Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s campaign is ripping into Republican rival Jack Ciattarelli in a new campaign ad for attending a so-called Stop the Steal rally in support of former President Donald Trump.
The ad quotes Ciattarelli saying “we’re working hard to make sure things go our way” during his appearance at the rally on Nov. 28, 2020, in Bedminister, where Trump has a golf course.
Murphy’s campaign has called out Ciattarelli previously for attending the event and then later telling The Star-Ledger he wasn’t aware it was a “Stop the Steal” event and that it “turned into something else” after he arrived. But Murphy’s campaign also provided a flyer for the event that reads “Stop the Steal” in bold letters at the top and lists Ciattarelli as one of the guest speakers.
Ciattarelli congratulated President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on their election victory in a Jan. 20 social media post.
“We’ve seen him say time and again that President Biden won the election,” Ciattarelli campaign spokeswoman Stami Williams said, adding he didn’t know the event was a “Stop the Steal” rally.
“Since Jack declared his run for governor his message has been that there’s 120 state Assembly and Senate seats up for election as well as the governor’s seat,” she said. “And if we work hard enough with the right message, that’s our chance to win.”
The former president and some of his supporters insist that the election was rigged and that Biden only won the election because of voter fraud. A May Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll showed 53% of Republicans believe Trump is the “true president.”
In January, Stop the Steal protestors and pro-Trump rioters launched an attack at the U.S. Capitol in January when Congress was in session to certify the results of the election declaring Biden the winner.
The new campaign ad is a “misleading negative” ad that Murphy is running “because he knows how close this race is and because he’s desperate to talk about anything other than his record of failure,” said Williams.
“He doesn’t want to talk about the taxes he raised, the lines at motor vehicle offices, the tolls he increased, the small businesses he closed or New Jersey’s highest COVID death rate in the world,” she said in a statement. “It is no wonder that he wants to distract from that and change the subject. Governor Murphy, the people of New Jersey aren’t knuckleheads and they aren’t this easy fooled.”
As with Murphy’s first ad of the general election, a campaign spokesman declined to say how much they plan to spend to air the ad or for how long.
Murphy is favored to win in November, according to polling.
He held a 16-percentage-point advantage according to the Monmouth University Poll released last month. A little more than half of the registered voters surveyed — 52% — supported Murphy over Ciattarelli, a former assemblyman.
Broken down by region, Murphy led in northern New Jersey 60% to 29% and in the central part of the state 52% to 38%, according to the poll. Ciattarelli had 45% to Murphy’s 40% in southern New Jersey.
In June, Murphy had a 15-point lead — 48% to 33% — over Ciattarelli in a Fairleigh Dickinson University Poll and a Rutgers-Eagleton Poll showed Murphy with a 26 point lead — 52% to 26% — lead over Ciattarelli.
No Democrat has been re-elected governor since Brendan Byrne in 1977, though voters went for Democratic gubernatorial candidates in consecutive elections in 2001 and 2005.
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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com.