i want to bring in now mj lee and our senior political analyst ron brownstein as well. w, i interrupted you because he was coming up on stage. again, this was to be expected last night. he thought he would do it earlier in the evening. he had to come out and say, look, not a concession speech, every vote needs to be counted, but we're expecting to win, and here we are one night later, but yet still a win is a win. >> reporter: yeah, you know, this was a victory speech not just about the fact that he ultimately ended up winning this race, but it was a victory speech that really touched on all of his accomplishments that he sees as being important to his victory, the work that he has done in the state of new jersey on paid family leave, for example, on raising the minimum wage related to the affordable care act creating a clean energy jobs. he clearly wanted to use this moment to say, look, here is everything that i have worked hard on over the last four years and that's sort of a road map of everything i want to continue doing for the people of new jersey going forward. i

mj lee, i want you to stand by.ll get back to you when we get word of the governor, when he gets close. i want to bring in cnn senior commentator, john kasich, the former mayor of new orleans, as well. mitch landrieu. you guys are often late. we have to fill time until you can get to the podium to give your victory speech or your concession speeches and we are waiting for phil murphy to do the same, as we have projected him to remain the governor of new jersey. good evening to both of you. john, you know, it was really a tight race in new jersey. no one saw that coming. murphy is declaring victory tonight. but this has -- you know, it has to have republicans excited for their chances going forward, to have come this close. don't know -- look, maybe it's what the future holds. or maybe it's just a race or two races. who knows? but what do you think of that? >> well, first of all, don, i listened to your opening and i -- i can't disagree with any of it. you and i often disagree but we don't disagree on this tonight. a

but first, cnn's mj lee joins us with more on the still-undecided new jersey's governor's race. the democratic incumbent phil murphy narrowly leading his republican challenger, jack ciattarelli. mj, this was certainly a lot closer than a lot of people thought. >> reporter: yeah, that's absolutely right, anderson. certainly, a lot closer than what phil murphy and his campaign and democrats had hoped to see. the latest update right now from here asbury park, new jersey, is that the murphy campaign has announced just within the last hour that he plans on giving a speech tonight at around 10:00 in the building behind me. this is where the election-night party was held last night and this is where they had hoped to give a victory speech last night. the reason that they are doing that is because some other outlets have called the race for phil murphy but i want to be very clear, cnn has not made a call at this moment on who is going to be projected the winner of this race. but already, we are hearing in conversations we have had today with murphy advisers and aides and other democrats,

mj lee joins me live. mj, is this good news for the former governor? what's going on?stions right now. so here's what we know tonight. andrew cuomo's arraignment on the count of forceable touching as you said has now effectively been postponed. the albany da saying that the filings that were made by the albany sheriff's office were potentially defective. this comes in a new letter he has released in which he says that the albany sheriff's filing was unilaterally and inexplicably filed and that one big problem is that it did not include a sworn statement from the victim. now the arraignment has now been moved to january 7th of 2022. and whether to proceed with criminal charges, that is going to be now a question entirely for the da to make. and now essentially what has happened is that he has more time to complete his own investigation into the matter before ultimately deciding whether to move forward with these charges. it certainly just raises a lot of questions again as to why the sheriff's office decided to move forward with the charges in the first place without co

cnn's mj lee is working the story for us. now calling the charge against him, and i'm quoeting now, potentially defective. how serious is this? >> yeah, wolf, this is a significant development in the sex crime case against the former governor. the albany county's district attorney, david suarez, writing in a new letter to a judge that the filing that was made by the albany sheriff's office last week is potentially defective. for one, he says that it did not include a sworn statement from the alleged victim. this is former cuomo aide brittany commisso, and it left out some testimony from her that could be potentially exculpatory in court. this is according to the d.a. he also says that the complaint misstates the relevant law and one other significant problem that the d.a.'s office is raising, he said that the albany sheriff's complaint last week was unilaterally and inexplicably filed. in other words, the d.a.'s office didn't know this complaint was coming. the slheriff's office acted without coordination, which i should note,

cnn's mj lee joins me now with the latest on why. so the district attorney released a new letter. what did it say? >> this is a significant development. basically, the da's office says that in au new letter to a judg, when the albany sheriff's office filed its kplantd last week accusing cuomo of a sex crime, this was forcible touching, that this is potentially defective. and there are a number of issues that the da's office has listed in this letter. for one, he says that the complaint did not include a sworn testimony from the alleged victim. this is, as you will recall, brittany camisso, a former aide to the former governor. it also says that the complaint left out some testimony from her that could be exculpatory. it also says, quote, it states relevant law. so a number of issues the da is now raising and the result is now that cuomo's arraignment has been postponed until january. remember, initially, it was supposed to be later-this month. but presumably, this would give the da more time to complete his investigation. and i think just in the big picture, there are now serious

right now, let's go to mj lee. she is in new jersey. in the famous asbury park. mj, how are they feeling in governor murphy's campaign headquarters tonight? >> reporter: well, jake, essentially what phil murphy is doing as he tries to get re-elected for another term, they are making the bet that the people in new jersey are going to grade him based on how things look in new jersey as opposed to focusing on the events that are happening in washington. this sort of underscores the political reality right now as you know very well that the governor of new jersey is more popular right now in his state than the leader of the democratic party, president biden. he enjoys support from the majority of voters in new jersey, whereas president biden -- he has seen his popularity slip into negative territory, recently. and this is really important to think about. what is happening in washington. something that joe biden came actually to new jersey to try to sell his ideas on the infrastructure spending bill. the sweeping economic package. obviously,

. >> cnn's mj lee is in jersey city with more.t for governor murphy. what's he saying today? >> reporter: they're certainly happy that in the end he was able to pull this one out, but you're absolutely right, you talked to democrats close to the governor's campaign, and they acknowledge that there were issues here. there were enthusiasm problems. there were turnout problems. that in certain key democratic areas, people didn't turn out the way that they had expected, and then in very red areas, people turned out in massive amounts, also unexpected. and so, democrats are going to be thinking in the weeks and months to come, and particularly ahead of the midterms next year, what exactly went wrong. because what we saw in new jersey was the governor really run on his record from everything, including his handling of the pandemic, his work on raising the minimum wage, on creating clean energy jobs, these really local issues, and he also ran against donald trump, even though he is, of course, no longer on the ballot or even in office. h