and epidemiological training to lead the nation's most densely-populated state during a major infectious disease epidemic.
Similarly, Dr. Shereef Elnahal, who served as New Jersey's commissioner of the Department of Public Health during the first 18 months of Murphy's tenure, was unqualified for this crucial position.
Dr. Elnahal was only 32 years of age when appointed in March 2018, and he had only received his medical degree and MBA from Harvard in 2012. His medical specialty is radiation oncology, not infectious diseases.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Ciattarelli should pledge, if elected, to appoint a nationally renowned physician with decades of experience in successfully battling infectious diseases.
Other Republican candidates for high office should also promise that, instead of the affirmative action/diversity incompetents that Democratic mayors, governors and county executives routinely appoint as directors of public health, they will appoint the best person, regardless of gender, ethnicity, race, creed, national origin or sexual orientation.
A second catastrophe on Gov. Murphy's watch during the COVID epidemic in New Jersey is the unemployment rate; in August it was 7.2%. This rate was tied, with Connecticut's and New Mexico's, for the 45th worst economic performance among the 50 states.
New York's had the 48th worst rate, at 7.4% and California was 49th at 7.5%.
The national unemployment rate in August was 5.2%.
Not surprisingly, New Mexico, Connecticut and California also have dictatorial, inept Democratic governors.
The 63-year-old Phil Murphy spent 23 years at Goldman Sachs, after receiving an MBA from University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in 1983.
Amazingly, Jon Corzine, New Jersey's Democratic governor between Jan. 2006 and Jan. 2010, and a U.S. senator from New Jersey between Jan. 2001 and Jan. 2006, worked at Goldman Sachs between 1976 and 1999.
Thus, for eight of the last 16 years, New Jersey's governor has been a Goldman alumnus. Ciattarelli should ask voters if the Garden State has been transformed into a subsidiary of this investment-banking behemoth.
Finally, the Republican challenger should warn Jersey voters that Murphy, if reelected, might adopt the destructive policies — including critical race theory, disparate impact and the elimination of gifted and talented classes and schools — that Democrats have insanely pushed in New York City, Virginia, California and other Democratic-run dystopias.
Jersey public schools currently rank, on The Nation's Report Card, in the Top 4 among the 50 states, in 8th grade and 4th grade math and reading.
Mark Schulte is a retired New York City schoolteacher and mathematician who has written extensively about science and the history of science. Read Mark Schulte's Reports — More Here.
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