NYC NOW - November 19, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

New York City could see an inch of rain by Friday, with wet snow possible in parts of the Hudson Valley. NYC Emergency Management has activated its Flash Flood Plan and is urging residents to clear storm basins or call 3-1-1. Meanwhile, a group of building superintendents are pushing back against Mayor Adams’ new trash rules which would require them to put out the garbage later in the evening. Plus, Representatives Mikie Sherrill and Josh Gottheimer have joined New Jersey’s crowded race for governor. Republican strategist Jeanette Hoffman and former Governor Murphy advisor Dan Bryan weigh in on the race.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Tuesday, November 19th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Rain is in the forecast. Forecasters say expect an inch to fall in New York City by the end of Friday. Slightly higher totals and maybe some wet snow farther north in the lower Hudson Valley. A little less rain forecast on.

eastern Long Island, New York City's emergency management has activated its flash flood plan and urged residents to clear storm basins or call 311. National Weather Service meteorologist Josh Polina says the rain won't be enough, though, to end the drought. What it will do is ease a lot of the fire weather concerns that we have in the lying areas of the New York City metro area. Local officials have been warning residents about the ongoing risk of fire during drought an urging precaution. A group of New York City building superes say they've been unfairly thrown to the front lines

of Mayor Adam's Trash Revolution. The super say they're hurt by rules that forced them to put garbage on the curb later in the evening. Jesmond Portelli, who manages a building in Greenwich Village, says the mandate forces him to choose between his garbage duties and time with his family.

I took it out early because I want to go home and make some dinner. Honestly, I'm a single father of a teenager, so it's tough. The superts are also raising concerns about the city's plan to require all residential trash to be put out in containers. The sanitation department says the earlier time meant pedestrians and commuters had to work around piles of trash bags and that rats had hours to feast on them. 56 and sunny right now. Sunny and 58 today, tomorrow, mostly clouding here 60, and then Wednesday night. the rain begins. Stay close. There's more after the break.

On WNYC, I'm George Bodarky. Things are getting crowded in the New Jersey governor's race. Two high-profile members of Congress enter the contest just in the past three days now that representatives Mikey Sherrill and Josh Gottheimer officially announced their candidacies. Now that makes it at least seven. seven Democrats vying to succeed Governor Phil Murphy, whose term limited out after next year. Not to mention at least four Republicans with their eyes on running the show in Trenton. With us now to talk about the race is Jeanette Hoffman. She's a Republican strategist at Marathon Communications.

We're also joined by Dan Bryan. He's a founding partner at Elysian Consulting Group and a former advisor to Governor Murphy. Dan, let's start with you. There are an awful lot of Democrats with some degree of statewide, name recognition entering this race. You've got two sitting members of Congress, the two mayors of the state's two largest cities, Roz Baraka and Steve Fullop, the longest serving state Senate president in New Jersey history in Steve Sweeney and the head of the teachers union, Sean Spiller. Why are so many high-profile Democrats eager to run in this coming election cycle? George, thanks for having me. I like to think it's because New Jersey is such a great state. In reality, we haven't seen a contested primary like this in New Jersey in decades.

So I look at it, I'm a Democrat, I look at it from the perspective of it's only a good thing. We've got a lot of very high quality candidates. And it's interesting to see how it's developing as well. People are kind of picking their lane. Some are running as moderates. Some are running to the far left. I would say Mikey Sherrill, who announced today, is a bit unique in that she is running a race where she is attempting to speak to everybody, right?

not just moderates, not just progressives, but trying to speak to everyone across the spectrum, unions, et cetera. But it's been very interesting to see the six candidates as they come out kind of picking their lanes. Jeanette, let's talk about the Republicans running this cycle. They have varying degrees of name recognition, including the party's 2020 nominee, Jack Chittarelli. But it's a smaller field than I think some political observers expected after eight years of Democratic rule in Trenton. Would you agree with that? It's a smaller field, but we still don't. don't know what it looks like yet, but I will say there is no shortage of enthusiasm among Republicans.

If you look at the last election, President Trump got more presidential votes than any Republicans since George H.W. Bush in 1992. Everyone said there's no way he'll even come within single digits in New Jersey and he came within five points. So that being said, Republicans have outpaced Democrats and voter registration month after month in New Jersey. So there's a lot of enthusiasm to think that New Jersey is shifting more towards the middle because the focus is on affordability and the economy after eight years of Democratic roles. So Jack Chitterelli, he ran and narrowly, you know, missed beating and ousting the incumbent governor four years ago. He threw his hat in the ring. Bill Spadia, a popular talk show host, radio host, is running a little bit further to the right.

And John Bramnick is an interesting character. He's a very popular moderate senator running kind of as a never-trumper in a primary. So that's an interesting tactic to take, right? And then, of course, you have a lesser-known state senator, an ed der, who's very, very conservative. So it's going to be interesting to see how things shake out and whether or not anyone else gets in the field. Yeah, Jeanette, let's talk a little bit more about that. There's been some thought that Republican candidates would have to keep their distance from Donald Trump in a general election due to his widespread unpopularity in the state. But he just put up the best showing by Republican presidential candidate in New Jersey three decades.

Might that calculus be changing? Well, I think a lot of people feel that some of Trump's rhetoric needs to be something to be distanced from, but I kind of agree to that. But, you know, the policies of the economy of the border on the Democratic side are failing the country and failing New Jersey. And so, you know, that's something that people don't need to distance themselves from and that, you know, I think New Jerseyans are really just ready for change. And I don't think there's any difference in this gubernatorial election. People are tired of property taxes going up, inflation. New Jersey transit being dysfunctional. So I think those are going to be issues you're going to be seeing Republicans lean into and just the overall message of change and, you know, the government is not working for you right now. Politicians aren't working for you. We need to do something different. That's what President Trump represented in this election, winning the popular vote. People were ready to get rid of what wasn't working and switch to something different. Dan, back to you. Where do you see the energy for the party going in the coming?

coming year. Is it going to be towards more moderate candidates like representatives, Gottheimer and Cheryl, or former Senate President Sweeney, or towards progressives like mayors Baraka and Fullop? It's a great question. The short answer is no one quite knows. I think you can look, it's a bit analogous to 2017, right, where there was this big anti-Trump energy. I think you're going to see a version of that in 2025. You know, I do think, you know, I don't think there's going to be a big aversion to progressives, but there certainly there has to be a very core message of affordability in everyone's race that they're running. New Jersey is getting in the country is getting more unaffordable for middle and working class families. So I think

even those folks that you see running in progressive lanes, I think are going to be talking about affordability from their perspective. Yeah, Dan, the crowded Democratic field looks to be splitting the votes of the party's coalition in lots of different ways. I'm thinking of two moderate representatives, two progressive big city mayors. Do you expect the field to winnow down fairly early here? You know, I don't. I think it's safe to say of those six candidates that you mentioned before, maybe by election day, only four of them are really in the race, even if some of them are still on the ballot. But I think that we're going to see all six of them kick off in the next month or two.

And then maybe as if they're not making progress in the polling, they drop off as they go along. But I expect to go into election day with at least four of these candidates very much still in the race. Jeanette, do you see room in the Republican primary for a stridently anti-Trump candidate, like state senator John Bramnick? It's interesting that you ask that question. After this past election, I'm not sure that there's that many votes for a never-Trumper. However, that being said, if the field widens

and there's four candidates running on the Trump mantle, there could be a way for John Bramnick, the senator who's certainly an anti-Trumper, to pick up some of that narrow base of support. That being said, I'm not sure the way the race looks like right now, there's a lot of room for that sentiment. And if the Republican primary. Yeah.

And if the Republican candidate ends up being an all-Trump all-the-way figure like radio host, Bill Spadia or former state senator Ed, the truck or dur, does that create an opening for Democrats to court Republicans? Or do you think the Harris campaign defeat put an end to that electoral strategy? Well, I think Dan's probably writing those TV ads already. but listen, you know, I think you have to take each candidate at their own merits and at their own, you know, at their own quotes and what they've said, you know, at the trucker, Ders, someone who said, you know, women have a choice, they can close their legs. And that's certainly someone I wouldn't associate myself with as a Republican. You know, I don't think he has a chance or name recognition or I'm not sure why he's running as a Republican in the gubernatorial primary. I don't think his candidacy will last very long. Bill Spady, on the other hand, he's He's a little bit different. He has spent, you know, years on TV and in the radio. He said a lot of controversial thing.

But he does appeal to a lot of people who, like Donald Trump, you know, he has that appeal to people who feel like government hasn't been listening to them. They've been left out of the conversation, hardworking, middle class, blue-collar voters. So you can't really put him in a box as much as you can as somebody who's just super right-wing conservative. That was Republican strategist, Jeanette Hoffman, and Democrat. Democratic strategist, Dan Bryan. My thanks to you both. Thank you. Thanks, George. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC.

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