Garfield, N.J. – A Democratic mayor in Bergen County is switching parties and endorsing Republican Jack Ciattarelli for governor, a move that comes as many New Jersey Democrats voice growing frustration with their party’s direction.
Democrats have had enough of their party being led by far-left progressive idealists focused on all the wrong things.
Mayor Everett E. Garnto, Jr. of Garfield announced his switch to the Republican Party while backing Ciattarelli’s bid for governor. The endorsement adds fuel to GOP efforts in Bergen County, where voter sentiment has shifted in recent years. Gov. Phil Murphy narrowly carried Garfield in 2021 by just 151 votes, but in 2024, the city swung to Donald Trump by nearly nine percentage points.
While Garnto himself has not attacked party leaders, critics across the state point to rising property taxes, soaring utility costs, and what they see as Democratic leadership increasingly dominated by the party’s far-left wing, including Murphy and U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill. These tensions have pushed some Democrats to break ranks and consider alternatives.
Ciattarelli highlighted Garnto’s endorsement at the NJ Dominican Mega Gala in Garfield, calling it part of a broader movement of New Jerseyans seeking change. “Everywhere I go, people are ready for something different,” Ciattarelli told supporters.
Garnto, a former school board member and longtime president of the Garfield Police Benevolent Association Local 46, was elected to the city council in 2024 from a crowded 14-candidate field. His switch adds symbolic weight in Garfield, the fifth-largest municipality in Bergen County and a community with a history of tight election margins.
According to the New Jersey Globe, other Democrats are abandoning their party’s candidate, Mikie Sherrill.
“Ciattarelli has the endorsement of Dover Mayor James P. Dodd, a Democrat. Dodd and Garfield Deputy Mayor Tana Raymond were among the Democratic local officeholders who backed Republican Gov. Chris Christie for re-election in 2013; Raymond, a former Garfield Democratic municipal chair, backed Christie against Gov. Jon Corzine in 2009,” the Globe reported. “Also backing Ciattarelli is Jamel Holley, a Democrat who served in the State Assembly and as mayor of Roselle.”
