Former NJ 101.5 radio host Bill Spadea tried to widen his lane this week by removing former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac from the race for the New Jersey GOP gubernatorial nomination. It didn’t work, and now the respective candidates are throwing shade at one another on X.
“Our review of Mario’s petition was always about Election Integrity and ensuring that only qualified voters signed his petition,” Spadea explained via his own account. “Over the course of our review we identified hundreds of Democrats, unregistered voters, forged signatures and even a dead voter who signed his petition. Just like President Trump, our campaign is serious about Election Integrity reforms. Meanwhile, Jack Ciattarelli sits idly by and watches it all happen, just like he did in 2020 and 2021.”
The Administrative Law judge’s decision is viewable here.
“During the hearing, approximately 349 of Kranjac’s 2,949 signatures were struck because they were found to be of individuals who are not registered to vote; were registered as members of a party other than the Republican party; were duplicative of other signatures; the signature differed from that in the state voter registration system; the signatory’s address differed from that in the state voter registration system; or the signature was illegible,” explained Administrative Law Judge Carl Buck, who nevertheless proceeded to dismiss the remaining challenges lodged by Spadea Campaign Manager Tom Bonfonti.
“A signer who is a registered voter but who is unaffiliated with any party is not disqualified from signing a nominating petition because such a voter may declare party membership by signing the nominating petition,” Buck added.
Krajnac supporters viewed the challenge diffferently than the petitioning campaign and accused Spadea of waging lawfare.
“Bill tried to disenfranchise 1,258 of my signers – people suffering from strokes, the disabled, and moms with children in their arms,” opined Krajnac.
Spadea is widely believed to be running behind the 2021 nominee, Jack Ciattarelli, with a little more than two months to go before Primary Day, and Krajnac’s late entry into the contest could theoretrically siphon away badly needed numbers from the anti-Ciattarelli vote.
