Today is Election Day in New Jersey, where polls opened at 6 a.m., and will remain open until 8 p.m.

Gubernatorial candidates are competing today for the nominations of their respective parties, along with the entire state legislature and numerous local mayors and governing bodies.

Among them are Governor Phil Murphy, Democrat, running to be the first member of his party since the

late Brendan Byrne to secure a second term as governor.

On the Republican side, voters will choose among Jack Ciattarelli, a former Assemblyman; “Trump Won” Republican Hirsh Singh (whose Facebook page contrast image appears above), who publicly asserts that Donald Trump won last year’s presidential election; Phil Rizzo, and former Franklin Twp. Mayor Brian Levine.

Ciattarelli has the backing of the county party organizations and in that regard his candidacy will test the strength the GOP establishment, such as it is in New Jersey, can maintain in the grip of a base that maintains the opinion that Trump won the 2020 election.

From InsiderNJ’s Bob Hennelly:

“There are no public questions on my Official 2021 Primary Election Sample Ballot that came in the mail the other day. Yet one of historic proportions looms large over the June 8 contest and that’s the future of the Republican Party, not just here in New Jersey, but in the United States.

“The fact that our state, like the Commonwealth of Virginia, holds its gubernatorial election the year after the national election, has always provided the news media with an inflection point to view voters’ sentiment several months into the start of a new presidential term.

“As such, both states’ contests have been used in past years as augers for the following years bi-annual Congressional contests.

“However, this year, the four-way GOP race for the gubernatorial nomination will be every much about whether or not New Jersey Republicans believe that the 2020 Presidential Election was stolen or not as it is about who should challenge Gov. Murphy in November.”

Please go here for a run down on key races and please check back with InsiderNJ often throughout the day for updates on all contests.