GOP voters pick ex-assemblyman as nominee for New Jersey governor

New Jersey’s Republican voters selected former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli as their nominee for governor Tuesday, the Associated Press projected.

Ciattarelli, 63, a Somerset County native, prevailed over four opponents to claim the GOP nod, defeating former radio host Bill Spadea and Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Union) as well as longshot candidates Justin Barbera and Mario Kranjac, a former Englewood Cliffs Mayor.

“We won because our campaign is about people, not politics. It’s about vision, not division. We won because of our positive energy. We won because we talked about the issues that mattered,” Ciattarelli said at a campaign party in Holmdel Tuesday night.

Ciattarelli’s Tuesday victory was resounding. He won 68% of the vote, came in more than 200,000 votes ahead of his closest opponent, and nabbed the win in all of the state’s 21 counties.

His victory address veered into attacks against Rep. Mikie Sherrill — whom Democratic voters on Tuesday selected as their nominee for governor — offering New Jersey voters a preview of what they can expect to hear over the next 146 days.

The Republican nominee likened Sherrill to incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy, saying she would offer more of the same, and alleged she had benefited financially from her congressional tenure.

“Here’s something else Mikie did during her time in Congress: She got filthy rich. As congresswoman, she bought and sold hundreds of stocks, more than tripling her own net worth to more than $10 million, and when she was questioned on it, she had the audacity to say, quote unquote, ‘I got really lucky.'”

Ciattarelli, a former Somerset County freeholder who has run twice before for governor unsuccessfully, came into the primary with several advantages.

Most of the state’s Republican county committees backed his bid, as did President Donald Trump, who remains something of a kingmaker in GOP primaries.

He was the only one of the Republican candidates to obtain $5.5 million in public matching funds, and he did so by March 28, earlier than any rival on either side of the aisle.

Despite Bramnick’s decades-long legislative career and Spadea’s presence on morning airwaves, New Jersey voters were more familiar with Ciattarelli.

In 2017, Ciattarelli eschewed an Assembly reelection campaign to seek the governorship but lost the nomination to then-Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, 47% to 31%.

In 2021, Ciattarelli pursued the nomination as a moderate, with the more Trumpian primary opponents splitting the vote. He won the GOP nod but lost that November to Murphy, who won reelection by about 84,000 votes, about 3.2 points. Ciattarelli said he would seek the governorship again just 10 days after polls closed.

He shifted to the right in the intervening years and has pledged that his attorney general would not sue the federal government over Trump’s executive orders.

Republicans Joyce and Carmen Crea of Ewing both voted for Ciattarelli.

“The last time, we think he got robbed,” said Joyce Crea, 72.

The couple, both retired state employees, said affordability and immigration top their concerns.

“Who can afford the property taxes in New Jersey? And he’s going to help lower the taxes, he says. We shall see,” Joyce Crea said. “But we can’t afford to live in New Jersey, and Murphy says: ‘If you don’t like it, then move out.’ Who wants to move out of a state we were both born in, and why would we leave here? Our family’s here. Why leave?”

The state needs a Republican governor for a change, she added.

It remains to be seen how Ciattarelli’s growing closeness with the president will prove a bane in November. Though Trump lost New Jersey 52% to 46% last year, he came closer then to winning the state than any Republican presidential nominee since Bill Clinton defeated George H.W. Bush by 2.4 points in 1992.

Ciattarelli is not shying away from Trump yet, using his victory speech Tuesday to mock Sherrill for her Trump criticism.

“Mark my words, mark my words. While we focus on these key New Jersey issues, my Democratic opponent will do everything in her power to change the subject. Trust me: If this campaign were a drinking game and you took a shot every time Mikie Sherrill says Trump, you’re going to be drunk off your a** … every day between now and November 4th,” he said to applause from the crowd.

Dana DiFilippo and Morgan Leason contributed.