TOMS RIVER, NJ – One of Jack Ciattarelli’s former opponents, Joseph Rullo, who ran against him in the 2017 GOP primary election is urging the candidate to not give up.
Rullo’s comments come hours after New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy called upon Ciattarelli to concede the election. Ciattarelli now trails Murphy by 65,000 votes with ballots still being counted.
“The race is over. Assemblyman Ciattarelli is mathematically eliminated, and he must accept the results and concede the race. His continuing failure to do so is an assault on the integrity of our elections,” Murphy said earlier Monday.
Rullo said Ciattarelli shouldn’t be intimidated by the Governor and should sit it out until every vote is counted.
“This is what we saw last year in the New Jersey Senate race, you need to wait until every legal vote is counted, especially with the provisional and mail-in ballots left to be counted,” Rullo said. “I urge Jack to wait until every last legal vote is counted before conceding to Murphy.”
Murphy sad Ciattarelli should concede before every vote is counted and that his delay undermines the New Jersey election system.
“Governor Murphy’s percentage margin is larger than Glenn Youngkin’s in Virginia (2.20%), which the Republican Governors Association publicly described as “healthy.” While Terry McAuliffe offered his concession days ago, Assemblyman Ciattarelli is refusing to concede and face reality. By failing to publicly acknowledge that he has lost the race, Assemblyman Ciattarelli is misleading his supporters into thinking he has a chance to prevail. But he does not,” Murphy campaign spokesman Jerrell Harvey said today.
Rullo disagreed, “Everyone’s vote counts…and they should all be accounted for, win or lose. People need to know their vote is important and won’t be discarded just because one candidate says he wants to move forward and disregard those important votes, regardless of whether they were cast for Jack or Phil. Every single vote counts.”
Ciattarelli’s team did not respond when asked about Murphy’s call for him to concede today.