Politics & Government
Freeholder Views Candidacy For Assembly Seat as Way to Challenge Legislative Hurdles
Pensions, health insurance and legislative mandates are key issues for Hillsborough resident Ciattarelli.
When the voting districts were realigned in April and incumbent Denise Coyle became ineligible to seek re-election for the District 16 State Assembly seat, Somerset County Freeholder Jack Ciattarelli entered the picture.
Ciattarelli won the second GOP spot on the November ballot through a write-in campaign in the June primary. The Hillsborough resident joins incumbent Assemblyman Peter Biondi as the Republican candidates to fill the two Assembly seats.
Ciattarelli has served on the freeholder board for the last five years. His political career also includes having served as a member of the Raritan Borough Council.
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Being elected to the state Assembly, he explained, would enable him to have more impact on several issues about which he has strong feelings.
“I’m passionate about various legislative measures that would give counties and municipalities the flexibility they need to be more operationally efficient,” he said. “There are a number of legislative hurdles that prevent counties and municipalities from streamlining their operations, should they desire.”
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Legislative mandates, he pointed out, often prevent towns from consolidating services such as law enforcement, municipal courts and tax assessment into some kind of regional model.
“It makes consolidation of services more difficult, if not impossible,” he said.
“We need to reform our pensions. We need to reform the way we provide health insurance to our public sector employees–those are things that I intend to dedicate myself to,” Ciattarelli added.
As a result of the new alignment, Somerset County’s three assembly districts were broken down into six, with several towns finding themselves in new districts. Coyle’s home town of Bernards was one of those removed from the 16th District.
“I am very much looking forward to not only working with but representing the seven Somerset County towns, South Brunswick, Princeton and Princeton Borough and the five southeast Hunterdon County towns,” the Republican Assembly candidate said. “It truly is a newly configured district that represents a new opportunity.”
“It is an exciting opportunity to represent new people,” he added.
Like Somerset County, District 16 had long been a predominantly Republican district.
“It’s great to have a base to build upon,” Ciattarelli admitted. “But I’m never one to take anything for granted–I find the opportunity to go out to these other eight towns to share my ideas with them to be a very, very exciting proposition.”
Running mate Biondi said, “I’ve known Jack for over 20 years. He is an extremely fiscal conservative who doesn’t believe in over-spending or debt service. He has good common sense and is excited about the prospect of his serving in the Assembly, as am I.”
With his freeholder term due to expire Dec. 31, 2012, Ciattarelli stressed that he is continuing to fulfill his freeholder duties while pursuing the Assembly seat.
Should Ciattarelli be elected to the Assembly, he would be required to resign his freeholder seat upon taking the oath of office for the assembly.
Al Gaburo, chairman of the Somerset County Republican Organization, said the county GOP would have 30 days in which to call the approximately 400 county committee members together to select someone to fill Ciattarelli’s freeholder seat.
The individual selected would fill the remainder of Ciattarelli’s unexpired term.
