Two Republican candidates seeking to challenge Gov. Phil Murphy in this year’s race for New Jersey governor filled their only primary debate with bitter attacks and disagreements Tuesday night — and former President Donald Trump played a prominent role in it all.
Former state Assemblyman Jack CiattarellI, considered the frontrunner for the GOP nod, painted himself as the seasoned choice and dismissed his opponent, engineer Hirsh Singh, as a liar who has lost “race after race” in the past and whose nomination would ensure Murphy gets re-elected.
Singh, considered a long-shot, countered by tying himself to Trump and portraying himself as a “political outsider” who can rally younger and minority voters and “make New Jersey great again,“ while calling Ciattarelli an establishment politician not far removed from Murphy.
The hour-long debate — hosted by radio station New Jersey 101.5-FM — came two weeks before the June 8 primary, when registered Republicans in the Garden State will decide who will nab the party’s nod to take on Murphy, an avowed progressive running unopposed for the Democratic nomination as he vies for a second term.
The two other Republican primary candidates, pastor Phil Rizzo and former Franklin Township Mayor Brian Levine, did not meet the fundraising requirements to qualify for the debate.
Here are some of the event’s most notable moments:
TRUMP, TRUMP, TRUMP
It’s a question a lot of Republicans at all levels of government are likely to be asked over the next year or so: Who won the 2020 presidential election?
Singh, a Linwood resident, repeated baseless claims that Trump was the real victor and that “election fraud” led to Joe Biden becoming president.
“We all know Trump won,” Singh said.
Ciattarelli, a Hillsborough resident, said Biden won, noting that Trump’s campaign lost every court case challenging the election’s outcome.
“I hope we’ll get back to Phil Murphy and New Jersey, but Joe Biden won the presidency,” Ciattarelli said.
Trump — who is largely unpopular in deep-blue New Jersey but has always polled well among the state’s Republican voters — took up a sizable portion of Tuesday’s debate.
The candidates were asked if they believe the ex-president is the “standard-bearer” of the Republican Party.
“Donald Trump was the greatest president of my lifetime and probably for many people’s lifetimes,” Singh said, arguing that Ciattarelli is part of a GOP establishment “hell-bent on making sure that they trashed President Trump.”
“He’s a Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney Republican here in New Jersey, and we need to throw those types out that stabbed President Trump in the back,” Singh added.
Ciattarelli in 2015 called then-candidate Trump a “charlatan” who was not “fit” to be president but has since been careful to criticize him.
He said Tuesday he “supported Trump’s policies” on China, ISIS, Jerusalem, immigration, and the economy.
Asked why he changed his stance, Ciattarelli said he supported then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie over Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary and that it would have been “un-American to root” against Trump when he won the White House.
Ciattarelli said until there are new leaders elected, Trump remains the standard-bearer of the national GOP, while Christie remains the standard-bearer of the party in New Jersey.
”That’s the way politics works,” he said.
This was one of several moments when Singh, 36, brought up how Ciattrelli, 59, began his political career in the late 1980s. Ciattarelli was a councilman in Raritan Borough and a Somerset County freeholder before he was elected to the Assembly.
“He’s a career politician,” said Singh, who has never before held public office. “I was 3 years old when he started as a politician.”
He also said there’s “more in common between Phil Murphy and Jack Ciattarelli than there is with anyone in this race.”
“If you’re looking for a real solution, get away from these left-wingers that are both in the Democrat and Republican party,” Singh said.
Ciattarelli noted that Singh has lost numerous races in previous years — including for governor, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House. Both Ciattarelli and Singh lost the race for the Republican nomination for governor in 2017.
While Ciattarelli has raised more than $5.7 million for this race, Singh has raised around $515,000, with the largest donation to his campaign coming in the form of a $418,000 loan from himself. Singh qualified for Tuesday’s debate because he reached the threshold of having to raise $490,000.
“He cannot raise money,” Cittarelli said. “You can’t win an election without raising money, and he will put everybody down ballot in jeopardy in November, and Phil Murphy will be our governor for the next four years. ... He’s a loser in November.”
THE CANCELED SECOND DEBATE
Another tense topic: Ciattarelli and Singh were originally scheduled for a second debate Wednesday night, to be broadcast by public television station NJ PBS. But the event was called off Monday after the station said Singh would not agree to provide a negative COVID-19 test prior to the event.
Singh, who previously threatened to not participate because that debate would be held virtually via Zoom, accused NJ PBS of requiring him to get vaccinated and provide a negative test.
The station insisted it did not require vaccination and that it was requiring testing only because crew members would be sent to each candidate to help with the live feed.
Ciattarelli said the incident shows Singh “thinks he’s a king.”
“He thinks he can make the rules,” Ciattarelli said. “We already have a king. We’re trying to get rid of King Murphy.”
Singh responded that “medical freedom is a very important thing” to most Republicans.
“Have you no decency?” Ciattarelli shot back. “PBS never said we had to get vaccinated.”
Singh insisted PBS asked about his vaccination status.
“The reason you lose is because you lie,” Ciattarelli said. “You have a problem with the truth.”
“You have a problem with reality,” Singh replied.
RELATED: Guess who’s hanging over N.J.’s Republican primary to take on Murphy? Yep, Donald Trump.
PROPERTY TAXES AND OTHER ISSUES
For all the drama, the debate started with a conversation about policy — specifically how to lower New Jersey’s notorious property taxes, the highest in the nation.
Because local school taxes make up the majority of property-tax bills, Ciattarelli said he would install a “flatter, more equitable distribution“ of state school aid and streamline government spending. He also said Murphy has over-taxed the state.
“He’s got to go,” Ciattarelli said of the Democratic incumbent. “He doesn’t care about taxes.”
SIngh said he would reduce property taxes by supporting “school choice” — giving public funding for students to attend private, charter, or parochial schools.
“It wouldn’t matter if you’re in a rural area or an inner-city area,” Singh said. “It will foster the type of competition that will lower the cost of education while increasing the quality.”
Both Ciattarelli and Singh largely veered right on other topics, with Singh often veering further.
They each said they support loosening the state’s gun laws — among the strictest in the nation — to make it easier to obtain a concealed-carry permit. Murphy has signed a number of laws tightening gun control in the state.
Singh said he would sign an executive order on his first day as governor to make New Jersey a “right-to-carry state” like it was in 1966 — even though a governor cannot issue an order to overturn state law.
Both candidates also said they do not support Murphy’s sanctuary policies protecting undocumented immigrants from federal agents.
Singh said he’d cut state funding to municipalities that participate.
“There’s a door, they can see themselves out the door,” he said of people here illegally. “We want people to be here legally.”
Ciattarelli said the state attorney general he appoints will “never tell” any town they can’t work with federal immigration officials.
On abortion, Ciattarelli said he believes in exceptions for rape and incest.
“I cannot look a woman in the eye who’s been a victim of rape or incest and tell her that she has to carry that pregnancy to full term,” he said.
Singh said he does not believe in any exception.
Ciattarelli said he does not support automatic increases in the state’s minimum wage, which are part of a law Murphy signed to gradually increase the minimum wage to $15. Singh said he opposes a minimum wage altogether.
On recreational marijuana — which voters legalized in New Jersey with nearly 70% of the vote last year — Ciattarelli said he’d support putting the issue back on the ballot if the rollout is “a failure.” Singh said he wants to regulate weed like alcohol and allow people to grown their own.
COVID-19 VACCINES AND MASKS
Both Singh and Ciattarelli said Murphy needs to be held “accountable” for the state’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic in nursing homes. More than 8,000 residents and staff members of longterm care facilities in New Jersey have died of COVID-19.
“A number of his policies have failed New Jerseyans,” Ciattarelli said.
Republicans have accused Murphy of ordering nursing home residents hospitalized with the virus back into nursing homes. The governor’s administration did tell the state’s nearly 700 nursing homes they were expected to allow residents recovering from COVID-19 to return from the hospital. But the facilities were required to assign separate staff and keep them them from other residents. They were told to let the state know right away if they weren’t able to so that the state Department of Health could intervene and lend support.
Without evidence, Singh appeared to suggest the state’s nursing home deaths were intentional to punish Trump.
“We must investigate every inch of this and figure it out because this almost seems like a weapon that was used against President Trump,” he said.
The debate came just hours after Murphy said students in New Jersey will likely still have to wear masks in school next academic year despite his recent decision to lift the state’s indoor mask mandate in most cases.
Both Singh and Ciattarelli said they are opposed to masking in schools, which the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for at least the current school year.
“This is literally causing psychological harm to our kids,” Singh said. “It’s untenable.”
Ciattarelli said “our schools need to be open” and “our children should be maskless.”
Both also say the government should not mandate vaccinations or so-called vaccination passports to prove you have gotten vaccinated.
“I don’t believe government has the right to tell anyone they have to ingest a medicine, period,” Ciattareli said.
“Vaccine passports over my dead body,” Singh said.
Both candidates also said they support ending the $300 supplemental unemployment payments included the federal stimulus law, saying it’s helping inflate the state’s unemployment rate.
MURPHY’S REACTION
Murphy campaign manager Mollie Binotto said in a statement that “beneath all the name-calling,” Ciattarelli and Singh “agreed on one thing” in the debate.
”They want to drag New Jersey backwards,” Binotto said. “Their divisive rhetoric, politically motivated lies about the pandemic, and failure to denounce extremism disqualifies either candidate from being governor. New Jerseyans deserve far better than an anti-science Trump-like sideshow.”
Watch the debate here:
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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com.
Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com.
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