New Sherrill TV ad repeats claims of sales tax increase Ciattarelli says isn’t happening

Democrat Mikie Sherrill is up on the air with a new TV ad that continues to claim Jack Ciattarelli wants to increase the sales tax, even though the Republican nominee has definitively said he won’t do that – and even as Sherrill herself has waffled on the same issue.

In “High Tax Jack, Seriously?,” Sherrill uses a clip from the lieutenant governor’s debate where Ciattarelli’s running mate, Morris County Sheriff Jim Gannon, says that “taxes are on the table.”  The Ciattarelli campaign says Gannon meant to say that tax cuts were on the table.

Sherrill had attacked Ciattarelli with a seconds-long audio clip about Tennessee’s 10% sales tax, but at the September 21 gubernatorial debate, Ciattarelli made it clear that he would not raise the sales tax, saying it was never under consideration.

In her response, Sherrill remained noncommittal.

“I’m not going to commit to anything right now, because I’m not just going to tell you what you want to hear,” she said.  The next day, her campaign walked back the comments.

“You can’t attack your opponent for leaving something on the table and then leave it on the table yourself,” Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, told the New Jersey Globe. “That’s not an intellectually consistent position.”

Script: (Gannon) “Taxes are on the table. (Narrator) Whoa, Jack, what the [bleep] did your guy just say?  (Gannon) Taxes are on the table. But I’d be careful of millionaire taxes. We can’t just beat up the millionaires.  (Moderator) So, new taxes are on the table in New Jersey under your administration? (Gannon) Well, you have to look at it. You have to look at the whole thing.  (Narrator) Oh, we’re lookin’ now. Jack Ciattareli’s talkin’ ten percent sales tax on everything. Now his running mate wants taxes on the table?  Have these two ever been to New Jersey? High Tax Jack, seriously? Get outta here.”