TOMS RIVER, NJ-One of Governor Phil Murphy’s official challengers has applauded the official effort to recall the governor. Joe Rullo, who ran for Governor in the Republican primary election in 2017 said today that he approves of the petition to recall Governor Murphy and will urge his followers, some 250,000 on social media to participate in the effort.
Rullo becomes the first in the pack of five candidates who vied for the chance to challenge Murphy.
At the time, Rullo said of Phil Murphy, “If you think Chris Christie is bad, just wait until you see Phil Murphy.”
In December, Rullo urged the New Jersey GOP to begin the recall effort, but it wasn’t until three women, private citizens took the matter into their own hands and began a grassroots effort to remove Murphy on Friday.
“The priority here is action,” Rullo said. “I called for a recall from the party, but for a November victory in the senate and house this year, we need immediate action, not feel good meetings and parties in Atlantic City.”
Rullo has also been critical of NJ GOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt who saw his party sink tens of millions of dollars into losing campaigns statewide that ended in losses in all but one congressional district statewide, the senatorial race in 2018 and the governor’s election in 2017.
Related: Get the latest Recall Phil Murphy information directly from the organizers.
Yesterday, after the Governor’s State of the State address, Chairman Steinhardt gave a solemn message to Republicans, conceding that mistakes have been made, but said the party is now rebuilding and rebranding after the crushing losses, also hoping to capitalize on Murphy’s midterm madness sweeping the state.
This week, the Phil Murphy recall effort has caught the attention of millions across the Garden State thanks in part to a media campaign offered pro-bono to the official recall effort by Shore News Network to promote the recall effort to it’s 2.8 million monthly online readers.
“Stop Phil Murphy and now this recall effort is a grassroots movement, for me, it’s not about politics, it’s about the quality of life and the future my…our children face in New Jersey. I don’t want to be forced out of the state I have lived in for 45 years,” said SNN editor Phil Stilton, a lifelong native of Ocean County. “It was launched by and it’s owned by the disenfranchised people of New Jersey on both sides of the aisle. We have the reach to make a difference in New Jersey and as a U.S. Marine who vowed to defend our constitution from enemies foreign and domestic, I just could not sit on the sidelines any longer to offer play-by-play analysis as our state burns to the ground around me. That oath I swore 27 years ago has no expiration date.”
“New Jersey needs to fix the mistake before things get worse,” Rullo said. “The momentum behind the recall effort is growing day by day and I’ll do whatever I can to assist the brave women who put their neck on the line for the honest, hard-working residents of New Jersey who are feeling the Murphy crunch.”
Despite New Jersey leading the United States in the number of people leaving the state, Rullo believes it’s not too late to save the state.
“I said it on the campaign trail all the time, New Jersey leads the country in all the wrong places,” Rullo said. “It’s time to start taking our state back. I never gave up fighting and won’t. One way or another, we’ll stop Phil Murphy from destroying New Jersey.”
Rullo said in 2019 all of New Jersey’s senate and assembly seats are up for grabs, making this year the equivalent of a Presidential mid-term election. He has also threatened to encourage Republican primaries in districts where those senators and assemblymen have cozied up to Phil Murphy or didn’t fight his agenda hard enough.
He said, even if the Recall Phil Murphy effort falls short, it’s a grassroots effort that could wake up those who did not come out to vote against Murphy to be more aware of the dangers of staying home on Election Day.
“We’re feeling it everywhere in New Jersey from illegals being given sanctuary status to all of these new progressive dream programs Murphy is trying push through into law, we have gun grabs, tax increases, the people who live here are feeling the effects already,” Rullo said. “If we don’t stop it, we’re going to go broke. We can’t allow Murphy to turn New Jersey into the California of the East Coast and we have to fight his agenda to make us a sanctuary state.”
“It’s time to stop Phil Murphy from destroying New Jersey,” Stilton said. “We let the establishment have the keys for too long, and they drove the car off the road into trees in November. It’s time we, the people take charge of the future of our state, whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, Independent, we can all agree on one thing, we can’t stay on our current path. The state constitution offers us an ‘oops’ switch in the form of a recall, so let’s do it. It’s time Trenton starts listening to us…on both sides.”
At this time, no other Republican candidates for Governor in the 2017 primary have made statements about the recall effort.