The Phil Murphy Campaign’s decision to participate in the state’s public financing program, which would limit him to spending $13.8 million in the general election, confirmed for many Democratic Party sources the belief by the Murphy camp that Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli (R-16) will not get out of the Republican Primary.

A Stockton Poll released last week showed Ciattarelli with significant ground to make up in his bid to displace Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno as his party’s nominee. Murphy doesn’t want to run against Ciattarelli, say party sources, who note that the Main Street businessman who bucked the Christie Administration at key junctures, would match up well in a general against a retired Goldman Sachs banker who so far spent $20 million on his gubernatorial campaign.

If the campaign feels it necessary to display confidence now, on the the eve of the Republican Primary, as a way of demonstrating that it doesn’t care whether it’s Guadagno or Ciattarelli, it likely is privy to numbers confirming the Stockton Poll, sources say.