What makes someone a true New Jerseyan? And how Jersey should Jersey’s highest-ranking official be?
Welcome to one of the first debates sparked by the newly minted Garden State governor’s race between Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli.
Shortly after winning Tuesday’s four-way primary for the GOP nomination to face Murphy, Ciattarelli portrayed himself as a born and bred “Jersey guy” and the Massachusetts-raised governor as a wealthy interloper who’s “not New Jersey.” He even criticized the way Murphy eats pizza.
Murphy, a former Wall Street executive who moved to Middletown with his wife more than 20 years ago, took issue with that.
“I would just ask anybody who wonders about where somebody was born, ask them if they had any say over where they were born,” the governor said when asked about Ciattarelli’s comments during his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton on Wednesday. “And then let me say this: My wife and I came to New Jersey to raise our four kids. That was a volitional decision that we took. Probably the best decision of our lives.”
Murphy went event further in an interview with Politico New Jersey on Wednesday, saying Ciattarelli’s argument is “ridiculous.”
He also insisted, “I’ll eat a pizza with anybody.”
Ciattarelli used his victory speech Tuesday night to accuse Murphy, an avowed progressive who won the Democratic nomination unopposed, of making New Jersey less affordable and too left-leaning. But what garnered the most attention was Ciattarelli taking aim at Murphy’s Jersey credentials — something he also did when he launched his campaign last year.
A lifelong Somerset County resident and Seton Hall grad, Ciattarelli noted in his speech that his family vacations at Long Beach Island while Murphy has a villa in Italy. He mentioned how he roots for the Yankees while Murphy is a Boston Red Sox fan. And he alluded to how Murphy got his degree from Harvard and spent decades working in New York City and overseas for investment banking firm Goldman Sachs.
“Here’s Phil Murphy’s problem: He wasn’t raised here, never went to school here, never owned a business here,” said Ciattarelli, a former accountant who also once owned a medical publishing company. “He’s somebody else. I’m you. I mean, have you seen this guy eat pizza?”
That’s an apparent reference to a tweet showing First Lady Tammy Murphy feeding a slice to the governor.
“He’s not New Jersey,” Ciattarelli added. “How about we elect a Jersey guy?“
Ciattarelli also alluded to how Murphy told NJ Advance Media on the eve of taking office in 2018 that he wanted to remold New Jersey in the image of left-leaning California.
“This out-of-touch governor has the audacity and the arrogance to say he wants to make New Jersey the California of the East Coast,” Ciattarelli said. “Are you kidding me? Who says that? We’re New Jersey, and if that’s what Phil Murphy wants, then he should move to California.”
“Here’s what I want, here’s what you want, here’s what New Jersey wants: Fix the damn state,” Ciattarelli added. “I’m here to fix New Jersey.”
When it comes to taxes, Murphy on Wednesday took aim at Ciattarelli’s resume — which includes stints as a Raritan Borough councilman, Somerset County freeholder, and a member of the Assembly from 2011-18.
”He was in public service as an elected official during the time the property tax crisis went out of control,” Murphy said. “We inherited the mess his colleagues created. ... We’re trying to fix the stuff that he and others broke.”
Ciattarelli faces an uphill battle against Murphy in the Nov. 2 general election. A Rutgers-Eagleton poll published Tuesday found Murphy leading Ciattarelli by 26 percentage points, while 52% of New Jersey voters don’t know who Ciattarelli is. Democrats hold a huge voter advantage over Republicans, too.
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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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com.
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