It's the Brian Lera Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. We begin today with a new weekly

commitment from this show, from now till Election Day. We will do a segment on the New Jersey

governor's race every Thursday, like we're doing one on the New York City mayoral race every Wednesday.

So, Jerseyans, mark down Thursdays in your mental calendars and all you campaign consultants

and everyone else involved, mark down Thursdays in your actual calendars. We are New York and New Jersey public radio,

as I say, at the top of the hour legal ID, right? We know New Jersey tends to be a news desert,

as they call it, largely dependent on media from the two big markets out of state, New York and

Philadelphia. And so we're adding this regularly scheduled campaign segment with so much at stake every

Thursday on this show.

Our guest today is the great Jersey journalist, David Cruz, senior correspondent for NJ Spotlight

News, which means public television in New Jersey.

He moderates their chat box and

reporters' roundtable segments. He's been there since 2011. And as his biopage notes, he's

covered New Jersey's biggest stories for almost 30 years, including as a moderator of public

affairs programs on WNYC, which I will add includes that David Cruz has been a guest host of this show.

So, David, it's always great to have you back in the guest share, and welcome back to WNYC.

Thursdays in Jersey, man.

I love it.

Oh, great.

You gave me that rhyme.

I can use it for the rest of the campaign.

Let's begin with the latest 30-second commercials from Mikey Cheryl and Jack Chittarelli,

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