New Jersey’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, Jack Ciattarelli, has garnered a new endorsement from a Democratic member of the Branchville town council, extending his run of capturing across-the-aisle support from local leaders.
Councilman Jeff Lewis joined Branchville Mayor Anthony Frato and what the Ciattarelli campaign tallied as at least a dozen Democrat officials who have defected from his Democratic opponent, Rep. Mikie Sherrill.
Ms. Sherrill “hasn’t done anything to enthuse me,” Mr. Lewis told Fox News. “All she keeps running with her commercials is the fact she’s a helicopter pilot and a mom of four, and she thinks she’s going to be able to lower electrical bills, which I think she’s going to have a very hard time doing.”
A Ciattarelli campaign spokesman told The Washington Times that it was seeing enthusiasm go “through the roof” as the campaign enters the final stretch to Tuesday’s election.
“We have a ton of momentum … in these urban communities with minority voters and, in many cases, Democratic elected officials who’ve crossed party lines to support Jack and who are going to give us an ability to win votes in those areas that we didn’t win four years ago,” Ciattarelli spokesman Chris Russell said, reflecting on Mr. Ciattarelli’s narrow 2021 loss to incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy.
“I think that very well could be the difference in this race,” he added.
Mr. Ciattarelli has spent considerable time building inroads within the Black and Hispanic communities. The campaign has picked up support from six Jewish councils in the Lakewood area, potentially converting tens of thousands of traditionally Democratic votes.
The race is in a statistical dead heat, with Ms. Sherrill at 49% and Mr. Ciattarelli at 48 %, according to an Emerson College poll released Thursday.
A separate poll by Quantus Insights gauged voter perception and showed a potential edge for Mr. Ciattarelli. Although Ms. Sherrill had a nearly 2-to-1 edge in early voting and vote-by-mail turnout, the poll said 53% of likely New Jersey voters in the survey believed their coworkers and neighbors were backing Mr. Ciattarelli, versus just 47% who believed the same of Ms. Sherrill’s support.
“That kind of perceived momentum can be a silent influencer in the final stretch,” said the pollsters.
The Sherrill campaign hoped to stave off the GOP momentum with help from a $500,000 infusion of cash from the Democratic National Committee.
DNC chair Ken Martin plans to barnstorm the state on Friday and Saturday.
In a DNC call Wednesday with party activists and volunteers in New Jersey, Democratic officials called the final days of the race an “all hands on deck” emergency.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat who participated in the call, said the party urgently needed to deliver a win following President Trump’s shock reelection last year.
“This is the first opportunity since that election to do something, and doing something looks like making that phone call, knocking on that door, making that small contribution, doing everything we can to get these key races across the finish line,” Mr. Swalwell said on the call.
Ms. Sherrill also picked up at least one former Republican official, Terry Holt, who served as a senior adviser to former House Speaker John Boehner, Ohio Republican, and as national spokesman for the Bush‒Cheney reelection campaign in 2004.
Mr. Holt has since teamed up with Andrew Bates, a former spokesman for the Biden administration, to form an anti-Trump consumer advocacy group, the Cost Coalition.
“After analyzing the plans of both candidates in the New Jersey governor’s race, the difference between Mikie Sherrill and Jack Ciattarelli on this defining issue of affordability is enormous,” they wrote in their endorsement of Ms. Sherrill. “Mikie Sherrill has bold ideas to use the specific powers of the governorship to make a difference that families will feel.”
The group also includes several veterans from Kamala Harris’ failed 2024 campaign, as well as Austin Weatherford, the former leader of the “Republicans for Harris” initiative.
