well the nominees for governor made their first big appearance since winning last week's primary election republican Jack Chidarelli and Democrat Mikey Cheryl spoke to the state's business community at an NJBIA forum Tuesday night about their priorities and how an administration under their leadership would help the economy if elected in November but as senior political correspondent David Cruz reports the business community has a large and diverse block of voters each candidate will have to win over their first joint appearance as their party's nominees the New Jersey Business and Industry Association's quadrrenial meet the gubanatorial primary winners reception a decades old tradition where business leaders get a chance to meet greet and ask questions of the candidates for Republican Jack Chidarelli what you could call a home game listen as an NBA CP a two-time business owner if we can't hit it out of the park with this crowd we're in trouble jack Chidarelli and in the old days however you want to define the old days businesses would look primarily at two things: taxes and regulations today they look at four things: taxes regulations labor pool and energy and to be quite candid we're sucking wind in all four congresswoman Mikey Cheryl the Democrat Mikey Cheryl it wasn't exactly a tough crowd but it was clear that she was not 100% comfortable speaking in front of a business community that has frequently felt ignored except for tax time by Democrats many of you have talked to me about your problems and issues trying to navigate our state it's unacceptable and I will change it as governor and so I am cons I'm con I'm committed i haven't gotten a lot of sleep lately guys i'm committed to streamlining and simplifying the state processes through which new businesses can receive their licenses and I'll overhaul the state permitting process chedarelli promised to create a department of commerce clean house at the BPU and cut taxes on income sales and investments cheryl wasn't as specific but she did highlight a difference between the candidates on energy production and by extension costs the state that really solves the energy needs of the future is the state that is going to own the innovation future and it's going to be New Jersey and the way we do that I think is we in the near- term push in a lot of solar new Jerseyy's only gone up by about 20% in solar in recent years the average across the country is 150% but long-term if we are going to really meet some of our energy needs I think we need to move into nuclear we are going to recreate something we had under Tom Kane Senior a Department of Energy i've never been an advocate for wind i believe it's bad economics bad energy policy and bad environmental policy natural gas is a very rational bridge to the future for whenever it is the brief future shows up the candidates were just about cordial posing for a photo barely this was not a debate and not really a forum the candidates made no reference to one another although Chitterelli mentioned the Murphy administration several times and not in a good way speaking to reporters later both candidates foreshadowed what might be a recurring theme this fall he and his defense of President Trump and she and her defense of Governor Murphy what's interesting is that Mikey Cheryl never criticizes Phil Murphy for any of his failed policies whether it's public education public safety over development energy law enforcement i think I've been pretty clear on how I'd be different from Phil Murphy i'm upset about PJM i'm upset that we don't have enough housing i'm concerned about the state health benefits plan that's got real problems so I I think I have always been a very independent voice i I think that's pretty well known i stood up to the president of the United States and called for him to step aside so I think that's kind of ridiculous we can now consider the race for governor to be officially on this was the first inning of a long contest and while Mikey Cheryl may have been a bit out of her element Chitterelli will not always have homefield advantage for the entire game i'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight News [Music]