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The first of two debates between New Jersey gubernatorial candidates Mikie Sherrill and Jack Ciattarelli was held Sunday at Rider University. It was a spirited event, with both sides looking to score points at their opponent’s expense. Unfortunately, other than the 1,500 people in the Rider gymnasium, very few people saw it unless they went looking for it online, as no TV outlet carried the slugfest. Mike Kelly is the award-winning columnist for NorthJersey.com; he appeared on 710 WOR to express his disappointment with all the TV programmers who felt the debate wasn’t worth their time to air.
As Kelly told host Larry Mendte, voters saw a top-notch political battle- if they found it at all: “This debate should have been broadcast on the major networks, and it wasn’t, and that tells you something about politics in New Jersey. The people who control politics in New Jerey just haven’t gotten their act together when it comes to the important debates. That said, I thought it was a great debate. The organizers of the debate let the candidates go back and forth and argue with each other. We got to see the candidates responding very quickly to questions and challenges from their opponent, and I just thought it was a really enlightening debate.”
Sunday TV programming this week did include the Giants home opener at the Meadowlands and the Charlie Kirk funeral in Arizona; still, Kelly harped on the disservice of not carrying it. “One of the networks should have made time to put this on live on the air… This is a big problem, just simply getting the message out there, and it’s a problem for both candidates, too, in different ways, and it’s a problem for the voters.”
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