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Jeffrey Gates

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Jeffrey Gates
Image of Jeffrey Gates

Candidate, New Jersey General Assembly District 40

Elections and appointments
Next election

November 4, 2025

Education

High school

Roxbury High School

Bachelor's

Ithaca College

Personal
Religion
Jewish
Profession
Real estate
Contact

Jeffrey Gates (Democratic Party) is running for election to the New Jersey General Assembly to represent District 40. He is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025. He advanced from the Democratic primary on June 10, 2025.

Gates completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Jeffrey Gates' career experience includes working in real estate and property management. He earned a bachelor's degree from the Ithaca College. Gates has been affiliated with the Kiwanis Club of Caldwell-West Essex and New Jersey District of Kiwanis.[1]

Elections

2025

See also: New Jersey General Assembly elections, 2025

General election

General election for New Jersey General Assembly District 40 (2 seats)

Incumbent Al Barlas, incumbent Christopher DePhillips, Ron Arnau, and Jeffrey Gates are running in the general election for New Jersey General Assembly District 40 on November 4, 2025.


Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 40 (2 seats)

Jeffrey Gates and Ron Arnau advanced from the Democratic primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 40 on June 10, 2025.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Jeffrey Gates
Jeffrey Gates Candidate Connection
 
53.4
 
16,128
Image of Ron Arnau
Ron Arnau
 
46.6
 
14,088

Total votes: 30,216
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 40 (2 seats)

Incumbent Christopher DePhillips and incumbent Al Barlas advanced from the Republican primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 40 on June 10, 2025.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Christopher DePhillips
Christopher DePhillips
 
54.7
 
13,757
Image of Al Barlas
Al Barlas
 
45.3
 
11,411

Total votes: 25,168
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

Gates received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.

Campaign themes

2025

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Jeffrey Gates completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Gates' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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I am a former Caldwell Council President (voted unanimously by a bipartisan council), Past NJ Kiwanis District Treasurer, Past President Kiwanis Club of Caldwell-West Essex, Realtor / Property Manager. Husband, father, and passionate community volunteer.

I am a lifelong resident of New Jersey, and a 3rd generation Councilman raised with a mindset of giving back to the community to make the world around me a better place. I'm not content doing nothing when I believe I have the skills, knowledge, and passion to help make New Jersey and specifically the 40th District to be the desirable place to live and work that we all love.

I live in Caldwell with my wife Lisa and son Eli (3 years old), in a 2-family house that we own. As an experienced property manager I have experience dealing with property and tenant issues and understand the need to balance short term needs with long term planning.

As a Realtor I see first hand the competitive nature of the real estate market in our area and the difficulty people who are well qualified have getting offers accepted when they are competing against a dozen or more other well qualified buyers. This is why I am passionate about pushing for any new developments being built to be "For Sale" instead of "For Rent". When a new building goes up as a rental property it is the builder / landlord who make money, and I believe we need to give young people the opportunity to start wealth building instead.
  • Housing and affordability are major issues in NJ. If elected I will push for incentives to have new developments being built as "For Sale" instead of "For Rent". When a new building goes up as a rental property it is the builder / landlord who make money, and I believe we need to give young people the opportunity to start wealth building instead. An increase in properties that can be purchased will allow people to build equity in a home starting at a younger age. I also will advocate for the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, and push for increased shared services for municipalities and schools which can help lower the tax burden on property owners.
  • NJ is known for having great public schools, and some of the best in the state are within our district. We need to keep it that way. Unfortunately on the federal level the President is trying to shut down the Department of Education which if it happens will cut the federal subsidies our schools get. I will support our schools and teachers by fighting against those cuts and making sure our public schools don't need to cut programs due to these federal cuts.
  • Flooding is an issue that effects many towns in our district, and any further building on empty lots will only make it worse. I believe we can establish a feasible long term plan for flood mitigation that can be publicly accessible so everyone knows what the state is doing and what they can personally do to help. With the President looking to defund FEMA we need to establish a plan to protect New Jersey in the event of floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. If the federal government won't help during emergencies we need to be prepared as a state to help our citizens.
Housing, schools, flooding, safety.

I have a 3.5 year old son who will soon be going through the public schools (unlike my Republican opponents who send their kids to private schools). We need to ensure our children have a safe learning environment and that all of them have a chance to receive a great education.

We need to ensure any new housing needs are met in appropriate ways that don't overburden current infrastructure such as sewer plants, schools, roads and water supply.

We need a regional approach to flooding that is well publicized and feasible to be implemented.
Selflessness, honesty, accountability.

I believe being selfless is essential to representing people in elected office. There are many complicated issues that we need to vote on, advocate for, and push legislation to pass. The public needs to know that those representing them are doing so out of the greater good and not for personal self interests.

I am very aware that there is a public perception by many that politicians are not honest. Anything I can do to help increase transparency and help improve public confidence that what they hear from me is the truth is important.

Elected officials should be accountable to the voters who put them in office. One of the easiest ways to do this is by participating in public forums leading up to elections and defending their records and speaking about what side of issues they will advocate for if elected. Unfortunately the current incumbents in our district refused to participate in a public candidate forum which the League of Women Voters offered to hold in September. It is disappointing to me as a candidate and a voter in the district that they refused to give the voters a chance to compare candidates side by side.
My first job was as a lifeguard at a local pool over the summer. I ended up doing it for 5 years during high school and college.
The ideal relationship would be one of mutual respect regardless of political affiliation.
I believe it can be helpful for some experience but is not a requirement. It is good to have people with different backgrounds and experiences to provide knowledge in different areas.
Yes. In any working environment I believe people work better with those they have a good relationship with as it helps build trust and accountability. While we are elected to represent the interests of our district, legislators vote on issues that impact the entire state and building those relationships helps us to understand issues other places may be facing.
I was fortunate to be represented by Governor Dick Codey who was a State Senator in my old district while I was on the Caldwell Council. His decades of experience and doing the right thing are something I admire and would model myself after.
I have no plans and have not thought about running for any other political office at this time.
When I first ran for the Caldwell Council in 2019 there was a Republican who I knew in my town that I had built a relationship with. She told me after the election that I was the first Democrat she voted for since JFK nearly 60 years earlier. I take that to heart and remember it with pride because as an elected official I strive to earn the respect of all voters and represent all the people not just the few.
The rise of E-bikes has been causing many safety issues and complaints throughout the state. I believe a bill that would improve safety and provide consistency in all NJ towns is timely and important.
AFT NJ, Garden State Equality Action Fund, Planned Parenthood, Essex County Democratic Committee, Passaic County Democratic Committee, Bergen County Democratic Committee, New Jersey Young Democrats

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign finance summary

Campaign finance information for this candidate is not yet available from OpenSecrets. That information will be published here once it is available.

See also


External links

Footnotes

  1. Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 8, 2025


Current members of the New Jersey General Assembly
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Aura Dunn (R)
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Sean Kean (R)
District 31
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District 40
Al Barlas (R)
Democratic Party (52)
Republican Party (28)