N.J.s election focusing on abortion and offshore wind – WHYY

What questions do you have about the 2023 elections? What major issues do you want candidates to address? Let us know.

This years election in New Jersey does not include any state races, but every state senator and assembly representative is up for re-election.

Ashley Koning, the director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University, said while affordability and property taxes are always hot topics in the Garden State, the candidates are also talking about other issues that voters seem passionate about.

For the Republican side weve seen a really big focus on parental rights, and on the Democratic side weve seen a big focus especially in these last weeks and months on the issue of abortion, she said.

Koning noted that even though New Jersey has some of the best provisions in the country when it comes to reproduction rights, The United States Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last year removed the constitutional right to abortion. Since then, a growing number of states across the country are limiting access to abortion.

Dan Bowen, an associate professor of political science at the College of New Jersey, said another issue in this years campaign is offshore wind farms.

There have been groups that have pushed back against offshore wind farms that have been pushed by the Murphy administration for several years, but this summer there have been a spate of beached whales and dolphins along the Jersey shore and now opponents to the wind farms have linked these two issues, he said.

According to Ben Dworkin, the director of the Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship at Rowan University, because the legislature is at the top of the ticket, there will be a low turnout at the polls.

Were looking at 27% to 28% of registered voters casting ballots this year,he said. When you have a low turnout election, each side, both the Democrats and Republicans focus on ginning up support, agitating and getting their base voters to the polls.

For the past 20 years the Democrats have controlled the New Jersey Legislature , which means they have the power to control what bills are considered in committee and voted on by lawmakers. Bowen noted this years election is a bit unpredictable because it is the first election with the newly drawn legislative districts since the 2020 census.

See the article here:

N.J.s election focusing on abortion and offshore wind - WHYY