Democratic Governors Association

Contribute

More Personal Attacks and Name Calling in New Jersey’s GOP Primary

Share

More Personal Attacks and Name Calling in New Jersey’s GOP Primary

As Spadea accuses Ciattarelli of being an “opportunist,” Jack fires back: “Bill’s initials are B.S. for a reason.”

Every day that brings us closer to New Jersey’s June 10 primary is a day that sees the Garden State’s GOP gubernatorial candidates sinking deeper into a messy battle of the extremists. That’s been especially true this week, as two-time failed gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli and former talk radio host Bill Spadea have been at each other’s throats on a daily basis to win Trump’s endorsement.

Ashley Koning, director of Rutgers University’s Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling, highlighted how Ciattarelli’s and Spadea’s focus on Trump above all else could be a problem down the line. To the New Jersey Monitor she said: “It may be a more narrow focus on winning the primary because they think right now Trump would be a benefit to their campaign. In a couple months from now, it could be an entirely different story.”

Read more from the New Jersey Monitor on Republicans’ increasingly hostile MAGA primary: 

  • “When you’ve got a Republican who’s willing to spend eight years attacking Donald Trump, writing checks as recently as this last primary in 2024 to Chris Christie, and then to turn around and pretend now that he’s pro-Trump, you’ve got a guy that is willing to say anything for a vote,” Spadea said. “And you can’t trust somebody who will do that.”
  • Spadea and Ciattarelli, a former assemblyman, are sparring this year for the allegiance of Trump supporters and racing to prove their MAGA bona fides in a state where the GOP hopes it can bounce back after losing two gubernatorial races in a row.
  • Ashley Koning, director of Rutgers University’s Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling, said it’s obvious both men would love to win the votes of Trump supporters — but there’s a “big question mark” about whether their pitch to appeal to them could hurt in November’s general election, when one of them could be facing one of six Democrats hoping to succeed a term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy.
  • “It may be a more narrow focus on winning the primary because they think right now Trump would be a benefit to their campaign. In a couple months from now, it could be an entirely different story,” Koning said.
  • [Ciattarelli] has embraced Trump in recent months after criticizing him in 2016 and 2020. Spadea, meanwhile, has made a name for himself as a conservative firebrand after hosting a radio show on New Jersey 101.5 for nearly a decade.
  • Another Republican hoping to become our next governor is Mario Kranjac, a former Englewood Cliffs mayor who brands himself as a “forever Trumper.” Kranjac in an interview said he — not Spadea, not Ciattarelli — is the Republican candidate most aligned with Trump, pointing to his record as a mayor and a business owner.
  • “[Ciattarelli and Spadea] have to poll, and put their finger up in the wind to figure out what they believe in. I’ve always had fixed values and fixed beliefs,” he said. “I don’t need to have other people influence where I stand.”
  • Spadea — who, like Ciattarelli, has criticized Trump in the past, calling his first administration a failure — told the New Jersey Monitor that the Republican Party has become a big tent now that “the politics caught up with our principles.” But Ciattarelli’s late-game shift shows he’s an “opportunist,” Spadea said.
  • “It’s going to hurt [Ciattarelli] because it just shows he’s a typical politician who will just say anything for a vote,” Spadea said. “And I think he’s exposed himself because people aren’t buying it.”
  • When asked about Spadea’s jabs at Ciattarelli’s slow support for Trump, Ciattarelli replied, “Bill’s initials are B.S. for a reason.”

 ###