Bill Spadea raised eyebrows at last Tuesday’s raucous GOP gubernatorial debate by pledging to serve only a single term as governor.
“I’m going to commit to you tonight to serve one term as your governor because we have to separate the politics of reelection from the job of governing,” Spadea declared. “And when you look at what has to happen in this state, a lot of unpopular political decisions will be made.”
But Spadea, who recently gave up his morning radio program on NJ 101.5 for the gubernatorial race, told Politico on Friday that he’s not actually ruling out a second term assuming, of course, that he wins a first term and it goes well.
“I’m going to commit to serving one term. And […] if the people of New Jersey say, ‘Wow, that was great,’ well then we can have a discussion about the possibility of another term,” Spadea clarified. “But not until then.”
The debate at Rider University was punctuated by numerous hyper-personal exchanges between Spadea and Ciattarelli, the 2021 party nominee and a long-time Spadea nemesis. No other candidate made a similar self-imposed term limit pledge during the 2-hour forum.
