(Bloomberg) — A “weird” economy toughens Democratic candidates’ bids in the US midterm elections on Nov. 8, despite steps lawmakers have taken on tax relief and inflation, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said.
Murphy, a 65-year-old retired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. senior director, said he supports an interest-rate increase of 75 basis points to stanch inflation.
“These are factors that are beyond our control, whether it’s Covid relief or a war in Europe — there’s no other choice but to be aggressive and do a Paul Volcker here and get out ahead of this,” Murphy said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Balance of Power With David Westin.”
Volcker, who died three years ago, took control of the Fed for eight years starting in 1979 and cut runaway inflation by raising interest rates. US inflation in September, up 8.2% in a year, is particularly painful in New Jersey, a high-cost state, Murphy said.
“It’s a weird economy,” Murphy said. “We have our lowest unemployment rate ever, below the national average. Our revenues at the state level continue to be solid. We’ve been upgraded three times this year by credit rating companies. We’ve paid debt down. At the same time there’s enormous pain at the kitchen table largely due to affordability.”
Murphy started his second term in January after a far closer-than-expected race against a former Republican state lawmaker. The same pattern is likely to play out during the midterm election next week, when control of the US Congress is at stake, he said.
“You have the normal reality of a midterm election with an incumbent party in the White House so you begin in a tough place and you add to that recovering from a pandemic, inflation, affordability. It will not make the races any easier,” he said.
New Jersey’s tightest congressional race is in the 7th District, a wealth belt that runs through the state’s center, where Democratic incumbent Tom Malinowski and Republican Tom Kean Jr. are in a rematch of their 2020 contest.
Malinowski in 2018 ended a 38-year Republican grip on the seat. Redistricting last year gave Republicans a slight advantage, and the race has taken on national significance as the GOP tries to break the Democrats’ eight-seat majority.
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