Hillsborough Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli Announces Run for Governor

By Carly Baldwin (Patch Staff)

SOMERSET COUNTY, NJ — This coming Tuesday, your local Republican state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli will officially announce he is running for governor.

Ciattarelli will announce his campaign Tuesday, October 4, at 3:30 p.m. outside the front entrance of Manville High School in Manville.

Ciattarelli is an Assemblyman for District 16 which covers parts of Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex and Somerset counties - Branchburg, Delaware,Flemington, Hillsborough, Manville, Millstone (Somerset), Montgomery, Princeton, Raritan (Hunterdon), Readington, Rocky Hill, Somerville, South Brunswick, Stockton.

This is not a complete surprise: Ciattarelli's name had been floated among political insiders as a likely Republican contender for governor for the past few months now, although those same insiders say he's a long shot to win the Republican nomination. And he's been wading into statewide and even national issues: Earlier this month, he picked a fight with Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop over school funding. Last year, Ciattarelli was one of the few New Jersey Republicans to come out against Donald Trump, calling him an "embarrassment" and a "charlatan."

“I have seen Trenton from the inside – it isn’t working,” said Ciattarelli said Thursday of why he decided to run. "New Jersey has been heading in the wrong direction for decades. Under both Democratic and Republican Administrations and State Legislatures, we’ve reached the tipping point."

Ciattarelli represents New Jersey's Legislative District 16, which includes South Brunswick, Princeton, Montgomery, Hillsborough, Millstone (Somerset), Flemington and Branchburg. The general election for governor will be November 7, 2017. Other names floated for the Republican ticket include Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and Thomas Kean, Jr., Senate Minority Leader. Businessman Joseph Rudy Rullo has already declared.

Keith Ryzewicz, an editor at The Daily Record, wrote the following in this op-ed published in August about Jack:

All signs point to Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli running for governor in 2017.

Know the name, if you don’t already. The Republican lawmaker won’t be a favorite, and he won’t be familiar to many voters beyond Central Jersey and the 16th Legislative District he represents. He’s not likely to be the anointed choice of the GOP machinery because that’s not the way he operates, but that’s also part of his charm as a candidate.

But he will be worth listening to, more than most of the men and women who swagger down the campaign trail spouting platitudes and ridicule and whatever else they think might grab some attention, however unfair or untrue. Read the full op-ed about Ciattarelli here.

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