If you’re Bill Spadea, anyone who doesn’t support you is either a communist, a RINO (Republican in Name Only), or a ‘weak Republican.
As pressure mounts against the former loud-mouth FM early morning radio jock, he and his supporters are lashing out against anyone who doesn’t pledge their allegiance to his campaign, even Republicans.
As Ronald Reagan once said of an ’11th commandment’: Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican. It’s a rule I followed during that campaign and have ever since.
It’s a phrase used as common ground to prevent a split in the party in the general election. It’s a split Spadea and his supporters are creating each day on various social media platforms.
Even well-respected, longtime New Jersey Republicans.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Spadea unleashed a barrage of attacks on both Democrats and fellow Republicans during a campaign event in a Morristown barroom basement, where supporters denounced “RINOs,” “communists,” and “weak Republicans” ahead of the June primary.
In he and other speackers lashed out with denunciations of political opponents.
One supporter declared that the only thing worse than “Communist Democrats” are “RINO Republicans,” a term frequently used by Spadea to describe members of his own party who do not share his hardline stance.
You know, those same opponents he’s going to want to support him the day after the primary election.
Spadea, trailing in most public polls behind GOP rival Jack Ciattarelli, dismissed surveys showing him behind. “Not credible,” Spadea said, referring to the polling data, some of which he claimed came from “a clown who’s been wrong in the past.”
The man appears to be losing his grip, and possibly his mind, as his campaign coffers dwindle slowly.
Spadea’s campaign has leaned heavily into anti-establishment messaging, positioning himself as the only candidate willing to take on what he calls New Jersey’s entrenched political class.
He routinely blames the state’s issues on “woke Democrats” and “weak Republicans,” a theme that has become central to his stump speeches.
He fails to ever mention his top-paid consultant, George Gilmore, who meets often with Governor Phil Murphy and is allied closely with the Norcross syndicate and New Jersey liberal state senator Vin Gopal.
Gilmore has some kind of hold on Spadea, we just don’t know what type of spell it is.
Despite his criticisms of Ciattarelli being an eleciton loser, Spadea has not yet held elected office. In fact, he lost two major elections in his lifetime, so winning hasn’t been a word in Spadea’s dictionary either.
He has made Ciattarelli a frequent target since the former assemblyman narrowly lost to Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021 by about three percentage points—a result Spadea refuses to view as competitive. “My opponent has already lost twice. People know a fraud when they see it,” he said, referencing Ciattarelli’s 2017 and 2021 defeats.
He left out the part about him using his radio gig to tell Republicans not to vote for Ciattarelli in his 2021 election loss against Phil Murphy. You can say Bill Spadea, the hardcore conservative Republican is one of the reasons we had a second Phil Murphy term.
Spadea ‘refused to pull the lever’ for Ciattarelli and told his minions to do the same for months.
Primary race intensifies as polls show gap
With the June primary weeks away, tensions between the two leading Republican contenders are escalating. Spadea has cast himself as the grassroots alternative to Ciattarelli, who has drawn broader party support but continues to face criticism from the far-right flank.
Spadea’s comments come as his campaign struggles to gain ground, according to multiple polls showing Ciattarelli ahead. Spadea has questioned the legitimacy of those polls and urged supporters to disregard what he claims are biased data points meant to demoralize his base.
At the Morristown event, Spadea’s supporters echoed his frustration with party leadership, frequently invoking terms like “RINO” and “sellout” in describing state Republicans they view as too moderate.
The event underscored Spadea’s strategy to rally hardline conservatives in what is expected to be a low-turnout primary, hoping he can infuriate and energize New Jersey’s far-right base in order to defeat the more popular candidate in a four way race.
The candidate’s combative tone and repeated attacks on fellow Republicans have drawn criticism from within the party, with some warning it could damage GOP unity ahead of the general election. But Spadea remains undeterred, insisting that only an outsider can fix what he sees as systemic failure in Trenton.