NJ GOP Turmoil Continues With Prominent Conservative Voice Calling Out Ciattarelli and Hugin for Promoting Diverse Candidates

JerseyConservative Takes Aim At New GOP Chairman, Gubernatorial Candidate

TRENTON, NJ —  After barely escaping a heated primary election with under 50% of the vote and tapping failed Senate candidate and big pharma exec Bob Hugin as State GOP Chair, Republican gubernatorial candidate Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli continues to face a broken, mangled party apparatus unable to unite behind him. The latest NJ GOP turmoil comes from a highly critical blog post in the influential JerseyConservative.com, which attacks Ciattarelli and Hugin for attempting to introduce some level of diversity in candidate selection to their party. The post reads in part:

One high-ranking party boss in South Jersey said that Bob Hugin told him the NJGOP wants “new” looking candidates… youth, women, “minorities”, anything but old white guys. What’s going on in your head doesn’t matter… issues, policies, ideas, solutions, ethics, integrity, honesty… these things don’t matter. It is all about how you look and how they can market you. Sad, especially because they almost always lose anyway.

“It’s sad to see the Republican Party unable to reckon with a concept as simple as representing and respecting the diversity that makes our state unique, dynamic and powerful,” said NJDSC Chair LeRoy J. Jones, Jr. “If this is what Jack Ciattarelli’s Republican Party is fighting amongst itself about, how can it be counted on to address the issues of systemic racism and inequality that exist in our state and our nation? The answer is that it can’t, and the only party interested in advancing the cause of racial, social and economic justice is the Democratic Party — that is just one of many reasons why we must unite around Governor Murphy, Lt. Governor Oliver and our Democratic state legislators and candidates.”