Ciattarelli wins NJ GOP primary, faces Murphy in November

Businessman and former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli easily won New Jersey’s Republican gubernatorial primary on Tuesday, setting up a November showdown with Democratic incumbent Phil Murphy.

Murphy ran unopposed in his primary after judges disqualified two potential challengers over insufficient voter signatures on their petitions.

With 89% of precincts reporting, Ciattarelli had 49% of the vote while Philip Rizzo and Hirsh Singh earned 26% and 21%, respectively. Brian Levine had 3%.

The establishment-backed Ciattarelli, considered a moderate, fended off Rizzo and Singh, both defenders of former President Donald Trump. Rizzo and Singh split the pro-Trump vote.

Jack Ciattarelli for Governor

Ciattarelli, 49 and from Somerset, ran for governor in 2017 but lost the nomination to then-Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno. Considered a moderate, he has criticized Murphy as slow in reopening the state from COVID-19 related closures and making the state too expensive. He spent eight years in the Assembly.

“Fix the damn state,” Ciattarelli told supporters in Somerset, Franklin Township.

He has called for reversing New Jersey’s exodus of businesses and residents, rewriting the state’s tax code and lowering property taxes through a restructuring of New Jersey’s school funding formula.

Rizzo, 44, a Hoboken pastor and a Morris County resident, is a former real estate developer. Singh, 38, an engineer from Atlantic County, has lost Republican primaries for governor, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives.

Murphy, a Massachusetts native, is heavily favored to become New Jersey’s first elected Democratic governor to be re-elected to a second term since Brendan Byrne in 1977. Voters elected separate Democratic governors, Jim McGreevey and Jon Corzine, in 2001 and 2005, respectively.

A poll that Rutgers University's Eagleton Center for Politics released Tuesday showed that 52% of registered voters said they would vote for Murphy, compared with 26% for Ciattarelli. In addition, 52% of respondents said they do not know who Ciattarelli is.

Murphy on Wednesday is expected to announce revenue forecast updates, with reports citing a further $4 billion. The state was already expecting revenues to exceed expectations by $3.2 billion. New Jersey is in line for $6.2 billion under the federal American Rescue Plan.

With the June 30 fiscal-year deadline approaching, Murphy and the legislature are in the home stretch for fiscal 2022 budget negotiations. Murphy presented a $44.8 billion spending plan in February.

New Jersey has had its state legislative elections in odd-numbered years since 1947, when it enacted a constitutional change.