TOMS RIVER, NJ – New Jersey establishment GOP candidate for Governor Jack Ciattarelli has one major advantage over his much younger opponent Hirsh Singh. Ciattarelli is a tried and tested politician who has made tough decisions while under fire in the heat of political battle in New Jersey. He’s been a Trenton insider for three decades and until he ran for governor and has no notable legislative achievements to brag about on his campaign literature.
Ciattarelli is a Trenton warrior, ready to fight Phil Murphy he says, but when it comes to the Jersey Shore after Superstorm Sandy devastated and completely obliterated communities from Cape May to Sandy Hook, Jack dropped his rifle and ran in the other direction.
In the years following Superstorm Sandy, all of New Jersey came together to help our beloved Jersey Shore, except Ciattarelli. We called it “Restore the Shore”. Then New Jersey Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli called it “Ignore the Shore”. Ciattarelli on two occasions voted against victims of Superstorm Sandy, denying financial aid and foreclosure protection for victims struggling to rebuild their homes and businesses lost during the storm.
In the New Jersey Assembly in 2015, the bi-partisan state legislature introduced and passed a bill to provide much-needed financial relief and protections to towns hit extremely hard by the storm. It passed, but not without dissent from certain charlatans who felt the Jersey Shore didn’t need any additional help in the rebuilding process. In 2016, the assembly passed the Disaster Victims Protection Act.
If it was up to Ciattarelli, that bill would have died on the Trenton Assembly floor. That’s because Ciattarelli voted no. Luckily, the bi-partisan effort succeeded and eventually, the shore was able to recover, expecting a record breaking year in 2021.
It doesn’t end there though. After Superstorm Sandy, many people were forced from their homes. Many rented or bought second homes to stay in New Jersey, eventually leading to a foreclosure and eviction crisis.
Once again the legislature in Trenton stepped in to help the people of the Jersey Shore. Once again, Jack Ciattarelli said no to the Jersey Shore.
Assembly Bill a4139, passed in 2015 gave Jersey Shore residents affected by Superstorm Sandy a three-year break on evictions and foreclosures as they rebuilt their lives. The bill passed by a commanding 56-14 majority but Ciattarelli played partisan politics voting against the bill proposed by Democrats. For politics, he decided residents of the Jersey Shore should suffer. He was one of 14 people who denied the much-needed protection to residents made homeless by a devastating tidal surge never before seen in New Jersey that washed out the barrier island and backwater towns along the Barnegat Bay.
If Shore voters shun Ciattarelli, it wouldn’t be the first time. In 2017, Ciattarelli ran for Governor against Kim Guadagno and lost in the Republican Primary. Ocean and Monmouth Counties voted overwhelmingly for Guadagno. A clear message was sent by a community that he turned his back on.
Now, armed with $4,000,000 in taxpayer funds to run his campaign, Ciattarelli is hoping you forget about all of that.
Related: What New Jersey makes, Jack takes. Ciattarelli accepts $4 million in public funds to run campaign
Now he’s sending out reams of junk mail to slander Shore resident Hirsh Singh, who says he’s the better choice for the Jersey Shore. Singh disagrees.
“I was just three years old when Jack Ciattarelli entered politics decades ago. For somebody who has 33 years of experience in government, when he voted against the Jersey Shore when we were at our weakest point after Superstorm Sandy, it tells every voter in every conservative shore town who Jack really is,” Singh said on Ciattarelli’s abandonment of the Jersey Shore after the devasting hurricane. “Jack and his friends in Trenton have long forgotten South Jersey and the Jersey Shore and if you want to fix that, vote Hirsh Singh on June 8th.”
We tried to reach out to Ciattarelli on Facebook, but his campaign has banned Shore News Network from his campaign page after asking Jack several times why he voted against the Shore recovery effort.
Ocean County residents are already upset with Ciattarelli over his being a “Never Trumper”. Trump received over 60% of the vote in Ocean County in 2020. Now, Ciattarelli is asking the voters of the Jersey Shore and Ocean County to put both issues aside and to vote for him in the 2021 Republican primary election.
Jack Ciattarelli has proven himself to be a charlatan who is unfit to be Governor of New Jersey.