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Ten days after New Jersey's extremely close gubernatorial election, Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli conceded to Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy. But moments later Ciattarelli declared he plans to run again for Garden State governor in four years, saying "that is exactly my plan. I’ll be running for governor." Ciattarelli’s announcement elicited cheers from his supporters attending his news conference in his hometown of Raritan, New Jersey. Pointing to Murphy, who was reelected by a razor-thin margin, Ciattarelli said "I want the governor to be successful in addressing the issues that are most important to New Jerseyans. But I just have this...

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D) campaign is calling on his Republican opponent Jack Ciattarelli to concede last week’s election, arguing that he no longer has a path to victory. Ciattarelli, a former state legislature, had remained silent on the results of the election since last Thursday, though the current vote count currently shows him trailing Murphy by 2.6 percentage points, or a little more than 65,000 votes. While some provisional and mail-in ballots have yet to be counted, Murphy’s campaign argued that it won’t be enough to alter the outcome of the race in Ciattarelli’s favor.

A voting error was just fixed in New Jersey and GOP candidate Jack Ciattarelli is back up in the race after briefly trailing to incumbent Democratic Governor Phil Murphy. “The early vote was double-counted in Hudson County,” National Political Correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC Steve Kornacki reported. “It has now been fixed, bringing Murphy’s total down by 10,732 and Ciattarelli’s by 2,842. Ciattarelli goes back up in the statewide tally: Ciattarelli (R): 1,177,803 (49.6%) Murphy (D) 1,177,108 (49.6%).” As reported at Becker News earlier, there have been other anomalies in the New Jersey governor’s race. A disturbing phenomenon was...

New Jersey Republican Jack Ciattarelli has refused to concede the extremely tight New Jersey governor’s race to Democrat Phil Murphy despite multiple calls from mainstream media outlets. In a video posted to Twitter on Thursday evening, Ciattarelli noted he and governor Phil Murphy are only separated by a single percent in a race that still has to count early and provisional ballots, arguing that nobody should be declaring victory or conceding the election until all legal votes are counted. The process could take about a week or two.

Republican Jack Ciattarelli’s campaign says it’s “irresponsible” the Associated Press called the New Jersey race for Democrat governor Phil Murphy so early in the counting. “With the candidates separated by a fraction of a percent out of 2.4 million ballots cast, it’s irresponsible of the media to make this call when the New Jersey Secretary of State doesn’t even know how many ballots are left to be counted,” Ciattarelli Campaign Communications Director Stami Williams said on Twitter Wednesday.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) has clinched a second term after defeating former state Assembleyman Jack Ciattarelli (R) in the state’s unexpectedly tight gubernatorial contest. Murphy beat back Ciattarelli in a race that polls had shown slightly narrowed in the final few weeks of the campaign. While, New Jersey’s blue hue proved too deep for Ciattarelli to overcome, the former state lawmaker ran far ahead of expectations, holding a lead over Murphy for much of Tuesday night before falling slightly behind in the early morning hours on Wednesday.Both candidates effectively declared victory early Wednesday morning while saying more votes...

New Jersey’s neck-and-neck gubernatorial race could head to a recount after the votes are tallied — as Democrat Phil Murphy and Republican Jack Ciattarelli remain in a dead heat the day after the polls closed, political commentators say. “Every pollster was wrong. This is likely to be a recount race, either way,” former Garden State Gov. Chris Christie told TownHall early Wednesday. “There’s a very legitimate chance Jack could win this,” he added. In New Jersey, there is no automatic recount, but any candidate can request a recount within 17 days after an election by applying to a judge of...

It won’t be news to many that New Jersey is as crooked as a dog’s hind leg. This extends, of course, to its electoral system. Thus can it be said assuredly that without vote fraud, the remarkably corrupt and fairly stupid Garden State governor, Goldman Sachs guy Phil Murphy, would have lost Tuesday’s election hands down.Murphy’s challenger, Republican Jack Ciattarelli, has a slim advantage after late-counted votes have trimmed his margin. As of this writing, he leads the incumbent 49.65 percent to 49.60 percent with 97.51 percent of the precincts reporting. It’s a good bet at this point that more...

"The New Jersey’s Governor’s race is hanging by a thread. And that thread is blue collar, where working class towns like Bloomfield, Bayonne, Wood-Ridge and Carteret are making it a real contest, and sending shivers up the spines of Democrats."

Jack Ciattarelli, a former state assemblyman, is set to challenge New Jersey Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy in November after he clinched the Republican nomination for governor in the primary election on Tuesday. Fifty-nine year-old Ciattarelli won more than 49 percent of the vote in the Republican primary with nearly 80 percent of precincts reporting, and he defeated his fellow GOP challengers — Philip Rizzo, Hirsh Singh, and Brian Levine — most of whom aimed to be closely associated with the agenda of former President Donald Trump.

WEST LONG BRANCH -- Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who has spent the last eight years as Gov. Chris Christie's second-in-command and now vows to slash the state's notoriously high property taxes, defeated four opponents Tuesday to secure the Republican nomination to succeed Christie as New Jersey's governor. The Associated Press called it for Guadagno about an hour and 20 minutes after the polls closed. Now, Guadagno, a 58-year-old Monmouth Beach resident, will battle former U.S. ambassador to Germany Phil Murphy in the Nov. 7 general election. Murphy bested five rivals to emerge the winner of Tuesday's Democratic primary.

What happens if a state with a population roughly equal to that of Kentucky and Louisiana combined held a major election and no one noticed? That seems to be occurring in New Jersey, which is electing a new governor this year. It may be the Democrats’ biggest gubernatorial win in the state in over 40 years. A Democratic romp in a state Hillary Clinton won easily might not seem like a surprising result. But New Jersey usually features competitive governor’s races. Over the past 40 years, Democrats have won the governor’s mansion four times to Republicans’ six. New Jersey’s current...

TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie is term-limited from running again, so it's now time for New Jersey Republicans to pick a new standard bearer for their party. But even with this year's GOP primary just around the corner -- it's on Tuesday, June 6, to be exact -- most Garden State voters (57 percent) say they don't know enough about any of the candidates to have an opinion about them, according to the most recent Quinnipiac University poll.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has about eight months left in office but the Republicans running to succeed him in the primary all but bid him farewell in Thursday's second and final debate. Asked why she doesn't mention the twice-elected, term-limited Christie on her campaign website or at events, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno answered bluntly. "I'm running for governor, the governor's not."

TRENTON -- Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli on Monday survived an attempt by rival Kim Guadagno to knock him off the GOP primary ballot. Supporters of Guadagno, New Jersey's lieutenant governor, filed a complaint that questioned the validity of more than 700 petition signatures Ciattarelli had handed in to qualify for the June 6 primary for the GOP nod to succeed Gov. Chris Christie, who is in his final year in office. But an administrative law judge on Monday threw out only about 180 of those signatures, which wasn't enough to boot Ciattarelli, a member of the state Assembly from...