SOMERVILLE – Inveterate champion of an underdog challenge, Republican Jack Ciattarelli doesn’t just want to become New Jersey’s next governor. He envisions his own coattails at the top of the GOP ticket powering his party to a legislative majority, the first in 25 years.
“I’m going to bring a very special positive energy to the campaign to raise money and to deliver victories to down ballot candidates,” Ciattarelli told InsiderNJ. “I’ve proven that wherever I’ve been – the Assembly, the Somerset County Commissioners, and in local office – I have coattails. If you have the audacity to ask for the nomination, you’d better have coattails – and that’s what differentiates me from my opponents. …I will do my very best to unite us and show grassroots support. The goal is to win in November. We want to make a difference in the lives of New Jerseyans.”
Not a rigid ideologue, and never hyper-partisan, the former LD-16 assemblyman (2011-2018) and business owner MBA/CPA with strong name ID based largely on his 2021 statewide gubernatorial candidacy, and a knack for high-energy retail politicking, Ciattarelli runs as the favorite in the Republican Primary Election. But if successful on June 10th, he must ultimately face the prospect of a political environment probably largely conditioned by wherever President Donald J. Trump stands come Election Day 2025 in a state with 800,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans.
Having raised more money than all his opponents combined, according to ELEC, Ciattarelli looks ready for both challenges, the primary and the general, especially animated for a chance to make Democrats here pay for what he identifies as their considerable transgressions, knowing they will attempt to hide behind cover afforded by whatever stumbles Republicans encounter as they attempt to deliver Trump’s national agenda.
Excoriated by Ds for kissing Trump’s ring at the President’s golf course last month, the candidate’s allies celebrated the development as a sign of Ciattarelli’s intra-party advantages and favored primary status, mostly a function of the grassroots ground game he personally developed over the course of two statewide campaigns (2017 and 2021), and his continued sharpening of a detail-oriented affordability message connecting with besieged NJ taxpayers.
Saddled by supermarket and hospital deserts, and the eight-year record of an administration whose wind energy policy went belly up, whoever emerges from the Democratic Primary will face a Republican nominee animated, not only by the wreckage, but the cowed condition of a party U.S. Senator Cory Booker tried to buck up last week on the floor of the United States Senate and at a subsequent town hall event.
Even as Trump’s tariff hikes on international goods sent the market reeling, and the Republican President’s job approval rating took a hit, according to Rasmussen, Ciattarelli told InsiderNJ he doesn’t see Booker offering voters much more than theatrical hand-wringing.
“I don’t think they could be more wrong,” he said of the U.S. Senator’s adherents. “When I go around the state today and talk to people – not just Republican audiences – they want to hear someone address the affordability crisis in the state. They are worried about the expense of their monthly electric bills. That’s something people are experiencing each and every month. They’re worried about what’s taught in our public schools, the break ins and car thefts occurring because of the professional criminals we’ve created over bail reform. And they’re worried about overdevelopment and how can we bring a stop to the Mount Laurel doctrine as we’ve seen it happen here in the suburbs.”
Ciattarelli was sitting at a popular eatery in downtown Somerville, in Central Jersey, which he described as the ideal location for development, a critical issue on his agenda. “Smaller urban centers like this one should be the magnets for development transformation, where there is mass transit – NJ Transit and a bus and rail line – a hospital, and jobs. This is where high density housing belongs not in Hillsborough, the town where I lived for 25 years, a former cow pasture with no infrastructure, no mass transit, and no jobs.” Facilitated by their party allies in Trenton, Democrats continue to overdevelop the state, Ciattarelli said. “And by the way, all that development allowed to happen flies in the face of climate change, which Democrats claim to care about. All we’ve done is put more idling cars on the roads, which is inconsistent with their approach to sustainability.
“When Cory Booker does what he does it’s the old playbook, and it’s dangerous for Democrats and good for Republicans,” he added.
It’s part of the overall lurid portrait painted by the party in power in this state.
“Evidence that Phil Murphy Democrat and Trenton Democrats have, in fact, lost their way? Look at the ads by someone like [Democratic Party candidate for Governor] Josh Gottheimer. He’s talking about the affordability crisis, how New Jerseyans are the most high-taxed people in the nation, and safe communities. I was talking about this back in 2021 but people were fixated on the pandemic. These issues have not gone away.”
Beaming with expectation about his 2025 prospects, Ciattarelli cited what he described as Murphy’s failed wind energy policy, which will blow like a hurricane through the general election, putting Democrats on the defensive. “Ask anyone on the Jersey Shore,” the Republican said. “People do not want those wind farms.
“No matter who my Democratic opponent is, they’re complicit in Phil Murphy’s failed policies because they’ve had nothing to say for eight years,” he added. “A vote for them is a vote for four more years of Phil Murphy.”
Ciattarelli has to get through the primary, of course, but if he does, he wants to lead a Republican majority back to the legislature. “I want to not only win but to have coattails,” he told InsiderNJ. “In 2021, I flipped eight seats with the wind in my face. If i can flip eight seats with the wind in my face, imagine what I can do with wind at my back? We’re right on affordability and people know that. I’m shooting for 13 and something we haven’t had in 25 years: a Republican majority.”
In addition, he wants to plant Republicans in two Supreme Court positions to flip the court to GOP control. “More than ever, very conservative Republican judges will bring balance to that Supreme Court,” he said.
This past weekend, Ciattarelli won a Morris County straw poll, dusting the rest of the primary field, including conservative radio host Bill Spadea, who struggles to steadfastly occupy New Jersey’s MAGA lane. Ciattarelli and Spadea continue to scrap for the base of the party, where the former Assemblyman scores points with ads highlighting Spadea’s past comments in which he expresses 2024 opposition to another Trump presidential run. “That opponent is running on a platform of civility and there is nothing civil about calling Trump supporters crazies and a cult,” Ciattarelli said. “Hillary Clinton referred to Trump supporters as deplorables. Last I checked, this is the USA. His platform on civility seems like a bit of a charade to me.”
It all sounds tough, testy, hard-nosed and robustly if not a little deviously Republican, right in time for the Republican Primary.
Finally, all of Ciattarelli’s ideas – carefully crafted since before 2021 when he first ran for statewide office – will fold into a state election within the context, not only of Murphy fatigue, but the volatility of Trump’s decision-making in Washington.
That’s ok by Ciattarelli, who stands with the President on critical issues.
Ciattarelli backs Trump on tariffs.
“Wherever there is uncertainty, the market is going to react the way it currently is,” he told InsiderNJ. “It did so at the very beginning of the pandemic. The selloff we see is similar. In this case, the market has been overvalued. There was an adjustment coming, and what Trump is doing with tariffs is the impetus for the adjustment. At the same time what he’s trying to do – and I support him – is address a trade imbalance. The flight out of equities sparked a flight to treasury bills and the flight to treasury bills has driven down interest rates on the treasury bills. This where is where you save billions on interest costs in the federal government.”
Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden were off-shore globalists. The sitting President’s hardball negotiating will restabilize the world’s greatest consumer market to the advantage of America, where every country wants to sell goods, said Ciattarelli. Ultimately, Trump’s policies will bring back domestic manufacturing, he noted, “but it has to coincide with the reform of our immigration policies.”
“We have to grow our population to be in a better position to grow our economy,” the candidate said.
In addition, Trump backs President’s deportation plan.
“I do not believe we should have sanctuary cities,” Ciattarelli said. “We should not be a sanctuary state, and it’s not right for me to say police can’t work with federal authorities to keep their communities safe.”
As for what the candidate wants to do to reverse course on Democratic Party control and implement an affordability agenda, Ciattarelli said he would start by combining under an audit general the State Comptroller’s Office and the State Commission of Investigation, to strengthen and make more accountable New Jersey’s first defense against waste, fraud, and abuse.
“I do think it’s ineffectual right now, the way they’re split up and I don’t understand why they wouldn’t be under one roof,” Ciattarelli said. “If one agency looks primarily at waste and inefficiency, why not look for fraud too? Sometimes waste and inefficiency is due to fraud.”
As governor, he would update, modernize, and decrease in size state information systems that are 50 years old.
In addition, as with his past two runs for governor, Ciattarelli says New Jersey requires a new schools funding formula to make life more affordable for taxpayers, and a more coherent and effective energy policy. “The Democratic governor of Pennsylvania is burning seven coal burning plants next door,” he noted, alongside a moratorium on gas fired plants. We need to strike a better balance in all respects – and natural gas is the bridge to the future.”
The Republican said he does believe in climate change. “I do,” he said. “Mother earth has sent us some really powerful signals. When I was a then-freeholder we were the first county government in the state to establish an energy council – but, as a friend of mine says, you want to make sure you’re on the cutting edge not the bleeding edge. Under [then-Governor] Tom Kean we had an energy department, but what we have now are the BPU and DEP [Board of Public Utilities and Department of Environmental Protection], which are policy promulgating agencies instead of should be regulatory agencies, which is what they should be. I don’t like what I see over there, particularly recently with an equity pricing plan, which is them covering their ass for electrical bills going through the roof. Even Democratic legislators are running for the hills on that one.”
So how would Ciattarelli – as governor – get results?
“Phil Murphy has not been a hands-on CEO governor and his administration has not been hands-on, so what you have is mid-level managers within these various agencies running the show,” he said. “I had my differences with Chris Christie but his administration was hands-on. They were pro-business. We did a better job them of striking a balance between not screwing the consumer-taxpayer-resident and not causing irreparable harm to the environment. This is a $50 billion dollar enterprise, with 65k employees serving 9 million people. It requires a hands-on CEO governor and administration that goes to work every day ensuring a lean mean fighting machine on behalf of the residents of New Jersey. We don’t have that today. Just try to get someone on the phone.”
As Trump and Elon Musk demolish federal-level government, Ciattarelli said he would take a “hard look” at the state Department of Education when sizing up potential cuts. In addition, he would take a close look at duplication of services and aim for cuts where county and local governments already have infrastructure and oversight. “I had a conversation with the apartments association and if you own a building, you’re subject to DCA inspection, which is reasonable enough, but towns do the same inspection, with their own charges, so landlords are paying twice.
“I’m a big believer in county government, which is our only regional service provider,” Ciattarelli added. “I think the government closest to the people can do a better job in many cases. I’m hearing – and this is not a knock on our rangers – that state government is not doing a good enough job policing our state parks. I think a compelling conversation is whether counties can over state park policing. We did that in Somerset, with Washington State Park in Green Brook. I’m saying let’s have those conversations. First and foremost, my job is to listen. It’s to synthesize the information provided and make the call. Sometimes, after you’ve synthesized you exercise executive privilege. That’s what great leaders do. They surround themselves with people smarter than themselves and inform themselves to make wise decisions.
“In my administration, there will be no political patronage,” he pointed out. “I will recruit people for my cabinet from the front lines because I need people from day one who know what they’re doing. I can’t wait for three months for you to find where the men’s room is. My directive will be simple and straightforward. Come to me with three reforms – three reforms – that don’t screw the consumer or do irreparable harm to the environment. That’s the way to go at this. A leader to instigate the conversation with the idea. You come up with a better idea, I’ll say, ‘Now, that’s a great idea,’ but right now we’re not having those conversations. I don’t hate government. A majority of people don’t hate government. What they hate is nepotism, waste, and fraud. [First Lady] Tammy Murphy not lasting three months as a senate candidate – outright rejected in a Democratic Primary – sends a very strong signal. People will hate government if they’ve lost faith in people running those governments. I want to restore people’s faith, and it comes down to the affordability factor. Everything that we do has to make New Jersey a more affordable place to live. Phil Murphy with this budget is not doing that with the sales tax, for example, which just means if you want to take your kids bowling or for laser tag, you’re paying more. I think those legislators in his own party who are on the ballot this year will reject that proposal.”
Born in Somerville, raised in Raritan Borough by restaurant/bar owners, father a union pipefitter for 38 years, mother a J&J line worker, father of four, Ciattarelli trusts in his connectivity to the people of his home state.
“This is my home, it always has been always and will be, unlike governors on both sides of the aisle for the last 40 years,” he said. “This is not a stepping-stone. I am not going to Washington. I just want to fix the state and I believe it can be fixed. Leadership makes a difference. I remember a time growing up when if your parents got a call from a nun, a local cop, or a teacher, you were in serious trouble – and in my house there was a wooden spoon. Melinda [Ciattarelli’s ex-wife] and I are not perfect parents, but we did a damn good job because were hands on and we sat down at the dinner table every night. Nobody was going to indoctrinate our kids. We indoctrinated our kids. The mistake these liberals are making, and I won’t call them progressives, because it’s nor progress, is they’re teaching inappropriate things to young kids. I’m not opposed to sex education but things being taught in school should be for conversations at the kitchen table not our schools.”
A reader, both of daily newspapers, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, Ciattarelli laments the loss of the print version of The Star-Ledger. His political idols include Abraham Lincoln (probably number one) and Harry Truman. “I love to read books about people who embraced a challenge, particularly if they were underrated,” he said. “Going into office, Lincoln and Truman were underrated and they’re generally ranked in the top five presidents.
“I love when somebody rises to the occasion,” Ciattarelli said with a grin.
InsiderNJ recently had the opportunity to sit down with Jack Ciattarelli, a prominent figure in New Jersey politics, to discuss his plans for the future and his aspirations to rise to the occasion as a leader in the state.
Ciattarelli, a former state assemblyman and gubernatorial candidate, has been making waves in the political scene with his bold ideas and ambitious goals for New Jersey. In our exclusive interview, he shared his vision for the state and his plans to address some of the most pressing issues facing its residents.
One of Ciattarelli’s top priorities is improving the state’s economy and creating more opportunities for businesses and workers. He believes that by implementing pro-growth policies and cutting unnecessary regulations, New Jersey can become a more attractive place for companies to invest and create jobs. Ciattarelli also emphasized the importance of investing in infrastructure and transportation to support economic growth and improve quality of life for residents.
In addition to economic issues, Ciattarelli is also focused on improving education and healthcare in the state. He believes that every child deserves access to a quality education, regardless of their zip code, and is committed to working towards a more equitable and effective education system. Ciattarelli also wants to address the rising costs of healthcare and make sure that all New Jersey residents have access to affordable and high-quality care.
When asked about his plans for the upcoming gubernatorial race, Ciattarelli expressed confidence in his ability to connect with voters and earn their trust. He emphasized the importance of listening to the concerns of residents and working together to find solutions to the challenges facing the state.
Overall, Ciattarelli’s interview with InsiderNJ revealed a leader who is passionate about making a positive impact on New Jersey and who is willing to put in the hard work necessary to achieve his goals. As he continues to campaign and connect with voters across the state, it will be interesting to see how his plans unfold and whether he is able to rise to the occasion as a true leader for New Jersey.
