Jack Ciattarelli Is Losing New Jersey’s GOP “Popularity Contest”

Jack Ciattarelli Is Losing New Jersey’s GOP “Popularity Contest”  

A new poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University has found that, in New Jersey’s messy MAGA GOP primary, name ID isn’t everything, and — at least for two-time failed gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli — may even be a liability.

According to Politico, FDU’s poll found that, while “78 percent of Republicans surveyed know who Ciattarelli is,” only “thirty-nine percent of Republicans have favorable views of Ciattarelli.”

Meanwhile, his lesser known primary opponents are gaining ground both in name recognition and grassroots support. Last week, talk radio host Bill Spadea “crushed” Ciattarelli “by a wide margin,” earning the endorsement of the Ocean County Republican Party, the county with the “highest GOP base” that makes up “12% of New Jersey’s Republican electorate.” Then, this week, in another snub to Ciattarelli, Spadea won the Mercer County Republican Party’s straw poll despite not participating. On top of that, reports suggest that President Donald Trump “appears inclined towards Spadea,” and has “criticized Ciattarelli… for not seeking [his] help” in the past.

“According to New Jersey Republican voters, to know Jack Ciattarelli is to dislike him,” said DGA Campaign Communications Advisor Emma O’Brien. “As this Republican primary gets messier by the day and the candidates continue to ramp up their attacks on each other, New Jerseyans will only continue to remember why they rejected Ciattarelli’s last two bids for governor.”

Read more on the new poll from Politico here. 

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