protections to keep themin safe from abuse like this. today, we'll discuss why a local lawmaker believes they're needed, and what the new law means for you and your animals. it's a double-digit lead for the democratic candidate running for new jersey governor. we're looking at what's behind phil murphy's surge in the polls, and what will christie, trump, even murphy's gender could be playing. equal prize money for the first time. the cash prize will be the same for men and women competing in a local bike race. we're sitting down with one of the athletes to find out what she has to say about it. male announcer: "nbc 10 @issue" starts now. erin coleman: good morning, i'm erin coleman for "nbc 10 @issue." we begin with a law that will soon take effect in pennsylvania. it's new legislation aimed at putting some bite

into animal cruelty laws. pennsylvania governor tom wolf signed that bill into law last month. part of it is named in honor of libre, who was with the governor at the signing ceremony. the boston terrier was just a puppy when he was rescued from a lancaster county breeder who had severely neglected him. here's how libre looked at the time. veterinarians said he was just hours away from death. the 7-week-old puppy was starving, dehydrated, and infested with maggots. the new bill forces owners who've been convicted of abuse to give up their animals. it also adds protections for animal advocates who report cruelty, and increases safeguards for horses. the measures will take effect at the end of august. and with me now is the bill sponsor, state representative todd stevens. representative stephens serves parts of montgomery county. thanks for being with us here today. todd stephens: thanks so much for having me. erin: difficult to see some of those pictures there. the bill failed to pass the first time it went up for a vote.

so, what changes did you make to get this through? todd: well, last session we struggled. we were trying to get it across the finish line and just didn't have quite enough time, i think, really to get the necessary pieces in place. but over the holidays, i, along with senator rich alloway over in the senate from adams county, he and i sat down, and we decided to work together and really assemble a comprehensive animal overhaul we call it, animal abuse overhaul, which has done a lot of dramatic things for the animals in pennsylvania. it increases penalties, requires forfeiture, establishes parameters for tethering, which is very important. it also provides some accountability for our humane police officers and some immunity for humane police officers and veterinarians treating animals who've been abused. erin: we touched on some of the aspects of the law. talk about some of the others. todd: sure, we--you know, one of the things that i really struggled with was the fact that our prior law treated different animals differently. in other words, the penalties depended on what type of animal you abused, not how badly you abused them.

so, i was a prosecutor for 10 years, and i decided to take the same approach that we use with people, that you know, as the egregiousness of the conduct increases, so did the penalties, and apply that to animals. and that's what we did. so, we have a simple neglect provision, and then we have a cruelty provision, and then we have an aggravated cruelty provision, which includes torture. and that's actually punishable now by a felony of the third degree. and that applies equally to all animals in pennsylvania. it's not delineated, you know, specifically for certain animals. erin: exactly, talk a little bit--you mentioned tethering. so, what can people at home do, what can't they do? todd: well, the thing that's important to understand is, until now, the law was silent as it related to these types of provisions. and so, you had some folks across pennsylvania that were getting citations for improperly tethering their dog. and in other parts of pennsylvania, nothing was happening to people who might be tethering their dogs the same way. so, we decided to establish some presumptions and some guidelines for folks to follow. and they're pretty simple, they're pretty basic.

among them are, you know, not to have your dog tethered for more than 9 out of a 24-hour period. make sure that the tether is at least 3 times the length of the dog's body, or 10 feet, whichever is greater. make sure that you're using an appropriate collar and that it's fitted properly. no prong collars, choke collars, or pinch collars. make sure that the area is free of excessive excrement, things along those lines. makes sure that the dog doesn't have open sores. make sure the dog has access to water and shade. you know, make sure that, if the temperatures are in the extremes, above 90 degrees or below 32 degrees, that your dog isn't tethered outside for more than 30 minutes at a time. things along those lines, you know, that just provide some guidelines for folks to safely tether their dogs. we're not advocating anybody tether their dog. i'd rather see dogs running freely, but i do understand in some circumstances it may be necessarily, and this is how you can do so properly. erin: we saw that video of libre there. again, very difficult to watch. what kinds of abuses are we seeing?

that is an extreme case. todd: well you know, last summer--this all began last summer really. there was a horse that was shot with paintballs last summer, you may remember that. and that horse was bought at an auction in lancaster county. then a horse in lancaster county again collapsed pulling a wagon full of watermelons, and its owner got off and beat the horse to death right on the street when it collapsed in the august heat last summer. a couple of i think they were juveniles were found to be blowing up turtles with m-80s. you had libre of course and the horrific abuse he suffered, and that all happened last summer in south central pennsylvania. so, it really brought to the forefront these issues and the fact that, you know, these animals were just being, you know, horribly abused in many different ways. erin: and talk a little bit more about what specifically happened to libre. todd: sure, so, libre was at a breeder, and he was terribly neglected and emaciated. i mean, you know, obviously had been deprived of food and water for some time.

you heard about the maggots and his condition. but i've got to tell you, libre is just a champion and a terrific inspiration for everyone. yeah, he's been to the capital many, many times. and when he shows up, i mean, it's like a rock star walked into town. i mean, the place is abuzz, everybody wants to come meet him. he's full of energy, full of life these days. i mean, he's really had a second chance at life, which is so rewarding to see. erin: the law also protects animals that are not pets. go into a little bit of that, perhaps the horse you were talking about. todd: sure, you know, we have these instances where people are horribly abusing horses. and in the past, the maximum penalty was simply a traffic ticket. so, that guy who got off his horse that collapsed while it was pulling a crate of watermelons in the august heat, and he beat the horse to death on the streets in lancaster county, got a traffic ticket. and so, you know, now under our new law, that would be a felony of the third degree. you know, those are the types of examples that we've seen across pennsylvania, and why we made the changes that we made. erin: how strongly will this law be enforced?

how can it be enforced? todd: well, you know, there's a couple good points to that. we have humane police officers all over pennsylvania who work for non-profit groups, and they enforce the animal cruelty code. but they generally enforce only the summary provisions. now that we have misdemeanor and felony punishments for some of these crimes, our regular law enforcement community is now going to be able to step in and take a look at these a little bit more closely, and we hope that they'll dedicate some resources to it. we know that we have to, you know, really work on some training for both the humane police officers and our regular law enforcement officers. but what's key, and again my background as a prosecutor comes in here, the links between those who abuse animals and those who abuse children or commit acts of domestic violence are well-documented. so, when we find someone who's treating animals poorly, and i'm talking about the most egregious forms of abuse, it's important from a law enforcement perspective that we address those behaviors because those folks go on to hurt kids, and hurt women, and other adults. erin: before you go, i've got to ask you about the budget.

the senate passed it, still has to go to the house, but it does have higher taxes and borrowing money, two things that you are against. how do you feel about all this? todd: you know, i'm deeply concerned. i have 2 small children, a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old. the last plan to borrow i saw would have borrowed, you know, over $1 billion and amortized that over 30 years. i mean, my son's going to be 33 years old and still paying off this debt that we would incur now? that's just unconscionable to me. and frankly, to increase taxes on electric users, phone users, and natural gas users, we're talking about customers who heat their homes with electricity or natural gas, they're going to see increased taxes to the tune of $400 million. again, you know, i don't think that's the right approach. i think there are a lot of other places we could go for that revenue. erin: how likely do you think the house is to move on this? todd: you know, we only recently heard about the plan from the senate. so, i think that remains to be seen. i've spoken to many of my colleagues who are not at all happy with that approach.

erin: we'll see how it goes. todd: thanks so much for having me. erin: pennsylvania state senator todd stephens, thanks for being here, we appreciate your time. if you're interested in helping pets in our area, here's one thing you can do. take part in clear the shelters. nbc 10 is teaming with nearly 50 local shelters to help find families for homeless pets on august 19, mark your calendars. all adoption fees are waved. go to nbc10.com or tap the nbc 10 app to learn more. and next on "nbc 10 @issue," who has your vote? we'll discuss the race for new jersey governor and how governor christie's historic unpopularity could be affecting the candidates.

erin: according to recent polls, new jersey chris christie has the lowest approval rating of any garden state governor in history, 81% of the people polled disapprove of the job he's done, but christie's time in office is almost over.

in november, new jersey voters head to the polls to choose a new governor, republican kim guadagno or democrat phil murphy. guadagno is the current lieutenant governor of the state, murphy is the former united states ambassador to germany. a recent poll finds guadagno has an uphill battle. the marist nbc poll puts murphy 21 points ahead of her among registered voters. as it stands now, murphy is net 54% to guadagno's 33%. with me now is rutgers political science assistant professor shauna shames. shames has a special interest in political behavior, including race and gender. thanks for being here with us. shauna shames: thank you for having me. erin: all right, so let's start with governor chris christie. what is the role that he's playing in all this? is he hurting guadagno? and how does she reach republicans who are frustrated with him? we saw his approval rating. shauna: right now, he's unpopular with just about everybody. so, he's absolutely hurting guadagno. it is just an unfortunate situation for her, where the man

that she's politically married to right now is kind of weighting her down. and we saw her try to maybe not quite ask for a divorce, but try to show that there was some problems in that political marriage when she condemned him for his comments about closing the beach, right? and this seems not to have worked. and mostly what it did is anger republicans. so, right now, she doesn't have a lot of support on her side, unfortunately. erin: so, how does she overcome that with her base? i mean, she is linked to him. and the efforts that she's used so far in the polls at least don't seem to be working. shauna: it does not seem to be working. i think she is too associated right now with the negatives of christie. she has a couple of options. one thing that she could do is try to distance herself further from christie and his, right now, kind of muddled legacy.

the bridge closure scandal, the bridgegate thing, has really hurt christie, and she could try to distance herself further. she after all, did make a name for herself in law as an anti-corruption kind of crusader when she was first an assistant us attorney. that might be a strategy, but it would risk further angering the kind of solid republican base. so, she could try to shift more toward the center. the other option is that there's a number of new jersey voters who are solidly kind of pro-christie and pro-trump, and she could try to capture them and hope for a low turnout election. but right now, it's not clear what her strategy is. erin: what role does her gender play in all this? it's one of the things that you focus on. shauna: it is, it's an interesting question, though, because i haven't seen her focus on it much at all, which is not unusual for a republican woman. republican women tend not to embrace feminism in the same way

as democratic women. so, we haven't heard her say that she'll be different because she's a woman, for example. i don't know, given that she's been the lieutenant governor for so long, that it would work right now. so, it might not be a good strategy for her anyway. erin: murphy has picked a woman to be his running mate, and she also happens to be an african-american woman. so, talk a little bit about that. shauna: it is a tremendously smart pick on his part, i think. she is highly politically experienced, whereas he has been an ambassador, but mostly comes from the financial world and doesn't have a lot of political experience. so, she brings some political heft to the murphy campaign. she's smart, she has new jersey roots. i think the hope also is that she will mobilize and turn out a lot of black voters, which the black turnout was not as high for hilary clinton as her campaign

might have hoped in new jersey. so, i think the murphy campaign has thought both strategically and also picked somebody really good. so, in a lot of ways, that's a trump on the race and gender card that guadagno, even if she did try to kind of talk about her difference as a woman, would have a hard time matching. erin: so, sheila oliver, his pick, she's going to have an impact on this. shauna: i think absolutely, and particularly because of her elective political experience and her new jersey roots. murphy is not a native new jerseyan. so, it was very smart of him to go to somebody with roots in the state, with roots in a city in the state because that's where they're hoping for more turnout, and somebody who has the years of political experience and has reached a position of political leadership to kind of balance his own lack of political experience. erin: we talked about christ christie, but could guadagno's low poll numbers also have to do a little bit with president trump, who's also suffering low approval ratings right now?

shauna: absolutely, i think there's no way that a year after trump's election, the new jersey election does not look like a kind of battle of the surrogates. christ christie was so clearly aligned with trump. and murphy is not as clearly tied to obama, but he was appointed by obama as ambassador to germany. so, in many ways, it's a kind of repeat of the 2016 election, where the kind of obama legacy is in question here. at this point, though, we have more information about what trump is like as a political leader. most people in the country aren't liking it right now. his approval ratings are just historically low. not quite as low as chris christie, but both of the people that guadagno is politically aligned with right now face extremely low ratings, and i think there's no way that doesn't hurt her. erin: talk about the polls themselves.

you brought up the 2016 election, the polls, they were off. so, what about this poll? how do we believe the polls that come out with results like this? shauna: so, i teach quantitative methods in polling to my students, and i suggest you always take any poll with a grain of salt. you want to look at how many people were in the poll, you want to look at how they were reached. we have a lot of biases in our polls that i think hurt in the 2016 elections. the polls were off, maybe not hugely, but enough that i think it mattered. and that damages the reputation of polling as an industry. it's good to know that it's more art than science often. this i think is a good poll. it's from a polling organization with a good reputation, they did good methodology. but it may be too early in a cycle, where people aren't quite paying attention yet, to give us really good information just yet. i would say keep an eye on the polls, but don't take

them as a clear indicator of who's going to win yet. erin: professor shauna shames, thank you for being here with us today, appreciate it. shauna: thank you. male: racers, are you ready? let's go. erin: next on "nbc 10 @issue," find out why women are already the big winners in the upcoming benchmark twilight cycling classic happening in west chester.

erin: it's the reward for winning prize money, but many times in sporting events, the cash prizes for men and women are not equal. now at least locally, that is beginning to change. the benchmark twilight cycling classic is bringing pedal parity to professional cycling. men and women will be awarded equal prize money, $7,500 is up for grabs in each race. and with me now are laura van gilder, a competitor in the race. she has won the benchmark twilight cycling classic five times.

and with her is rebecca worthington. worthington is with benchmark federal, they're a sponsor. thank you both for being here. rebecca worthington: thank you for having us. erin: laura, i'm really impressed with your five times winning this race. that is quite an accomplishment. so, how common is it to have equal prizes? is that a foreign thing in the world of cycling, or not really? laura van gilder: this has just really come about in the last few years for women's bicycle racing that we've been racing for equal prize purse. and it's been an outstanding advancement for us, and it certainly makes us feel a great amount of value for our efforts on the bike. erin: what do you say to someone that says, "well, men are a bigger draw, so they should get a bigger purse, they should get more prize money." laura: well, we're pedaling just as hard as--and we're working just as hard. and we see this as our job as well. so, it's important for us to be able to have these economic and financial incentives to back our racing up.

i'm training every day of the week between 1 and 4 hours a day on various terrain, mountainous terrain up in the poconos, and certainly getting out and racing every weekend. so, i'm putting in the hard work, so i feel that the value is there for me to get the equal pay. erin: what are male athletes saying about all of this, the equal prize money? laura: they are extremely supportive. they have not once complained that we don't--are undeserving, and i think that speaks volumes for the sponsors and promoters getting behind this. brumbaugh wealth management, this is the second year that they've offered equal prize purse. and certainly the west chester chamber of commerce saw that this was a unique opportunity to step this up for the event. and after 13 years and the last 2 seasons to offer this to the women, i think you're really going to see a great showcase for women's cycling. erin: do you believe that this inspires other women athletes?

not--maybe not just in cycling, but across the board? laura: i think it is inspiring, and it sets a standard, and it should be that way for all work and in life. you know, women are out there, and they're doing a job, and they're taking it seriously, and they should be rewarded as such. erin: how do you use the prize money? where does it go? does it go toward training? does it go right back into it? laura: well, for me, i'm an animal advocate. so, it goes right back in to the pack of dogs that i have rescued and saved. but when you have a team, you share the prize money with your teammates who have helped you typically win the race or have a good result. so, you share that just as you would any job. but maybe some new shoes, i'm not really sure, but-- erin: and rebecca, why pick a bike race to sponsor? bike races in the us have had a hard time getting good turnout, building excitement, getting funding. so, why choose a bike race? rebecca: well, the bike race in west chester has been a long-standing tradition in our community.

and so, benchmark, becoming a community chartered credit union, just wanted to step up, and we wanted to support the community that we now serve. so, it just felt like a natural fit for us to get behind for the next 5 years being the title sponsor of this event. erin: so awesome. laura van gilder, rebecca worthington, thanks so much for being here with us. rebecca: thank you for having us. erin: we appreciate that. the benchmark twilight cycling classic is on saturday, august 12. it includes, of course, over eight city blocks of downtown west chester. races include pro and amateur men's and women's races, kids' races, and the fan favorite, the tricycle challenge. the fun begins at 3:30.

erin: that's it for this edition of "nbc 10 @issue." thanks for joining us. join me again tomorrow on nbc10 news at 5 o'clock. thanks for being here, have a great sunday. ♪

nbc sports -- home of the olympic games, the fedexcup playoffs, the nhl, the nascar playoffs, and super bowl lii. only only nbc. >> welcome to the "u.s. bank nbc sports report." >> hi, everyone. carolyn manno with you. the final senior major of the year, the senior open championship presented by rolex. we start with soccer and a much-anticipated friendly between average rivals barcelona and real madrid meeting in miami last night for el classic skwln o. christa