NJ: Why Both Murphy and Ciattarelli Are Campaigning in Lakewood

"Singer, who represents Lakewood, predicted the Orthodox voters will once again reject the Vaad’s advice.“I think family values will win the day,” he said

But in Lakewood there are 30,000 or so residents who are true swing voters. They can go for or against a candidate and they turn out at a higher-than-average rate. That is the rarest and most valuable type of voter out a politician can hope to find. Expect both Murphy and Ciattarelli to keep looking hard for them till a week from Tuesday

 NJ.com -  In case you’re wondering why Jack Ciattarelli spent all of Thursday campaigning in one town, state Senator Bob Singer has the answer: “Donald Trump carried Ocean County by 100,000 votes last year and 25,000 of those votes were from Lakewood,” Singer told me.

The Donald could thank the Vaad for that.

Few people outside Lakewood know what the Vaad is, but it’s probably the single most powerful electoral force in any city or town in the state. It’s an 11-member council of elders that assesses political candidates and makes recommendations for the Hasidic community in the fastest growing municipality in the state.

In not-so-distant memory Lakewood was a largely rural township. The high school’s athletic teams are still called the Piners.

Now it’s got 130,000 residents – and growing.

Last year, Republican Trump got the Vaad’s endorsement.

But this year the endorsement went to Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy in his race for re-election.

If Murphy were to win Lakewood by a margin similar to Trump’s, that would preclude any chances of an upset victory for his Republican opponent.

That’s why Murphy made a campaign stop in Lakewood the day before Ciattarell did.

But this year is shaping up more like 2009 than 2020, Singer told me.

That was the year that Murphy’s fellow Goldman Sachs alumnus, Jon Corzine, won the backing of the Vaad but still lost Lakewood. Republican Chris Christie piled up a 4,500-vote margin in Lakewood on his way to landslide victories in Ocean and neighboring Monmouth counties that offset Corzine’s victories in key Democratic strongholds.

Singer, who represents Lakewood, predicted the Orthodox voters will once again reject the Vaad’s advice.

“I think family values will win the day,” he said.

Ciattarelli, who was wearing a yarmulke, certainly acted that way as he worked the crowds at campaign stops that included a synagogue, a kosher bagel shop and a kosher restaurant.

The former assemblyman from Somerset County hammered on the administration’s plan for extended .... education among grammar-school students as well as mask and vaccine mandates.

“A lot of people object to mandates,” one member of the Hasidic community told me.

Ciattarelli also hit on bread-and butter issues such as the traffic jams caused by all that recent growth.

“My first priority is improving Route 9 from Lakewood to Toms River,” he said. “That’s the No. 1 project in my transportation plan.”

But he hit the hardest on school choice. The posters held up by his backers read, “Fix the tuition crisis with funding reform, school choice, and vouchers,”

Murphy has been a staunch opponent of vouchers but has helped the community in many other ways, Singer said.

Those familiar with the Vaad’s reasoning say they expect Murphy to win re-election and therefore don’t want to risk alienating him going into his second term.

Singer, who was first elected to the Legislature back in the 1980s, recalled that Corzine had a disadvantage in 2009 that Murphy doesn’t have.

“There was a big issue that year and it was (same-gender) marriage,” Singer said. “Corzine could have vetoed it but he didn’t.”

There’s no single issue like that this year, Singer said. But Murphy’s liberal views on social issues will keep him from running up the margins usually associated with the Vaad’s endorsement, he predicted.

Larry Bathgate, a leading fund-raiser for Republicans who has a law practice in Lakewood, recalled that another issue that sunk Corzine in 2009 was his scheme for bonding against toll revenues, which alienated Garden State Parkway commuters.

But the dynamic this year is the same as in 2009, he said. He recalled that in 2009 he got a phone call from the leader of a group of rabbis not affiliated with the Vaad. They were mostly the founders of private schools and they wanted to meet with Christie, he said.

He arranged the meeting. The result was that the rabbis brought the issue to the top Orthodox rabbi in Jerusalem.

“The senior guy in Jerusalem put out an edict,” he recalled. “They had three choices. They could not vote. They could follow the recommendations of the Vaad. Or they could vote their consciences.”

Enough took advantage of Option 3 to turn a looming defeat to victory for the Republican.

This time around the fight for the Lakewood vote promises to be the most interesting struggle in the state. Other parts of the state tend to be solidly Republican or solidly Democrat. The problem for each party is getting out the vote.

But in Lakewood there are 30,000 or so residents who are true swing voters. They can go for or against a candidate and they turn out at a higher-than-average rate.

That is the rarest and most valuable type of voter out a politician can hope to find.

Expect both Murphy and Ciattarelli to keep looking hard for them till a in0

.