Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli can legally sue his opponent, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), during their race to be New Jersey‘s next governor, the state election board said.
The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission issued an advisory opinion Monday that, as long as Ciattarelli uses his own personal funds, the Republican can file a defamation lawsuit against Sherrill. Ciattarelli sought an opinion from NJ ELEC to ensure that a lawsuit before Election Day would not violate any campaign finance laws.
Ciattarelli initially threatened to sue Sherrill in early October over her comments at the second gubernatorial debate. Sherrill alleged that Ciattarelli profited from New Jersey’s opioid crisis through his medical publishing company and was subsequently responsible for the deaths of thousands who died from the opioid epidemic. She launched a webpage on the issue, calling him “Opioid Jack.”
The New Jersey GOP candidate dismissed Sherrill’s claims as lies and wrote a letter to NJ ELEC on Oct. 15, seeking the advisory opinion. Monday morning, the board voted unanimously to pass an advisory opinion giving Ciattarelli the go-ahead.
“Mr. Ciattarelli may use his personal funds to pay for a defamation lawsuit initiated in his individual capacity against Mikie Sherrill, also in her individual capacity. So long as the expenses are not in aid of his gubernatorial candidacy, they will not be subject to the $25,000 contribution limit on personal contributions or the $18.5 million expenditure cap,” NJ ELEC’s legal director, Theresa J. Lelinski, said.
The Ciattarelli campaign did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment on NJ ELEC’s ruling.
Sean Higgins, communications director for the Sherrill campaign, called Ciattarelli’s threatened lawsuit “desperate,” echoing the statements of his previous statement from mid-October.
“Jack has yet to deny his role in fueling the opioid epidemic, and if he actually follows through on his desperate and frivolous lawsuit, we look forward to obtaining legal discovery into Jack putting millions in profits over those dying in the opioid crisis,” Higgins said Monday.
The Ciattarelli campaign previously called Sherrill’s allegations during the debate “defamatory and false” in a mid-October statement to the Washington Examiner.
“In her desperation, Mikie Sherrill crossed a line and sunk to dangerous levels of unhinged rhetoric. New Jersey deserves better, and Jack looks forward to his day in court,” the Ciattarelli campaign previously wrote to the Washington Examiner.
During the candidate’s Oct. 8 debate, the Garden State gubernatorial candidates turned up the heat as Sherrill and Ciattarelli traded barbs and personal attacks. Ciattarelli hit Sherrill on a cheating scandal from her time at the Naval Academy, in which she was barred from graduation because she refused to turn in the names of her classmates involved in the scandal, though she herself did not cheat.
“You’re trying to divert from the fact you killed tens of thousands of people by printing your misinformation, your propaganda,” Sherrill said during the debate.
Ciattarelli flagged that he intended to sue Sherrill for the claim after the debate. In Monday’s meeting, Ciattarelli’s lawyer, Mark Sheridan, told NJ ELEC that his client would prefer to initiate the lawsuit “now,” before Election Day.
“Mr. Ciattarelli believes that he was defamed during the gubernatorial debate. He seeks to pursue that claim for defamation against Mikey Cheryl. He intends to use his personal funds. He does not intend to use any campaign funds or any matching funds,” Sheridan said.
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Ciattarelli has just over one week if he plans to file before Election Day, as voters take to the polls on Nov. 4. Just days out from the election, the two candidates are tapping into their heavyweight national supporters.
President Donald Trump has picked up his momentum in favor of Ciattarelli, calling into a telephone rally Friday evening. Former President Barack Obama has backed Sherrill in several statewide advertisements.