Good Morning New York and New Jersey, as well as the great world beyond. This is Bob Hennelly and this is the Monday edition WBAI’s labor and social justice drive time news magazine What’s Going On.
It's Nov. 2, 2026.
Tuesday, Election Day tomorrow, mostly cloudy with our high in the upper 60s. Wednesday the clouds head out and the sun prevails with highs in the low 70s. Thursday the clouds float back in, and Friday is a wash out with the weekend a mix of sun and clouds.
As we head into the last day before the election, close to 55 million Americans have voted early, nine million more than in 2022 when just 46 percent of voters turned out.
In New Jersey, the University of Florida Election Lab reports 855,000 voters cast their ballot early with Democrats making up 60 percent of that total and Republicans just 23 percent. That lopsided trend doesn't bode well for New Jersey House Republicans Rep. Tom Kean in the 7th districts and Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew from the 2nd district in southern Jersey. Both Kean and Van Drew face formidable challengers.
In the 7th, former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett is challenging Kean. Rep. Van Drew was a former Democrat who switched to the GOP specifically to support President Trump and then voted NOT to certify the 2020 election after the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters. He faces Cape May Mayor Zachary Mullock.
In our second hour we were lucky to have New Jersey Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind Poll executive director Dan Cassino on to dig a little deeper into what's driving Jersey politics in the homestretch.
In New York, over 1.7 million New Yorkers have voted early throughout the state which is more than a half-million higher than 2022.
Historically, New York ranks 43rd in voter participation. Out of the 50 states, it's near the bottom. In 2024, in what was billed as the most consequential election of our lifetime, turnout DECREASED in New York compared to 2020 with nearly a million fewer votes.
In the Empire State, two of the last three elected Governors, both Democrats, had to leave office early due to scandals while in New York City Mayor Adams, also a Democrat, was criminally indicted while in office.
Back in 2022, in her first run for Governor, after assuming office after Gov. Cuomo's exit, Hochul would not have won without her large margin of victory in New York City's five boroughs, with her Republican opponent Lee Zeldin actually capturing the rest of the state by eight points. That helped down ballot Republican House candidates flip three Democratic House seats and in the process had control of Congress back to the GOP.
We asked Brendan Griffith, president of New York City's Central Labor Council, about what role organized labor may have played in the spike in early voting in the Empire State and what has labored fired up with just one day left of campaign 2026.
We checked in with our current events panel with Dr. Joe Wilson and Kathy O'Learly of Pax Christi NJ to get the latest on Delaney Hall, the private ICE prison in Newark.
We revisited the St. John University faculty labor struggle to hold on to their union that's been part of the university's core values foundation for over half a century.
I played this week's Moral Monday conversation with Bishop Barber right after he left Kansas where the Democratic Senate candidate, Rev. Adam Hamilton, a Methodist minister, is defying conventional wisdom by running a tight race in a state where a Democrat has not won a Senate seat since 1932.
