TOMS RIVER, NJ – Within hours after losing the 2021 election for New Jersey Governor to Democrat Phil Murphy, Jack Ciattarelli announced he is already a candidate for the 2025 race. Key to that decision was that Ciattarelli aligned establishment Republicans controlled the Ocean County GOP, the state’s most powerful and influential Republican organization.
Ciattarelli was pushing for political ally Sheriff Michael Mastronardy to defeat former Commissioner George Gilmore. In fact, his hopes of getting the party line in 2025 depended on it. With a win Thursday night in Ocean County, Ciattarelli could all but guarantee he would be the nominee next time.
Then it happened. Mastronardy lost to George Gilmore, sending the entire New Jersey GOP establishment upside down. Gilmore accused Ciattarelli of being part of the vicious and slanderous political campaign against him that was orchestrated by Ciattarelli’s former campaign manager Eric Arpert and political strategist Chris Russell.
Both are probably done when it comes to Ocean County GOP politics in the future. On top of that, Russell’s firm Checkmate Wins has lost several major elections for Republicans in recent years. On top of his attacks against the current chairman, his losing record when it counts will not work to his advantage in trying to patch things up with Gilmore.
In 2019, Russell launched a slanderous campaign against former Chairman Frank Holman. Holman eventually forgave Russell and funneled tens of thousands of dollars in campaign funding to Russell’s firm over the next three years.
In that time, Russell lost a governor’s race, a senator’s race, and a congressman’s race. He was also on the losing end of two failed county conventions in Ocean County that saw Republican rank and file go against candidates he was being paid to represent. Russell’s candidates lost the county line to Hirsh Singh and David Richter in those contentious floor battles.
Campaign mailers calling Gilmore a criminal, and mocking the former chairman, were mailed to voters. Threatening phone calls were made, and the Ciattarelli camp did whatever they could to defame Gilmore in front of voters.
Gilmore has always opposed Ciattarelli. In 2017, he supported Kim Guadagno and in 2021, he supported Phil Rizzo.
It’s unlikely that Gilmore will support Ciattarelli in 2025.
“Ciattarelli called me after I won, about half an hour after the election was over, to congratulate me,” Gilmore said in an interview with Politico. “I told him I’d be happy to meet with him … I’m waiting for him to call me this week and have a meeting.”
Gilmore said Ciattarelli’s involvement in the election against him was to secure the former gubernatorial loser as the 2025 candidate.
Be sure to check back often as we go into detail about the impact the 2022 OCGOP Chairman’s race will have on local politics, politicians, and professional firms.