New Jersey Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli isn’t the only prominent politician in the Garden State refusing to concede "until every legal vote is counted."
State Senate President Steve Sweeney, who was unseated by an unknown, vastly underfunded Republican truck driver in one of the greatest election stories in recent memory, also isn’t giving up just yet.
“The results from Tuesday’s election continue to come in, for instance there were 12,000 ballots recently found in one county,” Sweeney told Politico. “While I am currently trailing in the race, we want to make sure every vote is counted. Our voters deserve that, and we will wait for the final results.”
The Associated Press has officially called the race, with Republican Edward Durr beating the “king” of the Senate, 51.64 percent to 48.36 percent.
Senate Democrats are already moving on, however.
South Jersey Democrats have started to coalesce around Sen. Nick Scutari to replace outgoing Senate President Steve Sweeney in the next legislative session, multiple sources told POLITICO on Thursday. Scutari, whose district includes parts of Union, Middlesex and Somerset counties, is the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the primary sponsor of legislation that legalized and decriminalized marijuana in New Jersey. Two sources with knowledge of the intra-party negotiations around the Senate presidency said Scutari, of Linden, has also aligned support within Hudson County’s delegation, which could give him as many as eight votes in a caucus whose official headcount is expected to land at 23, down from 25 after Tuesday’s elections. It will take 12 votes to secure the presidency. The official count backing Scutari for the Senate‘s top post is unclear, and his path forward is hardly set in stone. (Politico)
On Thursday, Ciattarelli said in a video message that Gov. Phil Murphy's victory speech was "premature" and explained what his campaign is doing now.
“We’re going to allow the 21 counties to continue with the process of counting every legal vote by mail and provisional ballot,” he said. “Any decision on a recount or audit will come at the very end of the counting process, not before."
Time for another Jack Chat.
— Jack Ciattarelli (@Jack4NJ) November 4, 2021
And this might be the most important one yet, so please watch and share. pic.twitter.com/Nmc03ATpTV