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From NJ PBS Studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Brianna Vannozzi.

Hello and thanks for joining us.

I'm Raven Santana in for Brianna Vannozzi.

We're bringing you a special NJ Spotlight News edition of Reporter's Roundtable with Joanna Gagis, who has a roundup of the top political stories of the week with the help of a panel of local journalists.

But first, a few of today's top headlines.

New Jersey's new plan to create a state website where people can upload videos of ICE activity in the state is already drawing mixed reaction.

Some immigrant advocates say the proposal from Governor Mikie Sherrill may miss the moment, especially as tensions around immigration enforcement continue to rise.

The governor says the portal is meant to increase transparency and document federal enforcement actions.

However, critics worry a government-run system may not move fast enough to warn communities when agents are operating in their neighborhoods and question whether it would actually protect vulnerable residents.

Republican state leaders are also criticizing the plan, saying it undermines law enforcement.

Sherrill's stance on immigrant protection is also putting her at odds with some advocates.

A spokesperson for the governor says she supports enshrining the state's current policy into law that limits when local police can cooperate with federal immigration agents.

But she does not appear to back a bill Governor Murphy rejected on his way out of office that would have limited cooperation even further.

Both have said they had concerns that the legislation could invite legal challenges and attacks by the federal government.

Lawmakers plan to reintroduce the bill soon.

Also tonight, New Jersey is urging residents to sign up for health care on the state marketplace before open enrollment ends on January 31st, even as they face significant cost increases.

Consumers here and nationwide are getting hit by a double whammy of higher premiums due to expired federal tax credits and the overall rising cost of health care.

In New Jersey, that'll mean an average increase of nearly $2,800 a year.

The State Department of Banking and Insurance says that's led more residents here to buy down from silver plans to bronze, which come with lower monthly premiums but have higher deductibles and co-pays.

And overall, the number of new consumers enrolling in coverage on the state marketplace has dropped by nearly 30% for the upcoming plan year.

Nearly half a million residents get their health insurance through Get Covered NJ if they can't get covered through an employer, Medicare or Medicaid.

In New Jersey, health coverage is still required and residents who fail to enroll and don't qualify for an exemption will get hit with a penalty at tax time.

And voters casting their ballots by mail in the special election for Congress in District 11.

Take note, new rules from the U.S.

Postal Service mean that some mail might no longer get a same-day postmark.

That's a result of cost-cutting measures that could delay mail from arriving at processing facilities.

Mail will be postmarked the day it's processed, not the day it's mailed.

And ballots that aren't postmarked by 8 p.m.

on Election Day may not be counted.

Election officials are urging voters to put their ballots in special ballot drop boxes to ensure they're counted, or to drop off ballots in person at your county board of elections.

The crowded Democratic primary includes 11 candidates who are actively campaigning for the nomination to replace Governor Mikie Sherrill, including former Congressman Tom Malinowski, Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill, labor activists Annalilia Mejia, and former Lieutenant Governor Tahisha Way.

One Republican candidate, Joe Hathaway, is running unopposed.

Early in-person voting started Thursday and runs until Tuesday, February 3rd, at limited polling locations.

Primary day is Thursday, February 5th, and the general election will be April 16th.

And those are our top headlines.

Reporters' Roundtable begins right now.

Major funding for Reporters' Roundtable is provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Let's be healthy together.

(upbeat music) - If there was a word of the week, it would be ice.

Let's get into it.

Hi everyone.

I'm Joanna Gagis and this is Reporters Roundtable, the show where we round up a panel of journalists to talk all about the latest week of New Jersey news.

Let's get started and meet our panel.

With us today is Colleen O'Day, senior writer and projects editor for NJ Spotlight News.

We have Kenny Burns, New Jersey reporter for WHYY, and Scott Fallon, reporter with NorthJersey.com and USA Today Network.

Well, we started the week with a massive winter storm.

It blanketed the state in snow and ice, leading to a state of emergency, closed schools, transit troubles that have continued throughout the week for anyone trying to get around.

At the same time, we watched another American citizen be shot and killed by ICE immigration officers on the streets of Minneapolis.

Obviously, there's a lot to talk about today, but let's start with that ICE activity.

Scott, I'm going to start with you.

There's been bipartisan concern over the tactics used by ICE this past week.

What have you heard from Governor Sherrill in response?

Well, her big announcement this week was to create this portal in which citizens would be able to share their videos, photos of ICE on the streets of New Jersey.

It kind of just shows you how limited state government is in dealing with ICE Because there's just not too much they can do in terms of dealing with an escalation Minnesota is seeing that right now.

It's seen it throughout the entire winter and really you have to see some moves come out of Washington to really see some type of de-escalation there.

Yeah she talked about on The Daily Show this week she talked about making this database.

She sure does love a database.

We've heard a lot about different various databases since she's taken office but she says to people keep your phones out, keep recording, keep monitoring any activity that you see.

But there is something perhaps she could do here in New Jersey.

She could sign a and codify into law the immigrant trust directive.

Scott, have you heard any further commitment from her on that issue or or divergence away from it?

You know, she's kind of not showing her cards on that.

Obviously, you know, she has been extraordinarily critical of um of what's happening in Minnesota and of ice in general.

And uh you know, is there a chance that she will she will move ahead with that?

Absolutely.

But we'll have to see.

Ken, we have seen ice activity playing out here on the streets of New Jersey, several towns, several municipalities and cities.

Um there's been ice enforcement in Atlantic City.

What's happening there?

I know you've been covering it.

How are city officials responding?

City officials in Atlantic City.

They're standing by their immigrant communities.

Mayor Marty Small spoke about how they had to cancel a whole multicultural parade because of concerns from the community about ice using that as a place to round up people.

And Camden, the city council president, Angel Fuentes, sent a letter to Governor Sherrill asking her to take a look at the immigrant trust directive, codifying the immigrant trust directive.

And by all signs, at least as of this morning, it looks like they may be open to that.

Obviously, that'll take some work going through the legislature again.

The measure failed at the end of the lame duck session.

Governor Murphy pocket vetoed two of those bills.

Kenny, do you think that this legislature right now is positioned and has the political will to move those bills quickly through?

The key word is quickly.

And Governor Murphy when he was leaving office left some Easter eggs for the legislature to consider as they recraft this bill.

His main concern if anybody remembers is that it will go through another round of court challenges and we might not be so lucky as far as codifying it.

But it's a new administration.

They do have some guidance and the wills there is just how quickly will they move?

Because this I mean, the first time it took at least a year or two to get it to the governor's desk.

But would you argue, Kenny, that this is a different time?

There's a different feeling right now and that perhaps this is something that there's a lot of political will and motivation to pass through quickly.

Oh, absolutely.

You're seeing critics of Governor.

I'm sorry President Trump.

I'm sorry not critics supports of President Trump finally raising some concerns and giving their criticism in regards to how ISIS has been behaving in Minnesota particularly in the last week with the shooting death of Alex Perret Alex Pretty Colleen politics are certainly at play everywhere you look in the state of New Jersey across this country.

We saw Governor Sherrill come out and say look the Trump administration has included New Jersey on a list of 14 states that are being investigated for how they spend their federal funds.

First just tell us what's happening with that investigation.

So what we know is that the states that are being investigated are all states that voted for Kamala Harris and not Donald Trump in 2024.

Um, you know, she's called it a blatantly political investigation.

I mean, it's kind of hard to say it isn't given that it is of blue states, you know, as we call them.

Uh, you know, the idea from coming from the Trump administration is that they are looking for, um, you know, waste, fraud and abuse that those three words that we often hear when, when, uh, politicians are trying to talk about money being spent, you know, I mean, I would, we, there's obviously billions of dollars that we get in federal funds as well as other states.

And I think when you have all of that money, there's, there's gotta be some little bit at least that goes by the wayside, maybe that isn't fully accounted for.

I'm not sure there's enough to, you know, make any big deal over it.

But certainly in New Jersey, we have had, at least in the last administration, a very strong controller who was coming, who was finding something like $100 million a year in fraud, at least in the Medicare Medicaid program.

So I'm not sure what's gonna come of this ultimately, but it's, you know, it certainly is something that is of concern to the Sherrill administration.

- Yeah, also of concern to the Sherrill administration is the president's doubling down on canceling the funding for the Gateway Tunnel Project.

What's going on there, Colleen?

- Yeah, so, you know, here we are again.

This was announced back in October when Sherrill was running for governor and she criticized it then, she's critical again.

She continues to call the funding freeze illegal.

She said that the other day she called Donald Trump to talk to him about it and she hasn't heard back from him yet, but she wants him to know that this impacts thousands and thousands of jobs.

There's a $40 billion economic impact in this region because of this tunnel.

You know, if people can't get back and forth, and it's not just people going from New York to New Jersey or vice versa.

I mean, this is also Amtrak trains would be using this.

So it's a huge deal.

So she keeps talking tough, but you know, I'm not her tough talk is not something that President Trump has really appreciated in other places.

And it seems to bring his wrath down upon a governor when they do that.

So I'm not sure what we're going to see happening as a result.

And this is a 16 billion dollar project.

And we do know that every Democrat in New York and New Jersey this week sent a letter to the Trump administration asking that he promptly release those funds.

But like you said, I'm not sure that she's engendered herself to the president in these first two weeks of her of her office.

She clearly doesn't intend to do that.

She clearly is coming out swinging intentionally.

Scott, that's right.

Go ahead, Joanna.

In case I didn't note this, the Gateway officials say that if they don't get more money, they're going to stop construction next Friday.

And that's a big deal.

Yeah, that's a loss of a whole lot of jobs, as you said.

But the broader impacts and what it costs then to get those projects back up and running, we know there's additional investments that then have to be made.

As all of that plays out here in New Jersey, federally, we're seeing a spending bill that's once again come down to the 11th hour.

Scott one of the things that Democrats have fought for is a stop to this DHS spending although we know that President Trump and Republicans funded DHS and ICE operations through the end of his term so that there's really not a negotiating point there.

But Democrats are also very loudly calling for an expansion extension of these ACA credits the Affordable Care Act credits.

Just Scott can you explain what is happening with the deadline of those credits and what they're asking for.

Well the House passed earlier this month a bill that would extend those credits for three years.

So now it goes to the Senate where it doesn't look like it has much support.

So the Department of Banking the New Jersey Department of Banking yesterday actually put out a some data and it shows that those who are enrolled in New Jersey's program ACA program that 30 percent of them are going with the bare bones health insurance plan up from 16 percent last year.

So the premiums are very high and people are going with less insurance.

So it's a lot of people who are going with the bare bones health insurance plan.

So they're going with a lot of insurance plans or lesser insurance than they have in the past.

Yeah.

And Scott nationally I don't have the numbers in front of me.

I'm going from memory here but I believe that ACA enrollment dropped by about a million people across the country right down from 24 million to 23 million somewhere around there.

Help me fill in those numbers.

It did.

It dropped a million in New Jersey.

They have about 30 percent fewer new enrollees for the 2026 year and then compared to 2025.

So it's it's down and it's not surprising.

You have to realize that you saw a tremendous tremendous skyrocketing premiums across the board as high as 175 percent in some cases for New Jersey's ACA market.

And people are just can't afford it.

That's what it comes down to.

But help us understand this because this is one area where we've actually seen a bit of bipartisan communication in Washington.

There's been a deep divide along most issues of the day.

But we have seen Republicans start moving.

I'd say center on this and saying look our constituents are being hurt by this also.

What have we seen so far.

Although we know that negotiations aren't final in the spending bill.

Well you hear from the Republicans the House had Republicans vote on this bill.

They had to have it for it to pass.

But the Senate you're not hearing that.

You know the House.

You kind of have more town halls.

You have people you have your constituents talking to you and people in Republican districts want this as much as people in Democratic districts.

We're going to switch gears.

Kenny we talked about that winter storm that hit us really hard.

A lot of people still dealing with snow and struggling with their commutes.

How would you assess Governor Sherrill's handling, preparedness of that storm?

It was her first true test and it came really early.

It did and overall I would give high marks.

Now keep in mind I am a Marylander by where I came from so I'm a native Marylander.

So incidentally New Jersey already handles snow a little bit better than we do.

But the fact that we were able to get up and around a couple days after the storm there are a couple of minor things particularly there's a ramp that goes from Route 1 to 295 around Lawrence Township.

It was a lane not like a path that I've seen in Maryland years and years ago.

And then they're still following up as far as at least on my commute.

They're following up with cleaning up the snow piles along Route 1 and then even going through Camden County and Burlington County.

Good job overall.

And I haven't heard anybody really complain about the lack of planning on the state or at least getting back up and running.

you say if you gave her a grade what would you grade her?

I guess I would give her an A. I'm not going to be like some college professors.

No shade to college professors overall, but if someone gets an A just give them an A. We don't need to make it a B or an A+.

B+?

Right.

Okay.

Colleen, we have an election on a random Thursday in February.

Happens to be my birthday as a matter of fact.

Happy early birthday.

Thank you.

Yes.

11th of November.

11 in 11.

What is going on in CD 11?

Yeah, you know these openings don't come up very often.

so when they do a lot of people decide, hey, this is my shot and with the decline of county party power.

Obviously, the county line is dead, but that doesn't mean that all county party power is dead.

You know, people kind of felt like this would be their shot.

So there are 13 Democratic names on the ballot, two have dropped out in terms of campaigning.

But they could still get votes because they're on the ballot.

And this is a time, right, in terms of when the ballots were printed and when they dropped out.

Right, right.

As far as I know, I think they're all on but I mean, they're all at least one of the county's ballots, I would have to check the others.

But anyway, there are 11 candidates, there are a number of candidates who are really pretty well, you know, well known, or at least to have some pretty strong credentials.

I would think that you have on the Democratic side.

Four front runners, you've got the former Congressman Tom Malinowski, you've got Brendan Gill, who is an Essex County Commissioner and who's got the county line in Essex.

Again, the county line can be given, but it's just not a county line ballot that we're seeing anymore.

You've got Tahisha Way, the former Secretary of State, former Lieutenant Governor, who has gotten a lot of monetary backing from the Democratic Lieutenant Governor's Association.

I think it's approaching $2 million now, so a lot of ads for her.

And you've also got Annalilia Mejia, who is the progressive choice, or at least the progressive organization choice.

- And she's picked up- - She's picked up some major endorsements, right, Colleen?

Talk about the progressives who've endorsed her nationally.

- I mean, I think it's just about everybody.

Bernie Sanders, AOC, Ilhan Omar.

I mean, she's got all of the big name progressives behind her.

So if, and the interesting thing about this on the Democratic side, again, I think you showed there's one Republican on the ballot, Joe Hathaway.

the Democratic side with 11 candidates, you can potentially win this with fewer than 10% of the vote.

Now, I don't think that's going to happen.

I think it'll be closer to 20% maybe more than that, maybe closer what Cheryl got last year, which was in the 30s.

But I mean, that's amazing.

How much of this, Colleen, comes down to organizational support?

You said that the county, the county party, you know, effort still exists.

It really does come down to organizational support and who can mobilize voters and get them out, like we said, on a random Thursday.

Who do you think has that strongest ground game?

I mean, certainly in Essex County, you've got to give it to Brendan Gill because he has the Essex County machine behind him and they have always been a very strong organization.

They've always been able to get people out.

He's also got an awful lot of support from unions, kind of the workers unions, carpenters, those kind of guys.

And they've always got a good ground game.

You know, on the other hand, Malinowski has got name recognition.

He's well known.

He's got some pretty strong support in Morris County.

You've got Anna Lilia in terms of the progressive movement.

You know, the Working Families Party worked hard last year and helped to, I mean, Ras Baraka didn't win the nomination for governor, but he came awful close.

He came in second and they, Working Families Party, did a lot of work for the New Jersey City mayor.

So, you know, they're a pretty strong group and they've been knocking on doors just about every day for Mahia.

Yeah, well, we're going to see we're going to be following it.

Kenny really quickly.

Governor Murphy on his way out made no shortage of enemies with a couple different moves.

One of them has incited some some anger, I'd say, within his own party, a clemency policy that's been in place where governors can pardon people.

He pardoned a mom who had been found guilty of burning her two young children alive.

It's just a horrific story.

She at one point was considered to perhaps get the death penalty.

Now we see a Democratic Senator, Vin Gopal, introducing legislation to change those clemency policies.

What can you tell us about it?

Well, it's going to be a challenge because as I learned when I was writing that story is it's a constitutional power that's been around for going on eight decades.

Before that, the governor shared the power with what would be the modern New Jersey Supreme Court.

So how I have to look at the bill admittedly, but it would really have to.

You really have to check the constitutional powers on this one.

And and if it's going to be a constitutional amendment that needs to go before the voters of New Jersey.

Yes.

Yeah.

It has to go to the voters of New Jersey and that and constitutional amendments are already a it's a tough thing to do already.

So we'll see how this one goes.

I'll tell you what, though, when it comes to this issue, there's been frustration on both sides of the political aisle.

We saw President Biden pardon his son Hunter.

We saw President Trump pardon the January 6th insurrectionists.

Do you think that this is something New Jersey voters would get behind, Kenny?

It's hard to say because I mean, they I could see them getting some behind some type of reform.

But again, we're dealing with the Constitution and we're dealing with trying to get people to understand why this is important.

And it's a both sides part of the problem.

Close us out with this show by giving us the latest that just came out.

We have a minute left.

What's happening with Norcross in South Jersey?

So the appellate division upheld the dismissal of the indictment from last year.

It was argued right after the gubernatorial election and ensured the appellate division sided with the trial judge and his reasoning for the most part.

George Norcross, I should make it clear.

Yes.

Did you were you surprised by that Kenny?

I was not surprised by that to be honest.

Recall indictments are already difficult but at the same time it took a long time for this decision to come out and probably because of all the complex different complexities and then on top of that you're talking about a situation that started easily 15 years ago now almost.

All right well that's all the time we have sorry to cut you off right there but thank you so much to all of you for being with us today and to our viewers you can follow me on instagram at Joanna Gagis and Jay and then go ahead and scan that QR code right on your screen to see more episodes of roundtable for all of our crew here at Gateway Center in downtown Newark I'm Joanna Gagis thanks for being with us and have a great weekend.

Major funding for reporters roundtable is provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Let's be healthy together.

- Well that's going to do it for us for the entire NJ Spotlight News Team.

Thanks for watching, have a great weekend, stay warm, and we'll see you right back here on Monday.

- New Jersey Education Association, making public schools great for every child.

And RWJBarnabas Health.

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