Ciattarelli wants to sue Sherrill for defamation, but wants ELEC to say they won’t count it as campaign spending

Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli wants the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission to tell him whether a personal defamation lawsuit he’s planning to file against his Democratic opponent would count against the $18.5 million spending cap that applies to candidates receiving matching funds.

The question comes after Democrat Mikie Sherrill alleged in a debate last week that he “killed tens of thousands of people in New Jersey, including children.”

Ciattarelli believes the comments by Sherrill, a former federal prosecutor, were knowingly false and malicious and argues that his personal and professional reputation was damaged.  He wants to use his own money to sue Sherrill personally, but wants to make sure ELEC won’t view that as “in aid of his own campaign.”

Candidates participating in the state’s public financing program are limited to spending $25,000 of their own money.

“He is not going to allow Sherrill to defame him and gain an advantage from her defamatory statements by requiring him to spend inside the cap funds to vindicate his reputation,” said Mark Sheridan, Ciattarelli’s campaign counsel, in a letter to ELEC commissioners.  “Accordingly, he seeks to confirm his right to use personal funds to sue Sherrill in her personal capacity for defamation and that the use of such funds does not implicate the expenditure limits of his publicly financed gubernatorial campaign.”

The GOP candidate, Sheridan says, wants to “vindicate his reputation and hold his defamer liable.”

“The defamer in this instance just happens to be the opposing gubernatorial candidate, Sherrill. Nevertheless, that does not render any amounts expended to sue Sherrill expenditures ‘in aid of [Ciattarelli’s] campaign’ simply because the defamation occurred during the campaign,” Sheridan said in a letter to ELEC.  “Participation in public financing cannot result in Ciattarelli being faced with a choice between being handcuffed and forced to sit idly by, and allow Sherrill to defame him.”

According to Sheridan, that could deny Ciattarelli his First Amendment rights, “as the state is effectively limiting his speech.”