Three years after coming unexpectedly close to ousting Gov. Phil Murphy at the polls, Republican former lawmaker Jack Ciattarelli on Tuesday night officially launched his third straight campaign for New Jersey governor.
Ciattarelli, a 62-year-old former member of the state Assembly, is the second candidate to join the primary for the Republican nomination in next year’s ever-growing race to succeed Murphy, a Democrat. GOP state Sen. Jon Bramnick, once one of Ciattarelli’s legislative colleagues, announced his candidacy in January.
”It’s time,” Ciattarelli said as he took the stage at a kickoff event in a crowded ballroom at the historic American Hotel in Freehold.
“It’s time for bold, competent, serious leadership — leadership determined to fix our state. It’s time for a Jersey guy who understands what people are up against every day.”
His new bid is not a surprise. Ciattarelli lost to Murphy by a margin of three percentage points in the state’s last gubernatorial election, in 2021, and said in his concession speech he planned to seek the governor’s office again in 2025, when the seat will be open because state law doesn’t allow Murphy to seek a third consecutive term.
In his speech Tuesday, Ciattarelli, a certified public account and former small business owner, promised to slash the state’s notoriously high average property tax bill in half, freeze property taxes for seniors, create term limits for state legislators, and install a school curriculum “respecting the role of parents” and with “age-appropriate lessons.”
Often a moderate Republican on policy but one who recently endorsed former President Donald Trump, Ciattarelli also said he won’t disparage centrists or call Trump supporters “crazies” as he enters a primary expected to be influenced by the ex-president and current GOP presidential nominee. Bramnick, the other declared Republican candidate, is anti-Trump, while another potential contender, conservative radio host Bill Spadea, is pro-Trump.
Ciattarelli is the fifth contender from either side of the aisle to enter the race early, with the primary election still more than a year away. On the Democratic end, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, former state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka have declared campaigns. Others from both parties are expected to join in the coming months.
A longtime Hillsborough resident, Ciattarelli was a councilman in his hometown of Raritan Borough and a Somerset County freeholder before serving in the Assembly, the lower house of the state Legislature, from 2011-18.
Running for governor a first time, he lost the Republican primary in 2017 to then-Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who eventually fell to Murphy in the general election. Four years later, Ciattarelli won the Republican nod in a bid to unseat Murphy — a race in which polls predicted the governor would win by as many as 11 points — and contrasted his Jersey roots with that of the Massachusetts-raised incumbent.
Ciattarelli ultimately lost by more than 100,000 votes, and Murphy became the first Democratic New Jersey governor since 1977 to be re-elected. But Ciattarelli was bolstered by a surge in Republican turnout in a year that also saw the GOP gain seven seats in the Democratic-controlled Legislature. (Democrats won six back last year.)
In Tuesday’s speech, Ciattarelli jokingly said “political talking heads were asking themselves how the hell a Republican — with a name most people couldn’t pronounce — defied the polls, the predictions, and the pundits” by nearly defeating the incumbent Democratic governor in a state where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by one million.
“We almost pulled it off because of people like you, people who so desperately wanted change,” Ciattarelli — pronounced “Chet-a-relli” — told the audience.
New Jersey often picks Democrats in federal elections, but the state has frequently gone back and forth between parties when choosing a governor.
In the wake of their 2021 setbacks, Democrats — who have controlled the Legislature for two decades and the governor’s office for two terms — focused on cutting taxes and promising to make New Jersey more affordable. But Ciattarelli said they have turned New Jersey into a “mess” with “sky-high” taxes and mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s time for a commonsense problem-solver, a chief executive officer, a hands-on CEO who knows exactly what needs to be done and is willing to do it,” he said. “I think I know a guy.”
Former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli launches his third bid for New Jersey governor on Tuesday night at the American hotel in Freehold.Brent Johnson | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Ciattarelli also took thinly veiled swipes at his opponents in a Republican primary that’s likely to be contentious and partially focused on Trump, the party’s nominee against President Joe Biden this year in a rematch of 2020.
Bramnick has routinely criticized Trump, urging voters to reject extremism. Ciattarelli called Trump a “charlatan“ who is “unfit” for office before he was elected president, but he was softer on him during the last governor’s race and drew criticism for attending a “Stop the Steal” rally and for saying he’d roll back the state‘s LGBTQ curriculum. He publicly endorsed Trump last month.
On Tuesday, Ciattarelli said New Jersey needs a Republican who “can win” and “unite our party.”
“Not one who calls moderate Republicans ‘RINOS’ or calls Trump supporters ‘crazies,’” he said in his only reference to the ex-president in his speech.
In an apparent reference to Bramnick, Ciattarelli said the party needs a “candidate who can convince Democrats to support our ideas — not one who suffers from a ‘minority mentality’ or surrenders to Democratic party bosses over hot dogs and hamburgers.” Bramnick drew blowback from some Republicans for inviting Murphy to a gathering at his home in 2021.
In an apparent reference to Spadea, Ciattarelli said the party needs a “candidate with a message that attracts unaffiliated and independent voters — not one who repels them with personal insults and extreme rhetoric.”
Bramnick released a video message earlier Tuesday saying he has won in a Democratic-leaning legislative district and can win the general election in a blue state.
“We should never be the party of one man — and you know who I’m talking about,” he said. “So let’s get together and let’s start winning again.”
He also fired back at Ciattarelli on social media Wednesday morning.
“I got more done having hamburgers and hot dogs with democrats than a perennial candidate has done running and losing for 8 years,” he wrote. “Maybe because he hasn’t been in Trenton for a decade he forgot who has the majority in the legislature. Hate is not a political strategy.”
The question is whether an anti-Trump or centrist candidate can win the Republican primary when much of the party’s base still supports the former president — even though a moderate may be more likely to win the general election because polls show Trump is unpopular in wide parts of the state.
Speaking to reporters after his announcement, Ciattarelli said the choice in this presidential race is “binary” and he believes the U.S. was “better off during Trump’s four years than Biden’s four years.”
Asked if he’s concerned about losing swing voters, Ciattarelli said he did “extremely well last time” even though the pandemic hurt his “retail” campaign.
“There’s no pandemic this time,” he said. “I believe we can pick up the two or three points we need to deliver.”
After his announcement, the Democratic Governors Association released a statement saying New Jersey voters “already rejected Jack Ciattarelli’s extreme agenda once before, and they will do it again — if he manages to survive what will likely become a crowded and nasty GOP primary race.”
“Ciattarelli threatens to undo all the progress New Jersey has seen under Gov. Phil Murphy’s leadership,” the DGA said.
At the same time, there is uncertainty over the county line, the only-in-New Jersey system in which candidates endorsed by county parties are given preferential placement on primary ballots. A federal judge has blocked the line in this year’s Democratic primary as part of a lawsuit Democratic U.S. Rep. Andy Kim filed as he runs for U.S. Senate this year, and it’s possible he could abolish the setup entirely before next year’s primary. That could reshape the race for the GOP gubernatorial nod, making it easier for candidates without institutional support to gain ground.
Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said the “formula” under the system has been to get as “many county endorsements as possible and work those.” But without the line, he said, candidates will “have to focus a lot more on what segment of the electorate you try to get on your side.”
Murray noted while Ciattarelli’s past campaigns make him known to Republican voters, it’s unclear what kind of support he might garner in a divided GOP.
“We already know Jon Bramnick is going to try to get the anti-Trump vote and hope the Trump vote splits. Ciattarelli seems to be positioning himself among the two groups,” Murray said. “And if someone like Spadea gets in, there’s a clear Trump candidate in there. The question is: Are there enough voters in between that somebody like Ciattarelli can pull them off?”
Ciattarelli held Tuesday’s event about 30 miles from from his home — in a hotel in Republican stronghold Monmouth County that claims Abraham Lincoln stayed there on his way to being inaugurated in Washington in 1861. Ciattarelli called Lincoln his “political hero.”
He also promised to cap property taxes in the state at 1% of the assessed value of residents’ homes, freeze property taxes for residents 70 and older, lower business taxes, “fight like hell” for an amendment to the state constitution to limit state lawmakers to eight years in office, appoint a state attorney general who “supports both police and parents,” and adopt a new school funding formula that “treats suburban taxpayers fairly.” He said he would reduce government spending to pay for the tax cuts.
Ciattarelli ended his speech by noting his main ambition is being governor — not running for higher office or writing a book. The state’s last Republican governor, Chris Christie, ran for president and wrote a book at the end of his tenure.
“New Jersey is my final destination,” Ciattarelli said. “It’s home.”
Stories by Brent Johnson
Thank you for relying on us to provide the local news you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.
Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X at @johnsb01.