Two of the most high profile Democratic candidates for governor in new Jersey are being criticized by opponents from both parties, who are calling out Congress members Mikie Sherrill and Josh Gottheimer for missing a vote this week on a key immigration policy, an issue that became a central theme to the 2024 presidential election.

And could very well factor into this year's gubernatorial race.

As senior political correspondent David Kruse reports.

It's just the latest example of backlash for holding office while running for another.

On the day she announced her run for governor last year, just a couple of weeks after she won reelection to Congress, Mikie Sherrill still seemed to be unclear for what she was running for.

You know, my focus has always been on the people of new Jersey and how I can best advocate deliver for them, and that's why I chose to run for Congress.

Right now, to make sure that I'm relentlessly delivering for people.

You can forgive a candidate for Misspeaking.

She is actually running for governor, but it is an example, say her critics of the kind of mixed missions a candidate for governor can project when they're running for one office from the safety of another.

This week's vote on the Lincoln Riley bill is an example.

Neither Sherrill nor Josh Gottheimer, who also announced a run for governor just after his reelection to Congress, was available for a vote.

The bill, named after the woman who was killed by an undocumented migrant in Georgia last year, got yes votes from 48 other Democrats, but none from the new Jersey delegation members who voted.

This bill mandates that, the the detention of non-citizens who are simply accused of a crime like shoplifting or property crime, to not have due process.

I think it's a statement in a way, in itself.

About the type of leadership that they might bring to Trenton.

We have known their history in Congress has not been, the best when it comes to immigration policy.

And so, we are concerned about what that means.

Their absence was noted on social media from both sides of the gubernatorial race.

Republican Jack generally posted on ex.

Shame on Josh for Jersey and Mikie Sherrill for gutless lead.

Ducking a vote.

Josh Mikey didn't have the courage to stand up to their extreme left base.

This is cowardly, said a post from Democrat Steve Fulop.

If you don't have the courage to vote for a bill, then what does that say about your courage to lead as governor?

Spokespeople for Sheryl and Gottheimer, meanwhile, didn't explain their absences, but explains how they would have voted.

Sheryl, saying the bill, quote, mandates detention and eliminates due process rights for some people, including DACA recipients who haven't been convicted of or charged with a crime, which is why I previously voted against it.

Gottheimer campaign said he has entered into the Congressional Record that he would have voted for the bill, as he did when a similar measure was up for a vote last year.

So in that regard, says analyst Micah Rasmussen, they're not ducking a vote.

Sometimes when you miss a vote, you're doing it so that you can duck the issue.

Neither one of them are addressing the issue here.

Neither one of them are trying not to go on the record.

They're telling us exactly what they would have done.

And so from that respect, they are not to be criticized.

They didn't they didn't they didn't do this in order to not be counted.

They're being counted.

Although neither can be pinned down by an actual on the record vote for a bill which negatively impacts close to a million undocumented people in the state.

Gottheimer would have been the only yes vote from the delegation on a bill which got support from almost 50 other House Democrats and appears to be headed for passage in the Senate as early as this week.

I'm David Cruz, NJ Spotlight News.