Businessman Fred Schneiderman has picked up the endorsement of Melinda Ciattarelli in his bid to become the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate.
“I take great pleasure in sharing that I have gotten to know Fred Schneiderman both personally and professionally,” Ciattarelli said. “This is a man that unequivocally represents the values and ethos that I believe make him undoubtedly the very best candidate to represent the great state of New Jersey for U.S Senate to replace Bob Menendez for good.”
Ciattarelli, the separated wife of GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, had mulled her own bid for Menendez’s Senate seat before announcing last month that she would not run.
Schneiderman, a Cresskill businessman, has been quietly campaigning for the Senate and his filed to seek the endorsement of Bergen County Republican Organization at their convention next month. But he did not compete at recent votes in Hunterdon, Union and Ocean counties.
This is Schneiderman’s second bid for office. He briefly challenged Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) in New Jersey’s 5th district two years ago, but dropped out after military and overseas ballots had already been mailed out. He received 629 votes, about 2%.
Former Trump campaign and White House advisor Kellyanne Conway was advising the Schneiderman’s House bid, and he had signed on Larry Weitzner of Jamestown Associates, one of the top Republican media firms in the nation.
But Schneiderman never wrote the kind of personal check some thought he would, and watched Nick De Gregorio win the organization line in Bergen and Frank Pallotta get party support in Passaic and Sussex. As of the end of March, Schneiderman had raised $279,842, more than half of it from a personal loan.