Polistina, Guardian & Swift Will Debate At Stockton Atlantic City

Stockton University will host a candidates debate on Thursday, October 19, 2023 at 6:00 p.m. at the Stockton Unuversity Atlantic City, New Jersey Campus.

The New Jersey District 2 debates will be held in the Fannie Lou Hamer Room.

The participants will be:

• At 6:00 p.m., incumbent New Jersey State Senator Vince Polistina, R-2 will debate challenger Caren Fitzpatrick, who is currently an Atlantic County Commissioner at Large.
• A  New Jersey General Assembly debate will immediately follow at 7:00 p.m., with incumbent Assembly Members Don Guardian and Claire Swift debating challengers Lisa Bender and Alphonso Harrell.

Until July 30, 2023, Fitzpatrick was running for the New Jersey General Assembly. Polistina’s previous opponent was a local Councilman named Victor Carmona, who left the race, yesterday.

Stockton University is a perfect venue for Polistina to debate, as has delivered a record amount of funding for Stockton University since becoming the Atlantic County, New Jersey State Senator.

Stockton University will receive a record $ 42.18 million in state aid from the fiscal year 2024 budget, which was approved by the New Jersey Legislature … supported by Polistina and signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy.

The additional funding represents a 17.7% increase from the 2023 funding level, which was $35.8 million.

As for the upcoming debate, John Froonjian, director of the Hughes Center for Public Policy, will serve as debate moderator.

Froonjian is a former staff writer from The Press of Atlantic City.

Additional Stockton University faculty will serve as debate panelists and The Press of Atlantic City will also have a role in the debates.

Polistina, Guardian and Swift are prohibitive favorites to all win re-election versus lesser known opponents,

Of the three Democrat challengers, Fitzpatrick is the most well known, but, she lost to Guardian and Swift by a wide margin in the 2021 General Election.