At Lola’s Tapas Bar in Hoboken, Republican gubernatorial hopeful Jack Ciattarelli joked that Frank “Pupie” Raia should be his lieutenant governor, while local GOP Chair Joe Branco announced a bid for county commissioner against incumbent Anthony “Stick” Romano.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“2024 is the presidential race and then in 2025 we’ll get after it and I’ve found my lieutenant governor,” Ciattarelli said at the annual Hoboken GOP Lincoln Dinner last night, placing his hand on Raia’s shoulder.
“Now, Mauro said to me that you’ll never pass the background check, but I don’t believe that s***. I don’t care what the background check says: Pupie, you are my lieutenant governor. He came up to me and said ‘I know more people than anybody all throughout New Jersey:’ that’s the only qualification we’re looking for.”
A woman then yelled out that there are no background checks in Hudson County, to which Ciattarelli laughed and agreed.
During an interview with HCV, Ciattarelli was asked why he decided to point out Raia, who was convicted of vote-by-mail fraud in June 2019, during his roughly seven-minute speech.
“Well listen: we need to compete in vote-by-mail and that’s something that Democrats have done better than us. In the old days, we had challengers working on Election Day and tried to track people down to vote sometime between the hours of 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. when the polls closed,” he explained.
“Democrats understand well that if you move someone to the mail, you’ve got 45 days to track ’em down, not three hours. So we need to move more and more of our low propensity Republicans to mail. And that’s the strategy and I believe we’re gonna do it with success.”
Ciattarelli, who lost to Gov. Phil Murphy (D) by about three points in 2021, noted why he attended a number of Lincoln dinners across the state this month, referring to him “as our patron saint, we’re all disciples of Abraham Lincoln.”
Hoping to make the third time a charm in 2025 when there will be no incumbent running, a recent FDU poll has Ciattarelli with 76 percent name ID and 47 percent favorability among red voters.
Still, other potential Republican candidates such as 101.5 radio show host Bill Spadea and state Senator Michael Testa also showed a pulse in that poll.
Ciattarelli said that while he appreciated people already taking a look at 2025, he’s focused on flipping the legislature this year, noting that U.S. Reps. Jeff Van Drew (D-2), Chris Smith (R-4), and Tom Kean, Jr. (R-7) were key in ousting Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker last year.
“Right now in the Senate it’s 24-16, so all we need to do is win four races and we’ve got a 20-20 split: we can do it. We picked up a number of seats in 2021. Let’s not forget: this is the new map, the legislative maps get redrawn every 10 years and this map is more favorable to Republicans so we’ve got a real opportunity here.”
He declined to say who he was leaning towards in the 2024 presidential race, though noted that he’s feeling good about Republicans having a deep bench.
Hudson County GOP Chair Jose Arango, also the chair of chairs in New Jersey, said the local party “is the party of inclusion, the party of making your life better” before introducing two men who would be running for state Assembly in the 32nd Legislative District.
Robert Ramos and Jarred Schure, who were later introduced as Assembly candidates by Branco, both intimated that they were service oriented and looked forward to chatting with voters in their bids to upset the Democratic establishment.
“I will be running for county commissioner in District 5 on the Republican line, for the Republican party,” Branco said.
While they are all unlikely to face June 6th primary challenges, the candidates backed by the Hudson County Democratic Organization will be heavily favored due to both districts being navy blue on paper.
The Hoboken GOP, which turned out about 75 people at the event, also honored their executive secretary, Pavel Sokolov, and treasurer, Kathy DeRose, for their work in the party, while residents Mauro Castano and John Ratto were recognized for their community service.