New Jersey’s leading pro-life group is recommending that sympathetic voters back Jack Ciattarelli over Phil Murphy, but NJ Right to Life stopped short of endorsing the Republican nominee and challenger.
NJRTL released its full list of Election 2021 recommendations on Wednesday.
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Ciattarelli isn’t pro life. While he is on record supporting a ban on abortions after 20 weeks, the former Assemblyman surprised many at last week’s second gubernatorial debate by declaring that he would support codifying a right to abortion in New Jersey law in the unlikely even that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
“If that’s what we need to do here in New Jersey to protect a woman’s right to choose, we will do that,” Ciattarelli told the debate panel.
Ciattarelli was also a supporter of assisted suicide during his time in Trenton.
Notwithstanding these major points of disagreement, Ciattarelli is the preferred alternative to an incumbent Democrat who’s a true radical where abortion is concerned, pouring millions in taxpayer dollars into Planned Parenthood’s coffers over the last four years.
Trenton watchers expect that a lame duck legislature could also pass the deceptively-named “Reproductive Freedom Act” if Murphy is reelected, legislation which would not only confirm the legality of almost all abortions in New Jersey (including late term abortions) but also make the procedures less safe by allowing non-physicians to perform them. The bill is so radical that Democrats declined to bring the measure to floor before the current election is concluded notwithstanding large majorities in both chambers.
NJRTL endorsed almost 30 Republican legislative candidates and one independent candidate running in LD36.
Notably absent from the list: any Democrats and the GOP slate in LD21 (including current GOP Minority Leader Jon Bramnick the frontrunner for GOP Assembly leader, Nancy Munoz, both of whom are pro-abortion).
The full list is posted below:
NJ GOVERNOR
Jack Ciattarelli ( R )^
STATE SENATE CANDIDATES
01 – Michael Testa ( R)*√
09 – Christopher Connors ( R )*√
16 – Michael Pappas ( R )√
23 – Michael Doherty (R )*√
24 – Steven Oroho ( R )*√
25 – Anthony Bucco ( R )*√
26 – Joseph Pennacchio ( R )*√
36 – Christopher Auriemma ( R )^
STATE ASSEMBLY CANDIDATES
01 – Antwan McClellan ( R )*√
01 – Erik Simonsen (R )*√
04 – Denise Gonzalez ( R )√
04 – Patricia Kline ( R )√
09 – DiAnne Gove ( R )*√
09 – Brian Rumpf ( R )*√
12 – Robert Clifton ( R )*√
12 – Ronald Dancer ( R )*√
13 – Gerald Scharfenberger ( R )*√
17 – Catherine Barrier ( R )^
18 – Angela Fam ( R )^
23 – John DiMaio ( R )*√
23 – Erik Peterson ( R )*√
24 – Parker Space ( R )*√
24 – Harold Wirths ( R )*√
25 – Aura Dunn ( R )*√
25 – Brian Bergen ( R )*√
26 – Jay Webber ( R )*√
27 – Jonathan Sym ( R )^
30 – Sean T. Kean (R )*√
30 – Edward Thomson ( R )*√
34 – Clenard Childress ( I )√
36 – Craig Auriemma ( R )^
37 – Patrick Perley ( R )√
37 – Edward Durfee ( R )√
39 – Robert Auth ( R )*√
40 – Chris DePhillips ( R )*√
____________________________________________________
R = Republican
I = Independent
*= Incumbent
√ = Endorsed Candidate
^ = Recommended Candidate
