{"id":2496629,"date":"2025-10-09T00:01:02","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T04:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-jersey-gubernatorial-hopefuls-spar-in-icy-final-debate\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T00:02:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T04:02:54","slug":"new-jersey-gubernatorial-hopefuls-spar-in-icy-final-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-jersey-gubernatorial-hopefuls-spar-in-icy-final-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey gubernatorial hopefuls spar in icy final debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnew-jersey-gubernatorial-hopefuls-spar-in-icy-final-debate%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2496629&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article covers the final debate between New Jersey gubernatorial candidates Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democrat Mikie Sherrill. During the debate, the candidates clashed over Sherrill&#8217;s past involvement in a 1990s Naval Academy cheating scandal, in which more than 130 midshipmen were implicated. Although Sherrill did not cheat herself, she was barred from participating in her graduation ceremony. Ciattarelli pressed Sherrill to release her disciplinary records to clarify the circumstances of her punishment, but she refused, citing privacy for her classmates. <\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the debate included discussions about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/congress-members-wont-take-pay-during-government-shutdown\/\" title=\"Congress members won...t take pay during ...\">ongoing government shutdown<\/a>. Sherrill argued Republicans have the ability to end the shutdown sence they control the presidency, Senate, and House, while ciattarelli blamed Sherrill and Democrats for contributing to the stalemate by rejecting funding resolutions. <\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" ><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ga-republicans-launch-stop-stacey-effort-ahead-of-possible-abrams-2022-announcement\/\" title=\"GA ... Launch \u2018Stop Stacey\u2019 Effort Ahead Of Possible Abrams 2022 Announcement\">gubernatorial race<\/a> remains <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/states-push-to-rein-in-big-tech-as-federal-gears-grind-slow\/\" title=\"States Push to Rein in Big Tech as Federal Gears Grind Slow\">highly competitive<\/a><\/a>, with recent polls showing Sherrill&#8217;s lead narrowing compared to earlier in the campaign. <br \/> <!DOCTYPE html><br \/>\n<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><html><body><\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">New Jersey gubernatorial hopefuls dig up past scandals, spar over shutdown in icy final debate<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2365770\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>In the final debate of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/3840331\/momentum-new-jersey-gubernatorial-race-with-jack-ciattarelli-amid-mikie-sherrill-bumps-joe-concha\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New Jersey&rsquo;s gubernatorial race<\/a> on Wednesday, Republican <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/jack-ciattarelli\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jack Ciattarelli<\/a> and Democrat Mikie Sherrill traded blows multiple times over the latter&rsquo;s involvement in a decades-old cheating scandal at the Naval Academy and the current state of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/government-shutdown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">government shutdown<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The race is seen as highly competitive as the two vie for votes in the final weeks until Election Day.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/state\/3842327\/cuomo-rebuild-rikers-island-jail-plan-close-complex\/\">Cuomo calls to rebuild Rikers Island&nbsp;jail,&nbsp;spurning plan to close complex<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/state\/3842827\/nancy-pelosi-insists-jay-jones-better-person-to-be-attorney-general-despite-text-scandal\/\">Pelosi: Jay Jones is still &#8216;better person to be attorney general&#8217; despite text scandal<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/state\/3842537\/new-jersey-gubernatorial-debate-mlb-playoffs-ratings\/\">New Jersey gubernatorial debate runs up against do-or-die Yankees and Phillies playoff games<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Sherrill received a blow to her campaign last month when the <em>New Jersey Globe<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/newjerseyglobe.com\/governor\/sherrill-didnt-walk-with-her-graduating-class-in-wake-of-navy-academy-cheating-scandal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> that she failed to report her classmates involved in a massive cheating scandal that led to the expulsion of two dozen midshipmen. More than 130 midshipmen were implicated. Sherrill did not herself cheat, but was banned from walking onstage during her graduating class&rsquo;s commencement ceremony in 1994.<\/p>\n<p>At one point during the debate, Ciattarelli demanded Sherrill release the disciplinary records from her time at the Naval Academy three decades ago to show exactly why she was barred from graduation.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Mikie said that she was the most transparent gubernatorial candidate of all time. She&rsquo;s so transparent that [she won&rsquo;t] approve the release of her disciplinary records at the Naval Academy, so we can know why it is, she was punished,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Republican Jack Ciattarelli, left, looks on while Democrat Mikie Sherrill speaks during the final debate in the New Jersey governor&rsquo;s race, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. (AP Photo\/Heather Khalifa)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>She made her military service a focal point of her gubernatorial campaign, even though her name was not included on a copy of the commencement program at the time.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a cheating scandal in the early 1990s, while she was there, we know for a fact that she wasn&rsquo;t allowed to participate in the graduation ceremony,&rdquo; Ciattarelli said of his opponent.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;She needs to come clean. I think people in New Jersey deserve an answer as to why she was punished at the Naval Academy,&rdquo; he added.<\/p>\n<p>In response to his questioning, Sherrill reiterated her refusal to release the disciplinary records.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m certainly not going to open up my classmates&rsquo; hundreds of records so he can rampage through them on a witch hunt. He should take responsibility,&rdquo; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Sherrill then told him to return the records that his ally possesses. The National Archives released her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jeffries-backs-investigation-into-national-archives-release-of-mikie-sherrill-records\/\" title=\"Jeffries backs investigation into National Archives... ... of ... Sherrill records\">full military file<\/a> to Nicholas De Gregorio months before the bombshell story broke.<\/p>\n<p>Later in the debate, both candidates addressed the government shutdown that has been in effect since last week.<\/p>\n<p>Sherrill, who currently represents New Jersey&rsquo;s 11th Congressional District in the House, argued that Republicans have the power to reopen the federal government.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Right now, with the president, with the Senate and the House, all in GOP hands, the fact is, they&rsquo;ve got to work to reopen the government so workers can get back to work and we can continue to drive down healthcare costs,&rdquo; Sherrill said.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Ciattarelli blamed Sherrill for her role in letting the shutdown begin after Democrats rejected Republicans&rsquo; continuing resolution to fund the government for a couple of extra weeks.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;When there were shutdowns during the Biden era, she voted every time for the continuing resolution to keep the government &hellip; open,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This time around with Trump in the White House, she&rsquo;s voted &lsquo;no&rsquo; on the resolutions to keep the government open. I hope the shutdown ends within moments.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/state\/3842537\/new-jersey-gubernatorial-debate-mlb-playoffs-ratings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">NEW JERSEY GUBERNATORIAL DEBATE RUNS UP AGAINST DO-OR-DIE YANKEES AND PHILLIES PLAYOFF GAMES<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>An end to the shutdown appears to be nowhere in sight, with congressional representatives on both sides of the aisle unable to agree on a funding measure.<\/p>\n<p>The race between Ciattarelli and Sherrill is growing tighter<span style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">. The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolling.com\/polls\/governor\/general\/2025\/new-jersey\/sherrill-vs-ciattarelli\" target=\"_blank\">latest<em>&nbsp;RealClearPolitics&nbsp;<\/em>polling aggregate<\/a>&nbsp;shows Sherrill leading by 3.3 points, a notable marginal decline from a month<\/span> ago when she led her opponent by 8.5 points.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script> <\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NJ governor candidates clash over scandal, shutdown in final debate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2159,"featured_media":2496630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AP25281850623263.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[63821,33096,5894],"class_list":["post-2496629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-gubernatorial-debate","tag-new-jersey","tag-politics"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AP25281850623263.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2496629"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2496633,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496629\/revisions\/2496633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2496630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2496629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2496629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2496629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}