Silly season started early this year, Save Jerseyans.
In New Jersey’s 16th Legislative Districts, New Jersey Democrats are spending money attacking the Republican ticket for their purported stances on the ever-combustible abortion issue among other topics.
“Texas. Mississippi. Florida. Rolling women’s rights back. Total bans on abortion,” the ad, which has an accompanying website, screams. “Denying access to birth control. And in New Jersey, with MAGA extremists Mike Pappas, Ross, Traphagen, and Grace Zhang in Trenton, it’s only a matter of time.”
The website also claims that the GOP nominees for Senate and Assembly are supportive of a whopping 23% sales tax increase.
There are a few problems with the allegations: to support the sales tax claim, the Democrat group cites a 1998 Star Ledger article. The basis for the ticket’s alleged extreme abortion positions is an October 1996 National Public Radio story.
Republican Assembly hopeful Ross Traphagen is 25-years-old. Do the math.
“Apparently, Andrew Zwicker, Roy Freiman, and Mitchelle Drulis believe that I formulated a position on abortion before I was even born,” the Gen Z candidate and Clinton councilman snarked, naming his Democrat opponents. “This sloppy attack demonstrates that our opponents will go as low as possible in this campaign.”
“I am calling on my Democrat opponents to denounce this slanderous attack and elevate the discourse of this race. Failure to do so will demonstrate with absolute certainty a serious lack of respect for the voters of this district,” Traphagen tweeted in response to the attack.
Jack Ciattarelli represented LD16 in the State Assembly during the Christie years. The Central Jersey district has since grown considerably bluer, but Republicans are hoping that the possibility to a strong cycle can push this reach battleground back into contention.
