Credit: (Facebook/Jack Ciatarelli; Facebook/Dr. Dale Caldwell)

New Jersey’s Democratic and Republican candidates for lieutenant governor are set to meet Tuesday in their only debate, with Election Day just five weeks away and the race possibly a dead heat.

The second of three state-mandated debates for gubernatorial slates that receive public matching funds will begin at 7 p.m. and take place at Kean University in Union.

Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli and Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-11th) participated in their first debate nine days ago, and a lot has happened in the interim, including a poll showing both candidates tied with 43% support each and controversy over the release by the National Archives of Sherrill’s unredacted military personnel file to a Ciattarelli ally and the news that Sherrill did not inform on fellow classmates involved in a 1994 cheating scandal at the U.S. Naval Academy.

It’s likely these will come up in the debate between Democrat Dale Caldwell and Republican James Gannon, who are vying to become the state’s fourth lieutenant governor and its first male. New Jersey was among the last states in the nation to have an LG, as the position is commonly called, with voters approving the position in 2006 after a succession of state Senate presidents and one attorney general served as acting governor over a period of years due to two governors’ resignations. Republican Kim Guadagno was the state’s first lieutenant governor, serving two terms beginning in 2010 with Chris Christie as governor.

Another question likely to come up is what other position the men expect to serve in government. In addition to taking over as governor when the governor is out of the state or if the governor were to leave office mid-term, the state constitution requires the lieutenant governor also to hold a cabinet or other administrative position or conduct other duties that the governor gives him. Two of the three, including current Lieutenant Gov. Tahesha Way, have served as secretary of state, while the third, Sheila Oliver, headed the Department of Community Affairs until her death in office.

Micah Rasmussen, head of the Rebovich Center for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, said the debate will be “a good introduction to the candidates” for voters who don’t know them but mostly it will be a “battle of the surrogates” with the men expected to carry water for the gubernatorial candidates.

“For political junkies, it will be a chance to see how effectively Gannon and Caldwell can carry the same messages and arguments that their running mates have been making, but for the average voter, those messages may sound familiar,” Rasmussen said.

Their choices of lieutenant governors reflect some of the priorities of Sherrill and Ciattarelli.

Gannon, the Republican choice, has been Morris County sheriff since 2017, having won reelection twice. He grew up in Boonton Township and started his career in law enforcement there as a patrolman. Gannon earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice administration from William Paterson University and a masters of administrative science from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He was also deputy chief of investigations at the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office, a member of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and served as global head of security risk for Morris County-based Novartis Pharmaceuticals, from which he retired.

Democratic candidate Caldwell has been president of Centenary University since 2023 and is pastor of Covenant United Methodist Church in Plainfield. He served as president of the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey and in 2009 was named New Jersey School Board Member of the Year. Caldwell founded an Asbury Park charter school and served as executive director of the Rothman Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Silberman College of Business Fairleigh Dickinson University. He has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and got his doctorate in education from Seton Hall University. He is a past state assistant community affairs commissioner.