The appointment by Governor Phil Murphy of Rachel Wainer Apter to the New Jersey Supreme Court was both a governmental and political masterstroke, almost certainly resulting in an outcome of fervent support for the incumbent governor among women, Jewish, and Latino voters in the Garden State.  

And if Jack Ciattarelli confirms and stands by his reported reaction to Ms. Apter as an “inexperienced liberal activist,” he will have committed an act of political suicide, irrevocably alienating women, Jewish, and Latino voters, three absolutely critical electoral constituencies.  His campaign will have lost all credibility as a possible winner, and talk among Republicans will become rife about recruiting another gubernatorial candidate.

If he confirms his reported description of Ms.Apter as “inexperienced,” Ciattarelli will appear to be at best an abject fool who grossly mischaracterized the record of one of the most credentialed and qualified Supreme Court nominees over the past fifty years, and at worst, a sexist denigrating the experience of a woman Harvard Law School graduate.

Had Ciattarelli refused to support Rachel Apter on the basis of concerns about her judicial philosophy while respecting her record and accomplishments, he would have at least avoided any politically self-inflicted wounds.   

At this point in his campaign, however, Ciattarelli is a desperate candidate, proceeding without discipline recklessly in a vain attempt to damage the Murphy reelection campaign.  In boxing terms, he resembles Mike Tyson against Evander Holyfield in his 1996 defeat, flailing around the ring wildly, failing to land a knockout blow, and eventually being knocked out himself.

In nominating Apter, Murphy chose a woman of incomparable experience in both the public and private sectors regarding the types of civil rights issues that are the major province of the Supreme Court.  The governmental experience includes service at high levels in both the executive and judicial branches of government – including three federal judicial clerkships and the Director of the New Jersey Division of Civil Rights.  And Ciattarelli denigrates her as inexperience?  Sometimes, it appears that his campaign is being strategized by the suicide philosopher, Dr. Jack Kevorkian.

Very rarely does a New Jersey Supreme Court Justice have Ms. Apter’s credential of having served as a law clerk for a US Supreme Court Justice, let alone an historical figure of the magnitude of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  This day of the announcement of the Apter appointment is the 88th birthday of the late Beloved “Justice RBG.”.  A dismissive reference by Ciattarelli to Ms. Apter as “inexperienced” will doubtless be viewed as an insult to the Ginsburg legacy.  Ciattarelli will further develop a repulsive case of political halitosis among women voters.

Among New Jersey Jewish voters, Rachel Wainer Apter is a rock star, particularly in her home Bergen County.  She is a Sabbath observer, and that is a special source of pride to the Jewish community.  Ruth Bader Ginsburg is considered to be a hero of Jewish history, and her mentorship of Rachel Wainer Apter further enhances the new nominee’s status.  

The Jewish vote is of supreme importance in Bergen County.   If Ciattarelli neither denies that he made this disrespectful reference nor apologizes for it, he will lose the Jewish vote in Bergen overwhelmingly, thereby endangering all down ballot GOP state and local candidates throughout the county. 

Finally, among Latino voters, Apter’s involvement in the New Jersey Attorney General’s office in the effort to thwart the Trump administration’s attempt to end the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA) will generate strong support for both her and the governor.  How many ethnic constituencies can Ciattarelli alienate?  

Observers of the Republican scene can only be mystified as to why Ciattarelli did not take the easy way out and follow the lead of the senior Republican in the New Jersey Senate delegation, Bob Singer of Ocean County and endorse the Apter nomination.  I have known Singer for nearly thirty years, and he is a governmental figure of enormous political sagacity.   

The explanation for Ciattarelli’s self-destructive political behavior can be found in two words: Donald Trump.

Four years ago, Jack Ciattarelli won my admiration with a courageous, creative, and remarkably independent Republican primary challenge to the eventual winner, Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno.  His refusal to endorse Donald Trump in 2016 gave him an absolutely laudable reputation for integrity and principle.   But that Jack Ciattarelli sadly is nowhere in evidence in his 2021 Campaign. 

Instead, Ciattarelli was persuaded by GOP insiders that the only way he could win the governorship was to ingratiate himself with Trump and the MAGA crowd.  It was as if Trump ideologues kidnapped the Ciattarelli campaign and Jack Ciattarelli became a victim of political Stockholm Syndrome, identifying with his Trumpist captors. Now, he acts like a Trumpist Manchurian candidate, doing exactly what he believes the leading Trumpians in New Jersey would want him to do. 

Indeed, if Jack Ciattarelli follows a course of degrading and dismissing the credentials for the Supreme Court of Rachel Wainer Apter, his journey towards his political Gotterdammerung will only accelerate.  Republicans desperate for a gubernatorial candidate who will not lose in a catastrophic landslide will beg Jon Bramnick to get into the race.  Bramnick, however, is no political fool.  He knows that Gubernatorial Campaign 2021 is, for all practical purposes over and that Phil Murphy has won. 

Alan Steinberg served as Regional Administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as Executive Director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.